Comments from dallasmovietheaters

For Dallas-based Rave Motion Pictures, the December 2000 opening of the Rave Hickory Creek 16 was exciting. It was the company’s first theater and located in their corporate backyard. The $12 million, 60,000 square foot property was well-positioned against the nearby UA/Regal Lakepoint Lewisville to the South and the Golden Triangle locations just to the North in Denton with the chain entering bankruptcy and years ahead of Cinemark’s refurbishing of its nearby Vista Ridge Mall to the South or the Denton ‘plex which would be built to the North almost five years later. The Cal Young architected theater was visually stunning upon its opening. Young’s modernistic architecture design was one of six winners of the 2001 National Concrete Masonry Association (NCMA) Design Awards of Excellence program. Its auditoriums ranged from 100 to 300 seats.

Launching on December 21, 2000 with free admission to any movie Thursday in exchange for a donation of two cans of nonperishable food, the theater’s regular first-run policy began the next day. The theater chain would be aggressive in moving away from celluloid film and to digital projection well ahead of the competition. In 2005, Rave was the first to enter into the Real-D 3D era with exclusive North Texas screenings at its then three area theaters for 3D films including “Chicken Little” making it a focal point for 3D fans.

The Rave had its technology and architectural advantages going for it. People would drive past older, aged properties from all directions to get to the Rave. Regal would shutter its UA Golden Triangle theaters in Denton just to the North on October 13, 2003 making the Rave a destination point for then theater-less Denton. It would outlast Regal’s UA Lakepoint which would shutter just to the South. But the competition wasn’t rolling over. Cinemark would revitalize its aged Vista Ridge property and retain its nearby discount house to the South while building a megaplex in Denton just a few exits to the North. Studio Movie Grill would take on the Lakepoint as a dine and movie locale. And seven miles away to the West and South, AMC would enter the outer periphery of the Rave’s footprint with its Highland Village theater.

Rave’s aggressive move in 2009 to take on Showcase Cinemas to boost it to the fifth largest operator in the U.S. was short-lived as Cinemark would purchase 32 of the chain’s 35 theaters including the Hickory Creek on November 30, 2012. Obviously with four properties within exits of each other (the Vista Ridge Mall 15 Lewisville, the Lewisville 8 discount house, Cinemark 14 in Denton and the Rave Hickory Creek 16), something had to give. On July 18, 2013, Carmike would acquire the Hickory Creek property along with two other theaters in Louisville, KY and Voorhees, NJ. The Carmike Hickory Creek 16 continued operations with its new Carmike signage as pictured into the 2010s.

When AMC announced a multiplex in what was known as Dallas’ Central Zone of movie exhibition to open in November of 1988, United Artists wouldn’t be caught flat-footed. It purchased four acres of land in the shadow of the AMC NorthPark theater (soon changed to the AMC Glen Lakes) and across the street from the venerable General Cinema NorthPark III & IV in May of 1988. The $14 million, 106,000 square foot United Artists NorthPark was drawn up in 1988 and designed to make a splash. By the time the renamed United Artists Plaza opened on May 24, 1989, it was truly a destination theater despite being tucked away behind strip shopping centers. With eight screens and 3,600 seats all on the second floor and dining and entertainment on the ground floor, the UA was not a neighborhood multiplex but a theater people wanted to travel to and spend the night. To accommodate its projection of 20,000 guests per week, an entire three-level parking structure with spaces for 1,100 cars with large parking lots surrounding the complex.

Resplendent in neon and sporting 4 THX certified auditoriums, three with 70mm projection, United Artists was making a statement in the Central Zone. The second floor lobby was filled with a 13-foot video kiosk with two 9x9 CRT monitor video walls. The neon chandeliers glowed purple, rose, white and green. Long after the theater’s heyday, people remembered the memorable escalator ride to the theaters from the ground floor box office transporting you to the four snack bars on each wall, the video wall, lit glass blocks, chandeliers, and theaters. But the Plaza did allow the nearby AMC Glen Lakes to have one upper hand with some of its auditoriums having stadium seating while the UA had no theaters with stadium seating. But the United Artists was clearly gunning for the gracefully aging General Cinemas NorthPark I & II and III & IV in the battle royale while knowing it could outarchitect the AMC project.

“We are sparing no expense,‘ John Panzeca, vice president of United Artists Realty in charge of the company’s North Dallas project said upon its opening. “For years we built theaters that were little, rectangular boxes….I used to point with pride to how inexpensively I could get those projects to come in,” he said. “Today, it’s gone full circle. We have to compete with 48-inch televisions and cable and stereo sound at home. We have to make our theater a more interesting experience.” And the payout was there as the opening week gross for opening film “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” was $145,000, a new Dallas record by almost 50% over the previous single-theater mark. Not resting on its laurels, the theater installed a Cinema Digital Sound System for the 70mm presentation of “Edward Scissorhands” in 1990; it was the only theater outside of New York or Los Angeles with the 5.1 disc-based system.

Theaters which took it on the chin in the C-Zone were the Caruth Plaza which shuttered, the Medallion which was downgraded to discount house and the former UA 150 roadshow turned UA Ciné art house. The Skillman theater would also suffer at the hands of the Plaza and, moreso, the UA Galaxy six years later. Theater staffs at the Glen Lakes, NorthParks and UA theaters were all coached well and moved hundreds of people briskly but with attention when they visited any of the zone’s theaters.

The 1994 opening of “The Firm” had the largest box office take in the United States at the Plaza in its opening week and the same was said to be true of “Clear and Present Danger.” In a two year stretch, Dallas would add 175 screens but the UA Plaza just kept going. It played a 31-hour run of Independence Day on July ¾, 1996. The marathon sold $31,000 in tickets at the Plaza in just the first 10 hours. One patron went for five showings including the 4:30 a.m. show.

But the Plaza shuttered restaurants on its first floor as the decade of the 90s continued. Drew Pearson’s 88 restaurant, Vincent’s Seafood were casualties. The General Cinema’s North Park complexes left the area in 1998. Then entertainment places within the Plaza’s first floor boarded up thereafter including the Virtual World gaming center, the Q-Zar arcade, and even United Artists’ own motion theater. The parking complex was so underutilized — generally deserted on weekdays — that the Dallas Area Rapid Transit would use it as remote parking for light rail users. The once vibrant video wall had badly color matched monitors and many monitors had simply flatlined. The two-sided wall became a poorly functioning single sided wall. Three snack bars of the four were permanently closed. Even the iconic first-floor box office was closed on most nights as tickets were sold at the snack bar. And the attraction board on the access road was often out of order. As such, the first part of the 21st Century wasn’t kind to the Plaza with Regal taking on the UA circuit in bankruptcy. Regal was obviously not in a position to spend any money on the property. When the AMC NorthPark 15 was announced, the Plaza was already sensing doom. Theaters lacking stadium seating were in collapse and the Regal shut the UA Plaza theater on Sunday December 5, 2004. The theater’s fall from grace was such that few came to see the last day’s features. The theater complex was converted into a church within a year which continued into the 2010s.

The David Rockwell architected Loews Keystone opened at midnight March 21, 1997 during the height of the megaplex boom with showings of Selena and Liar Liar. The project was announced within weeks of the sister cinema to the south, Sony’s Loews Cityplace. But the Keystone’s stadium seating would keep the property viable well past the Cityplace’s demolition in 2008. The 16-plex boasted 80,000 square feet with 4,000 seats ranging from 100 to 500 seats. The screen size ranged from 17.6' x 31' to 25.6' by 49'.

Sony was all about synergy in the 1990s and incorporated Sony Dynamic Digital Sound 5.1 systems in each auditorium including 7.1 in the largest. The theater’s concession stand sold expanded items like fries, chicken tenders and buffalo wings and had an ice cream area for a period to expand past traditional popcorn, hot dogs and nachos.

But in 2006, AMC acquired Loews Cineplex and with AMC turning its attention to the nearby and higher-end all stadium-seating NorthPark 15 and AMC Valley View properties, the Keystone and other Loews properties were in jeopardy. While AMC prized some of the Sony/Loews locations in other cities the same could not be said for its Dallas-area portfolio. AMC would close the Loews Cityplace, the Loews Cinemas 20 & 287 in Arlington, and the Loews City View in Fort Worth after the merger but the Keystone was the chain’s first casualty as it was forced to sell the Loews Keystone Park before the merger could be finalized. Regal became the operator of the theater.

If AMC was ambivalent toward the Keystone, Regal seemed to have an operational malaise looking to wring anything it could from the property. The chain guided the Keystone to its unceremonious closure after its brief two year effort. Reduced price rush hour shows represented the most innovative part of the Regal Keystone operation. The theater closed following shows on October 17, 2010 with contents quickly removed. Regal’s lasting contribution to the Keystone could be found in door signage from the property owner detailing the operator’s non-payment on the lease and changed key / forced lockout. The theater was boarded up not long after the less than regal operation.

But the theater was given love from its next owner, the Studio Movie Grill which continued operation in the redecorated and reinvigorated Studio Movie Grill Spring Valley which opened October 12, 2012 with special screenings. Some thought it odd that SMG would open so close to its very successful SMG Royal just four exits to the South adjoining its headquarters. But SMG Spring Valley was opened to blunt the announced openings of the nearby Look Cinema and the even closer Alamo Movie Drafthouse in Addison just one exit to the North on Central Expressway. While the line in the sand had been drawn and booking competition returning to the area, it wasn’t clear which theater would have the upper hand as the 2010s continued.

The $18 million AMC Grand was built by Entertainment Properties Trust (EPT) in a warehouse district of Dallas not far from what was once considered restaurant row. The 24-screen megaplex revolutionized theater business and inspired 24+ screen movie theater in urban markets around the nation. Expecting 1.5 million customers its first year, the Grand doubled its clientele. So successful was the concept that four “Gourmet Cinema” auditoriums playing independent and foreign films and one screen playing interactive Interfilm Technology releases such as “Ride For Your Life” were quickly repurposed as additional screens for blockbuster, multi-screen releases within just three weeks of the complex’s opening. AMC knew it had a blockbuster, itself, in the Grand concept.

The 85,000 square foot theater bucked the DFW trend by General Cinema to simply add a multiplex near the footprint of another successful multiplex as they had at Redbird Mall, Town East Mall, Richardson, Irving Mall, Carollton, and others in the area. The Grand’s stadium seating in all 24 houses, multichannel audio in all houses, and 13-acres of exclusive parking with valet was a destination finding people driving as much as an hour to come to that theater. With showings in the early morning and shows into the late hours, patrons likely showed up without paying close attention to the showtimes for the opening weekend of a smash hit. AMC replicated the success in DFW with the 30-screen Mesquite, 30-screen Grapevine Mills, and 24-screen Stonebriar. Meanwhile, 10-16 screen plexes opened all over the metro area by operators including AMC, United Artists, and Cinemark which along with the 24+ screen theaters would blunt the destination status of the Grand.

The uniqueness of the Grand was gone and the momentum of restaurants hopping across to the area and having success was on the downward slope as the first decade of the 2000s was closing. Restaurants and nightspots near the Grand were closing and restaurant row was in retreat, as well. The Grand’s parking lot was often virtually empty on weekdays and the writing was on the wall for the property. EPT had built 95 other megaplexes built during the ‘plex boom period but suffered its first non-renewal when AMC decided to walk away from the Grand as its 15-year lease lapsed. Almost unthinkable ten years earlier that this significant theater could have fallen so far so fast, but it was true. On Halloween 2010, AMC said “trick” and no treat closing up shop hastily. Its lease officially lapsed at the end of November as it carted its possessions away.

EPT found a new operator in Southern Cinemas who shockingly decided to spend millions of dollars to re-tool a portion of the space as the downsized 14-screen AmStar Grand Theatre 14. And almost equally shocking was that another person thought that a Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill would thrive in the other section of the complex. Southern Cinemas found Grand Opening festivities ominous as employees in tuxedos and security guards well outnumbered patrons with many of the advertised shows simply not playing on the second day of the Grand grand re-opening celebration. Things didn’t ever improve as the theater – despite high technology and dependable presentation – was a quick casualty limping badly to a two-year ending. A challenging environment for the once-king of the Dallas box office. Further, the theater housed the area’s only motion-controlled seating with its D-Box installation so Dallas/Fort Worth was motion-seat-less, to boot. Toby Keith’s Bar was also a casualty closing at the end of 2013 despite signs indicating that a re-opening was possible.

Surprisingly, Studio Movie Grill decided to take a stab at rekindling the magic quickly retrofitting the EPT Grand property as a dining-experience theater and opening just months later on December 16, 2013. The Studio Movie Grill Northwest Highway was hoping to somehow buck the trend of a faded cinema treasure location.

The Irving Mall opened August 4, 1971. Following a soft launch open house, the General Cinema Irving Mall I-II opened on the mall’s main level on Nov. 17, 1971 with “Something Big” on the 900-seat screen I and “Doctor Zhivago” on the smaller 450-seat screen II. The 900-screen theater was divided into two at the end of 1976 to form the Irving I-II-III. On October 26, 1984, on the mall’s lower floor at the food court, General Cinema added the Irving Mall IV-V-VI-VII.

General Cinema closed the I-II-III in August 1997 to expand into what would be the its only attempt at approaching a modern-build megaplex in Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area before its operations were overtaken by AMC. The 14-screen stadium seating Irving Mall 14 was part of a $20 million renovation of the Simon DeBartolo Irving Mall which was trying to compete against strip shopping centers across the street and across the highway. On September 25, 1998, the Irving Mall IV-V-VI-VII ceased leaving the mall theater-less for almost three months. General Cinema also closed the Collin Creek Mall cinema the same day. Those followed the July 1998’s closing of NorthPark III & IV and Prestonwood Town Center as the megaplexes were decimating General Cinema’s failing multiplex business plan. The Irving Mall 14 would have a free soft launch on December 16, 1998 and then open on Dec. 18, 1998.

The move did prompt AMC to shut down its neighboring six-screen dollar house less than a year later. But by 2000/1, General Cinema was in free fall collapse in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and closing theaters all over the nation including virtually every theater in the DFW area. The theater chain was down to just 73 theaters nationwide from its high of 621 theaters when purchased by AMC in Dec. 2001 (approved in 2002). The General Cinema signage was quickly removed from the Irving Mall location on a Thursday night where moviegoers could choose between AMC “Ticket” cups and bags or General Cinema “Popcorn Bob” cups and popcorn bags. Then on Friday, the theater opened as the AMC Irving Mall 14 which operated thereafter. While other shuttered General Cinemas became home to movie theaters, the Irving was the only continuously operated theater passing from General Cinema to AMC in DFW.

Under Dalian Wanda’s takeover of AMC, the AMC Irving was almost shockingly selected for a $6.1 million transformation including a bar, high end recliner seats which led to theaters having just 50 to 130 seats in them. The adjoining, enclosed game rooms were repurposed. AMC paid two thirds of the remodel and Simon Malls which operates the entire property paid for the other third. Total seating went from 3,056 seats in the 14-screener to just 1,152 seats. In July of 2013, the Irving Planning and Zoning Commission approved the liquor license and the theater operated continuously to its relaunch in October of 2013 with its first nine luxury suites. Despite the remodel, a few of the General Cinema coming attraction lit signs were still being used within the theater unchanged since 1998.

This picture is a shot of a firefighter who entered the theater just days after its March of 1933 relaunch and refurnishing as the Fair Theater. He’s in standing water as the theater suffered major hail damage, shattering the glass doors and windows. Five feet of water flooded the newly remodeled theater closing for a short period.

The Ritz Theater operated for five decades at 105 E. Main Street in downtown Richardson. As the city grew, the theater tried to adapt. In 1948, owner J.B. Roberts invested $42,000 in the theater to expand seating and modernize the theater. The theater closed briefly in 1961 the theater’s image including a name change. But the last ten years saw the theater struggling to stay relevant with audiences before subsiding in 1972.

The Ritz was first rebranded in 1961 as the Electra Theater showing double features of second-run content. In 1965, the Electra tried to become an art house and only allowed adult-aged patrons. The experiment had its moments so the theater decided to rebrand once again in 1966 becoming the Holiday Art Theatre (often just referred to in marketing as the “Holiday”) showing repertory films from the “vaults.” The Holiday closed and that was it for film exhibition for the former Ritz. It became home to the Richardson Community Theater retitled the theater as the Richardson Playhouse in 1969. For three years, the theater put on live stage plays. When that ended in 1972, the theater passed to owners who as of the 2010s still held the theater. Elements of the theater are still present in the building which has been totally retrofitted. The balcony is still present as is the screen and rigging. But the days of presentation are behind the Ritz/Electra/Holiday Art/Richardson Playhouse as the building was home to business including Fluid Power Supply into the 2010s used as a business office by Stone Associates.

Hunt Properties built the Dallas North Shopping Center in Plano which with an announced grocery store in 1962 at the corner of North Central Expressway and 15th Street. But the Center wouldn’t officially officially open until August 1967 when additional businesses including Mott’s Five and Dime and Illinois fast-food chain Mr. Quick joined the shopping complex connected with a climate-controlled sidewalk. Fifth grader Vickie Wesch then wrote a letter to Interstate Theater Circuit’s John Q. Adams saying that the shopping center and Plano needed a movie theater gathering 83 signatures on a petition to persuade the circuit. Kismet. Hunt Properties would build a movie theater in its North Shopping Center and leased it to Interstate Theaters. In 1969, Jack H. Morgan was the architect and drew plans. But ABC and Interstate would merge operations becoming ABC-Interstate necessitating a minor change and second set of architectural drawings. Construction began on May 4, 1970 with a ceremonial ground breaking using a shovel made of film reels and canisters. Plano Mayor Connor Harrington and Interstate President John Q. Adams were among the featured guests.

The delayed project would finally open as a stand-alone building in the Center technically on Janwood St. It was ABC-Interstate’s 84th Texas theater beginning service November 18, 1971 with the film “Scrooge.” Wesch, the student who had suggested the concept of the theater, received a one year’s free pass. The grand opening featured the burying of a time capsule in a crypt to be opened in 2005 on ABC Interstate’s 100th anniversary. (Spoiler alert: maybe they should have moved that date up by 20 or so years.) While the population was growing in Plano, picking a successful spot within the sprawling suburb proved challenging.

The Cameo was not a success story for Interstate. Fifth grader Wesch had apparently not done enough demographic research or crafted policies that would lead to success for the theater chain. During a showing of “The Cross and the Switchblade” in 1971, the blades were out as young patrons slashed theater seats. Another boy lit a sparkler during a show and underage smoking was a problem for the theater. Patrons complained that loud talking made movie-going a chore at the Cameo. ABC Interstate apologized for the six-month old theater which even they admitted now looked many, many years old. This forced the manager to quit and the city council to look into the situation. Even with a new manager on board, the theater was not profitable and was closed by the chain.

On June 7, 1974, ABC Interstate decided to give the Cameo property second life opening with “American Graffiti.“ The rebirth was not a success and ABC Interstate closed the property again. But by decade’s end, the population trends had improved. In 1979, Plitt Theaters which had acquired the Interstate circuit reopened the Cameo for the third time in the same decade with a grand re-re-opening on April 6, 1979 showing “The Deer Hunter” in the renamed Palisades Shopping Center. The circuit under its revised name of Plitt Southern decided to close the theater a fourth time — this time temporarily — to twin the theater and rebrand it as the Collin Creek Cameo.

The twin-screen theater launched with a grand re-re-re-opening in the shadow of the Collin Creek Mall whose first store had opened back on October 20, 1980. The theater’s longest stretch of being opened happened under Plitt Southern as they operated the Collin Creek Cameo to what appears to be the end of a 15-year, disappointing lease cycle that wasn’t renewed. The theater was shuttered as a downgraded, second-run discount house. Neither the Interstate Circuit nor the Cameo Theater had survived long enough to open the time capsule on the overly-optimistic 2005 date stated during the theater’s grand opening. In the realm of DFW film exhibition luminaries, the Collin Creek Cameo had but a cameo. Among its distinctions was having been closed four times by the same operator (not including the one for remodeling) and four celebrated openings. A rarity in this area. Its exit came via demolition as the Collin Creek’s footprint grew with many non-descript strip shopping centers supplanting the Palisades Shopping Center. The good news was that local moviegoers could go across the street and down a dead-end road if they had an awareness that General Cinema Corp. had constructed a six-screen theater well-hidden from the mall for which the circuit’s theater was named: the GCC Collin Creek VI.

United Artists purchased four acres of a 12-acre tract at the southeast corner of Beltline and what was once part of North Star Road in Garland in 1984 to build a multiplex. MPM Development would then build a 68,000 sq. ft. strip shopping center around the theater called North Star Crossing bringing additional traffic to the complex. The UA 8 North Star (often fused as Northstar 8 in ads) opened December of 1984 and, in its operation of just over 21 years, the theater remained a first-run house under the aegis of UA/Regal through its entire existence. The UA 8 South, the UA 8 Las Vegas Trail and UA 8 North Star were built much like the “second-generation” UA 8’s around the country: fairly non-descript but serviceable locations that weren’t destination multiplexes like the UA Plaza or the UA Galaxy but more neighborhood-centric and understated.

Unlike its first era of multiplexes, these UA 8’s had more soothing color palettes and indirect lighting. The smallest houses were 280 seaters with fairly uncomfortable chairs. At the 16-year mark, the North Star got some good news in that General Cinema closed its Richardson location in 2000 just 3.5 miles away which led to an uptick in customers at the North Star. For patrons, good news occurred when the UA MacArthur Marketplace megaplex mega-flopped in less than five years of service from 1999 to 2004. When the Regal shut the theater, the North Star was the recipient of the MacArthur seating. It was a nice improvement. Despite the new seating, the North Star wasn’t given a ringing endorsement from the chain. As Regal ramped up its digitally projected pre-show “2wenty” in most auditoriums in 2003/4, the North Star was largely left out of the transition which was a portent of things to come.

Regal shuttered aging UA multiplexes all over the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and beyond shortly after taking over United Artists. And when AMC opened its Firewheel Town Center Mall 18-screener in far east Garland on December 14, 2005, the North Star UA 8 was looking quite aged. Just one month after the AMC launch, the North Star closed for good on January 29, 2006. Few people bothered to show up for the final shows that evening. The property was updated for new business owners. First into the location in its post-theatrical life was a sports bar closing in 2011, then it was Legends Jumpin House closing in 2013, then it was briefly Quinceanera Reception Halls event center, then it was…. well, you get the idea. The theater’s conversion away from a multiplex – like so many others – has proven to be a challenge to the shopping center. And unlike the UA 8 Vegas Trails or UA 8 South that didn’t have the adjoining shopping center to be concerned with, those 8-plexes were more readily converted into stand-alone non-profit churches.

M.C. Cole opened the $3,000,000 Ridgewood Shopping Center in 1959 with 141,000 square feet of business space occupied by stores including Wyatt’s Grocery Store, Woolworth’s, and M.L. Green. Cole planned to add a second phase consisting of 141,000 square feet if the center succeeded. It did. The Ridgewood Theater was late in the second stage of the Center. Ground was broken in May of 1967 and the theater was architected by Kynn Cole and built by M.C. Cole’s Ranco Development Company for $350,000 for the Interstate Circuit. The 866-seat theater would be patterned after the Westwood in Richardson and Hurst’s Bellaire theaters for Interstate. The interior of the Ridgewood was Mediterranean style used antique brick and had floors with a basketweave design, quarry tile. Wall to wall screen with an overhead vertical lift curtain with automatically controlled maskings along with stereo sound and auto dimmers in lighting made for a modern, versatile theater. The exterior also used antique brick.

The theater launched on December 21, 1967 with Disney’s “The Happiest Millionaire.” Interstate created a 10-minute film on the city of Garland that ran prior to the show. The theater became the 85th for Interstate. Hal Burreson was the first manager of the Ridgewood. The theater was community-minded booking local live acts occasionally and allowing benefit screenings periodically. Under Burreson, only G rated films were booked with only one exception: “Midnight Cowboy.” Burreson moved to the Medallion in Dallas when it opened in 1969 and was replaced by William L. Moyer. With a new sheriff in town, the Ridgewood changed fairly quickly. Moyer decided he didn’t want to be Garland’s babysitter and eliminated G-rated films. The adult-only R-rated policy was put in because of damage kids were causing to Ridgewood’s seating, the high volume of underage smoking, the cutting of electrical cords and general rowdiness. On Friday nights, Moyer said that “adults couldn’t even hear the movies.”

But in Garland, that sort of anti-family policy didn’t sit too well. So a public meeting was scheduled to deal with the vandalism issue at the theater and Moyer reversed course on the theater’s adults-only policy. (And Moyer said it had nothing to do with a short-term downturn of ticket sales.) The theater hosted a private advance screening of “Living Free” with stars Elsa the lion in attendance and the World Premiere of Semi-Tough with author Dan Jenkins in attendance happened at the Northtown Six, Ridgewood and Village on Nov. 13, 1977. The large lobby space allowed Interstate to take advantage of a pinball craze to install pinball machines bringing additional revenue. Entering the 1980s, the pinball machines would be replaced by video games as pinball lost favor. By the end of 1977, Interstate (then ABC-Interstate) had contemplated downgrading the Ridgewood to discount, dollar status. But it said that wasn’t the right play for the theater or the community.

In 1978, ABC-Interstate sold the theater to Plitt group. The theater began a minor descent thereafter as the theater was relegated to discount, dollar status by Plitt, then it was twinned, and – most embarrassingly – closed by the fire marshal for life-threatening fire exit problems on October 14, 1984. Then theater manager Timothy Langevin was arrested on three counts of fire code violations. Though it reopened shortly thereafter, the Ridgewood halcyon days were over as it soldiered onward as a twin discount house existing in a multiplex world. It would finally close. The Ridgewood’s days were not over as it was used for live theater in two years for religious plays and functions in 2001 and 2002. It was booked as a special events center during the 2000s. And late in the 2000s, it became a club featuring live music which was not a success. As of the 2010s, the Westwood was vacant but seemingly ready for the next potential tenant with a dream.

The 100,000 square foot Eastgate Shopping Center opened in September of 1972 just off of Interstate 635 at 1450 Northwest Highway at Saturn Road. The twin-screen theater was an original tenant and began life with its moniker of “The Movies” officially at 1430 Northwest Highway. That wasn’t a hit so the theater closed and reopened on September 6, 1974 as Eastgate Cinemas 2 with “The Bootlegger” and “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot” on screen two. The theater was still not a hit and was downgraded to dollar house status entering the 1980s.

Operated by William B. Boren’s fledgling circuit consisting of the Eastgate, Westgate Cinema in McKinney, Wilshire Showcase I & II in Euless, Cineworld 4 and Lancaster Showcase in Fort Worth and two theaters in Blackwell, OK, the writing was on the wall when nine film companies sued Boren in February of 1983 for not providing enough of the owed admission receipts for the period beginning in 1978 forward. The twin-screen era was ending in the multiplex world anyway and the Eastgate was a dead duck in May of 1984. Or was it?

On June 22d of 1984, the Eastgate became a twin screen adult theater and suddenly the theater had the attention of what had been an indifferent populace. Scoring with X-rated hits including Emanuelle and Caligula, the Eastgate was drawing audiences and raised eyebrows. Garland’s first adult theater was a hit! But clientele at nearby family establishments including Furr’s Cafeteria, a Hallmark card store, and a Christian book store launched a petition drive backed by the Garland Church of Christ. The complaints reached the owner of Eastgate Shopping Center, Hank Dickerson Realators.

The attention lead to great business and picketers protesting the operation. Members of Rev. Daniel Hicks' Four Square Gospel Church prayed for the future of morality in the city of Garland. And the sentiments of one city councilman summarized the situation, “I wouldn’t want my wife to go to a shopping center where there are customers of this type of facility.” On July 17th, the city of Garland hastily passed an ordinance banning X-rated films within 500 feet of a church, park, school, or residential area (or where oxygen is present) to zone the theater out of existence. On July 18th, Hank Dickerson sent an eviction notice. And within two weeks, the Eastgate and operator M&B Cinema of Houston with George Marules were in court facing immediate eviction. Eastgate manager Rick “X” explained the difference between X-rated fare originating in the adult art porno chic era and the more lewd XXX fare that the Eastgate would never show. Manager Rick pledged to show more art, foriegn and R-Rated films in the future and understood why a zoning ordinance would apply to an XXX theater.

The initial suit was dismissed because even to the Garland Justice of the Peace, the speed of the process was far too brisk to be fair to the operators of the cinema. But refiled a month later, the Emanuelle (Eastgate Cinema) v. Goliath (Garland) situation was back. Emanuelle’s slingshot was the First Amendment and marketplace of ideas v. the Goliath of overwhelming public sentiment and legal standing on public nuisance attributable to movie posters in public view and a very dubiously worded zoning ordinance. Goliath took down Emanuelle as the realtor and city of Garland got their way in a court ordered eviction of M&B and Eastgate Cinema. “I think it was a victory for the Lord Jesus in that darkness was dealt a destructive blow,” Rev. Hicks said, “I think it was a case of God hearing the prayers of his people.” What followed were police raids of adult video and novelty stores that sought to rid Garland of filth. And the controversial theater would close advertising as the slightly rebranded Eastgate Adult Cinema in its final days for clearer marketing purposes. The Eastgate was offered to anyone who wanted to bring some good-old family entertainment to the shopping center and the cleansed Garland citizenry. Of course, nobody wanted to do that and the Eastgate was history: a sleepy first 11.75 years and a rambunctious legally-challenged final .5 years.

The Garland Road Drive-In kicked off on April 7th, 1950 with searchlights and a circus calliope band wagon featuring Charla. Opening feature was “Oh You Beautiful Doll”. Dallas-Fort Worth was in a drive-in boom period with the Garland, Hines Blvd. and South Loop opening within a week of each other. And this was the first of three drive-ins to be opened by C.D. Leon’s fledgling Leon Theatres Circuit that season proceeded by the Hampton Road Drive-In on May 12th and the Denton Road Drive-In on June 23, 1950. The Garland Drive-in got a boost when the Briley Heights addition brought 400 homes in 103 acre tract just west of the ozoner adding potential customers. Some notables: While playing the film, “Once a Thief” on May 9, 1952, the theater was robbed of $350. In the early 1950s, the First Methodist Church held their Sunday morning services at the drive-in. In 1957, Leon applied to show first-run movies into Garland homes in early pay television experiments.

At the end of the 1958 drive-in season, Leon subleased the Hampton and Denton Road locations to Claude C. Ezell’s newly-reformed Ezell Theater Circuit / Bordertown Theaters Inc. But Leon held on to his Hampton Road location. The Garland Road closed at the end of February 1966. Garland residents wouldn’t be without an ozoner for long as Tri-State Theaters / McLendon Theaters continued its space-aged theme of multiscreen drive-ins at the location. The operators of Gemini and Astro drive-in also opened the Apollo Twin Drive-In.

The Apollo was a $1.8 million location designed by H.A. Jordan on a 31.5 triangular acre lot for a reported 1,800 cars and could accommodate another 175 walk-ins at the patio. The curved 132 foot by 80 foot screens were dubbed by McClendon as “Specturama screens” that were more than 10 stories high. A candy cane-striped 7,000 square foot air conditioned restaurant. Two separate patios with speakers at the tables allowed walk-ups. The twin had two entrances, one on Shiloh Road and the other at Garland Road. The Apollo Twin Drive-in launched with a two-day Grand Opening on October 3, 1968 with “The Lost Continent” and “The Vengeance of She” on the North Screen and “The Detective” and “Come Spy with Me” on the South Screen. Actor Big John Hamilton was there with KLIF AM radio. The “Motion Picture Herald” said that people were amazed at the opening calling the ‘big double A’ the “ultimate of ultimate” in drive-ins.

The theater ran into trouble with the Garland City Council in 1972. The city approved a ban of nude scenes shown at a drive-in if the screen could be seen by passing cars. McLendon had been voluntarily cutting offensive portions from films shown at the Apollo but said mandating the cutting of the films gravitated the situation from self-censorship to censorship. One film sent “by mistake” had lesbian love scenes and had led to the action. A classic court line occurred when a medical doctor testifying n behalf of the City of Garland said, “It is hard for almost any man to go by the theater without being distracted.”

In the 1980s, the Apollo added a new sound system so that patrons could listen to the sound track on the car’s AM radio instead of the speakers. After B.R. McLendon died, the estate of B.R. McLendon sold the Apollo outright to Tri-State Theatres Ltd. Partnership at the end of 1986. That was also the last year of the Apollo Drive-In as the theater was demolished to make way for a new retail superstore. On December 28, 1988 Hypermart – a superstore combining Wal-Mart and local grocery store chain Tom Thumb into a large 24-hour concept store, the first of two built in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and five in the nation. Walmart would go it alone on future 24-hour superstores. The Garland store fulfilled its 20-year lease transitioning to a Wal-Mart prior to closing in 2008 and the company followed its standard practice of abandoning the property to build another nondescript location elsewhere; the Hypermart remained empty into the 2010s. But to some locals, that spot will remain a drive-in destination that produced around 35 years of memories.

The Kaufman Pike was a 600-car capacity drive-in opened July 1, 1949 for Charles W. Weisenburg. The Kaufman Pike opened with “Montana Mike” the same day that the Hi-Vue Drive-In opened by W.P. Moran. Weisnburg’s first drive-in was the Palo Duro in Amarillo but he would add five drive-ins to the Dallas Fort Worth area during the drive-in boom of the late 1940s and early 1950s. He also owned the Crest Theater, an indoor operation less than 15 miles away in Seagoville. While playing mostly second run double features, throughout the 1950s, the Kaufman Pike exhibited first-run B films, as well. John William “Wild Bill” Tucker brought his cowboy shooting and sound effects touring show to the Kaufman in 1953. The President of Jacksonville College hosted an Easter sunrise service at the drive-in in 1954. In the 1960s, the Kaufman would also get some first-run films from major studios in what were termed “saturation releases.”

in 1978, Weisenburg auctioned off his Kaufman Pike, Linda Kay, Bruton Road, and Lewisville 121 Twin drive-ins as he was retiring from his circuit that had 38 theaters at its apex. The Kaufman Pike closes in 1979. It has a grand re-opening by its new operator, Global Pictures Ltd., on June 6, 1981 showing “Texas Lightning,” “Graduation Day”, and “Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw”. The theater made it to its 35th anniversary on July 1, 1984. When it closed for the season at the end of 1984, it didn’t appear to re-open in 1985.