Riverside Twin

Eagle eyes will see the Coming Soon: A New United General Theatre in the background as the franchisees were building their new automated theater in the Town Lake Shopping Center at 1930 E. Riverdale. And the theatre opened pretty much on time in the summer of 1973. United General franchisees were purportedly behind two similar Aquarius quads in Austin and Dallas.

With ten more Austin screens and 44 more in Texas scheduled by year’s end and 3,500 screens by the end of 1975, United General called itself the “fastest growing cinema circuit” in the United States. Unfortunately, few of the locations actually opened as United General as the chain’s projections didn’t match reality. That was something that became apparent when two of its founders pleaded guilty to fraud charges.