My favorite element of the Janus was the lighted hallways that led to the auditoriums. My friend and I would run up and down those halls pretending to be jumping into hyperspace. It was awesome.
Also that they let me get in to see the Abyss with my pockets obviously full of Andy Capp Hot Fries.
The current address is now 3723 Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro, NC. They changed the name of the street a couple of years ago.
The actual location of the theater is now a beauty supply store. If you look at this image (https://goo.gl/maps/nAzGLmg4NYt), you can see the traditional “theater” look with the front area used for sales and the house being the raised area right behind it.
The Park Twin closed around 94 or so by Carmike. It was re-opened in 1997 by Tim Matthews (owner of the Graham Cinema) with Austin Powers 1 as one of the earlist offerings. It closed the next year and was never reopened.
I seem to remember seeing movies here much later than the claimed closing date of 1991. I saw Aladdin, the Lion King, Addams Family Values, Forrest Gump, Outbreak at a twin-screen second-run theater in the same general location as late as 1995.
Did a quick look at the newspaper archives and learned that the Blue Moon had closed sometime in 1979 or 1980. On or just before January 1, 1981, the theater opened as the Janus with one screen. The first movie was “Seems Like Old Times” with Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase.
Correction: Police Academy 3 came out in 1986, but I still stand by my original statement. I may hop down to the library at some point to check old newspapers to see when the changeover happened.
This theater was not “muscled out” by the competition. The new Carousel IS West End Cinemas, built by the same company. For a short time, both theaters were open, but as soon as everything could get moved, it was moved.
Part of the reason this theater was abandoned, besides the better location of the Carousel at a new shopping center right off the Interstate, is because the building just wasn’t very good. There were some flooding issues and the walls were paper thin, causing a lot of sound bleedover in the theater you were sitting in from the next-door theater.
The theater was the Blue Moon from the late 70’s until some time before 1985. I know this because this was the theater I saw Police Academy 3 in, and that movie came out in 1985 (and I was 12 years old at the time), and given my mother’s fear of even entering the same building that an evil theater had been, I’d say it had been at least a year or two.
The theater was closed when the Terrace expanded in the early 1990’s, when it was purchased by Daniel Kleeberg of High Point (he owned a small string of second-run theaters in High Point, Burlington, North Wilksboro, and, I think, somewhere in Virginia. I know this because I worked for Kleeberg and the longest-running movie the theater had under his management was Cool Runnings (1993).
The name of the theater during the 90’s wasn’t Church Street Twin Cinemas – it was Church Street Cinema Twin. Minor point, I know. It stayed open until late 99, when he had to close it due to lack of people to manage it (I’d left by this point, as had the long-term manager).
There was only one “shoebox” screen. The large auditorium could hold about 450 people, while the smaller screen could hold around 180.
The grocery store in the shopping center was never a Winn-Dixie. The oldest store I remember was a Krogers (where the infamous Blanche Taylor Moore worked) that was later replaced by a Byrd’s, which was eventually bought by Lowes Foods and then closed. Today, it’s a Aldi.
My favorite element of the Janus was the lighted hallways that led to the auditoriums. My friend and I would run up and down those halls pretending to be jumping into hyperspace. It was awesome.
Also that they let me get in to see the Abyss with my pockets obviously full of Andy Capp Hot Fries.
Correction: it’s Kleeberg Cinemas, not Kleesberg.
Correction: it was Kleeberg Cinemas, not Kleesburg. Here’s a link to an article regarding another cinema of his in Salisbury, NC.
A few corrections:
The current address is now 3723 Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro, NC. They changed the name of the street a couple of years ago.
The actual location of the theater is now a beauty supply store. If you look at this image (https://goo.gl/maps/nAzGLmg4NYt), you can see the traditional “theater” look with the front area used for sales and the house being the raised area right behind it.
WLasley is correct: it was Cinema Blue, not the Blue Moon (they used a blue moon logo on their marquee).
Big corrections.
The Park Twin closed around 94 or so by Carmike. It was re-opened in 1997 by Tim Matthews (owner of the Graham Cinema) with Austin Powers 1 as one of the earlist offerings. It closed the next year and was never reopened.
I seem to remember seeing movies here much later than the claimed closing date of 1991. I saw Aladdin, the Lion King, Addams Family Values, Forrest Gump, Outbreak at a twin-screen second-run theater in the same general location as late as 1995.
Did a quick look at the newspaper archives and learned that the Blue Moon had closed sometime in 1979 or 1980. On or just before January 1, 1981, the theater opened as the Janus with one screen. The first movie was “Seems Like Old Times” with Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase.
Correction: Police Academy 3 came out in 1986, but I still stand by my original statement. I may hop down to the library at some point to check old newspapers to see when the changeover happened.
This theater was not “muscled out” by the competition. The new Carousel IS West End Cinemas, built by the same company. For a short time, both theaters were open, but as soon as everything could get moved, it was moved.
Part of the reason this theater was abandoned, besides the better location of the Carousel at a new shopping center right off the Interstate, is because the building just wasn’t very good. There were some flooding issues and the walls were paper thin, causing a lot of sound bleedover in the theater you were sitting in from the next-door theater.
A few corrections:
The theater was the Blue Moon from the late 70’s until some time before 1985. I know this because this was the theater I saw Police Academy 3 in, and that movie came out in 1985 (and I was 12 years old at the time), and given my mother’s fear of even entering the same building that an evil theater had been, I’d say it had been at least a year or two.
The theater was closed when the Terrace expanded in the early 1990’s, when it was purchased by Daniel Kleeberg of High Point (he owned a small string of second-run theaters in High Point, Burlington, North Wilksboro, and, I think, somewhere in Virginia. I know this because I worked for Kleeberg and the longest-running movie the theater had under his management was Cool Runnings (1993).
The name of the theater during the 90’s wasn’t Church Street Twin Cinemas – it was Church Street Cinema Twin. Minor point, I know. It stayed open until late 99, when he had to close it due to lack of people to manage it (I’d left by this point, as had the long-term manager).
There was only one “shoebox” screen. The large auditorium could hold about 450 people, while the smaller screen could hold around 180.
The grocery store in the shopping center was never a Winn-Dixie. The oldest store I remember was a Krogers (where the infamous Blanche Taylor Moore worked) that was later replaced by a Byrd’s, which was eventually bought by Lowes Foods and then closed. Today, it’s a Aldi.