Good news: the Park Forest Theater has now reopened for business. Hurray! It is now the “Eagle Park Forest Theater.” The web site is: http://www.eagletheater.net
The Park Theater was still in operation into the 80’s. It was one of the last larger single auditoriums in the Memphis area, and possibly THE last one. A great building, too. After it closed it was used for quite a few years by a video production company. They used part of the street address (“35 Park”) as the production company name. I was surprised that the building finally got taken down by the wrecking ball, I suppose in the late 90’s. I believe it has been replaced by yet another national corner pharamcy. A pity, this one. Memphis, like other cities, isn’t particularly protective of its architecture.
What great memories I had as a kid seeing movies at the Holiday Theater. If I recall correctly, the children’s matinee price was 75 cents. (This was the late 60’s, early 70’s. My parents would drop my sister and I off and we’d usually head for the balcony and eat candy and watch a good Disney movie. I would sometimes go down and hang out in the glassed-in “Crying Room” since there was rarely anybody in there. It was like your own private screening booth.
I hadn’t been back to Park Forest since the early 80’s. Went back in Mar. 2005 and wow, lots of changes. The Plaza isn’t what it used to be, and the Holiday Theater (now Park Forest Cinema I guess) seemed closed and uncertain. I’m going to drop back by when I’m up in Chicago around Mar 2006—hope they have it back open again by then. I’d love to see the place again—although without the balcony, and having subdivided the auditorium, it might be a bit sad. Still, I hope I’ll be able to catch a movie there then.
Regardless, hope they can keep that place alive. Lots of history there, and great memories for thousands of people.
Good news: the Park Forest Theater has now reopened for business. Hurray! It is now the “Eagle Park Forest Theater.” The web site is: http://www.eagletheater.net
The Park Theater was still in operation into the 80’s. It was one of the last larger single auditoriums in the Memphis area, and possibly THE last one. A great building, too. After it closed it was used for quite a few years by a video production company. They used part of the street address (“35 Park”) as the production company name. I was surprised that the building finally got taken down by the wrecking ball, I suppose in the late 90’s. I believe it has been replaced by yet another national corner pharamcy. A pity, this one. Memphis, like other cities, isn’t particularly protective of its architecture.
What great memories I had as a kid seeing movies at the Holiday Theater. If I recall correctly, the children’s matinee price was 75 cents. (This was the late 60’s, early 70’s. My parents would drop my sister and I off and we’d usually head for the balcony and eat candy and watch a good Disney movie. I would sometimes go down and hang out in the glassed-in “Crying Room” since there was rarely anybody in there. It was like your own private screening booth.
I hadn’t been back to Park Forest since the early 80’s. Went back in Mar. 2005 and wow, lots of changes. The Plaza isn’t what it used to be, and the Holiday Theater (now Park Forest Cinema I guess) seemed closed and uncertain. I’m going to drop back by when I’m up in Chicago around Mar 2006—hope they have it back open again by then. I’d love to see the place again—although without the balcony, and having subdivided the auditorium, it might be a bit sad. Still, I hope I’ll be able to catch a movie there then.
Regardless, hope they can keep that place alive. Lots of history there, and great memories for thousands of people.