Manor East 3
1127 E. Villa Maria Road,
Bryan,
TX
77802
1127 E. Villa Maria Road,
Bryan,
TX
77802
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Located in the Manor East Mall, which was built in 1972 (today partly demolished and rebuilt as the Tejas Center). The Manor House 3 was operated by Schulman Theatres and opened November 7, 1974. It was the 8th movie theatre in the world to be equipped with Dolby Stereo Sound.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 15 comments)
Mark Brack: I wasn’t referring to Dallas. As a “Star Wars” enthusiast and movie technology historian, I’m well aware the Northpark installed a Dolby unit after you did. If you’re curious/interested, all of the country’s Dolby engagements of “Star Wars” are identified in my historical retrospective article (the Manor East is listed on Page 3 of the article).
Anyway, I have copies of Dolby install records from that era and your theater first turns up in them in July (1977), the same month in which your “Star Wars” run commenced. Before any theaters ordered a Dolby unit for “Star Wars” there had already been numerous installs made months earlier for other Dolby releases (such as “A Star is Born”). Therefore, if you guys had your unit months before the “Star Wars” run, then why wouldn’t your theater turn up sooner in the Dolby install documents?
I suspect what is more likely is your theater was the 8th Dolby install in Texas.
What were the first seven before that?
According to a Dolby Labs document dated May 30th, 1977, the Dolby installations in Texas as of that date were, in installation order: (1) Medallion, Dallas; (2) American Star, El Paso; (3) Salem, Victoria; and (4) Garden Oaks, Houston.
According to a Dolby Labs document dated Aug. 9th, 1977, the Dolby installations in Texas as of that date were, in alphabetical theater name order: (1) American Star, El Paso; (2) Century South, San Antonio; (3) Garden Oaks, Houston; (4) Laurel, San Antonio; (5) Manor East, Bryan; (6) Medallion, Dallas; (7) Northwest, San Antonio; (8) Salem, Victoria.
Mark Brack… Happy New Year! You mentioned in an earlier comment the 70mm prints that you guys played at Manor East. How many of your three screens were equipped to play 70mm? I ask because of the titles you cited, “2010” and “Dune” were released only a week apart as were “Star Trek III” and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.” Did you play these simultaneously or were some of them booked second-run?
During what year did Manor East close?
MSC77 Sorry I just noticed your questions - here it is June of 2023. We played Dune from Universal first run in 70 MM. Only the Manor East 1 was large enough to justify 70MM economically. You are correct MSC77 we played 2010 from MGM second run. We played Temple of Dune (Paramount) in 70 MM second run as well.
We played MGM’s Pink Floyd The Wall first run in 35mm Dolby Stereo Optical and then brought it back at midnight for at least an 8 week run in 70MM.
The Manor East Cinemas opened on November 7th, 1974.
Schulman Manor 3 theatres opening
06 Nov 1974, Wed The Eagle (Bryan, Texas) Newspapers.com
Closed 1994.
In December 1993, Morris Schulman switched the Manor East 3’s policy from first-run to $1 second-run because of the opening to the Hollywood USA 16 in College Station nearby. He closed the Manor East 3 in mid-June 1994.
This venue’s 70mm presentations history is included in the recently-published article “70mm Presentations in Bryan/College Station: A Chronology of 70mm Large Format Exhibition, 1984-Present”.