Recently, on a Facebook GCC group, I saw some actual photos of the interior of what used to be the Galleria Cinema. They were taken by a mall employee. It’s kind of sad…completely gutted. The backs of the restaurants encroach on what used to be the front of the theatre. The sloped floors of the auditoriums still exist, but all the dividing walls have been knocked down. You can still see where the screens used to be, but most is hard to recognize. That area is used for mall storage, mostly of the giant Christmas tree and other decorations.
Victor, David and I are not in close contact at the moment, but you are welcome to email me at roy (at) royjenkins.com, and I can fill you in on what I know.
Robert, I remember you well. It’s amazing how much the ice rink level at the Galleria has changed in appearance. It is a struggle to even visualize where the theatre was.
Brother Bill Whatley was something of an odd icon. I knew him well since I was a 16 year old usher at Northtown 6 Theatres. Finally verified that he died some years back. My very good friend Kevin Moore also died about 10 years ago. He was only 47.
The Valley View mall site is a sad ugly picture now. I can remember the mall being built in the early 70’s to connect the already-existing Sears store to the new Sanger Harris, with its unique and beautiful mosaic facade. It was a fine mall of the era, and a great hangout through my teen years. I can remember seeing some of my first movies at the Cinema (Swiss Family Robinson, etc) when I was a child. Eventually, I got my first brief management stint there in 1983. It wasn’t a great theatre design (the lobby was sunken and far too tiny to accomodate lines at the concession stand), but the twin screens were larger than the ones at the muliplexes at the time, and good for seeing a “big” movie. If I were a billionaire, I’d buy up the site and turn the whole thing into a park and piss everyone off (except the nearby homeowners, of course). I don’t fancy the congestion and population density that will result from the “Midtown” community that is planned.
victor_m, I worked briefly as Chief of Staff at GCC Valley View in late 1983. One of the projectionists there at the time was David Roberts, who became a good friend of mine. There was an older union projectionist, as well. Searching my memory, I think his name was Roland Cross.
For the record, I worked at GCC in many capacities in the 1980s and 90s, starting as a concessionist at the Galleria shortly after it opened. Also worked at the Prestonwood IV as Assistant Manager, Park Plaza in Arlington as Manager, and then much later on at Galleria and Collin Creek in Plano as projectionist. —Roy Jenkins
“Oddly excised” is right. I visited the site not too long ago, and you still see the footprint of the theatre, complete with sloping ground where the seats would be. There is rubble there, with some black and white tile from the walls. You can see the driveway that ran in front of the box office, too. The library is still there to the north, but what used to be a Dairy Queen on the south side of the theatre looks like it’s been a few other things, before it shut down as well.
I miss this place. Even though I was its caretaker for only seven or eight months back in the mid ‘80s, it was a cool building that smacked of style at a time when theatre construction was boxy and thoughtless. I wish I had done more for it, but I was only a nineteen-year-old GCC manager with a polyester blazer, and deluded ideas of what the job should be.
It’s exactly the kind of place that should have been renovated (with all of those silly interior walls removed to make it a single-screen palace), but as I can see from recent visits, the area is just crap.
As I recall, there was a similar, sister theatre operated by GCC at the time in Richland Hills, called Richland Plaza.
Recently, on a Facebook GCC group, I saw some actual photos of the interior of what used to be the Galleria Cinema. They were taken by a mall employee. It’s kind of sad…completely gutted. The backs of the restaurants encroach on what used to be the front of the theatre. The sloped floors of the auditoriums still exist, but all the dividing walls have been knocked down. You can still see where the screens used to be, but most is hard to recognize. That area is used for mall storage, mostly of the giant Christmas tree and other decorations.
Victor, David and I are not in close contact at the moment, but you are welcome to email me at roy (at) royjenkins.com, and I can fill you in on what I know.
Robert, I remember you well. It’s amazing how much the ice rink level at the Galleria has changed in appearance. It is a struggle to even visualize where the theatre was.
Brother Bill Whatley was something of an odd icon. I knew him well since I was a 16 year old usher at Northtown 6 Theatres. Finally verified that he died some years back. My very good friend Kevin Moore also died about 10 years ago. He was only 47.
The Valley View mall site is a sad ugly picture now. I can remember the mall being built in the early 70’s to connect the already-existing Sears store to the new Sanger Harris, with its unique and beautiful mosaic facade. It was a fine mall of the era, and a great hangout through my teen years. I can remember seeing some of my first movies at the Cinema (Swiss Family Robinson, etc) when I was a child. Eventually, I got my first brief management stint there in 1983. It wasn’t a great theatre design (the lobby was sunken and far too tiny to accomodate lines at the concession stand), but the twin screens were larger than the ones at the muliplexes at the time, and good for seeing a “big” movie. If I were a billionaire, I’d buy up the site and turn the whole thing into a park and piss everyone off (except the nearby homeowners, of course). I don’t fancy the congestion and population density that will result from the “Midtown” community that is planned.
victor_m, I worked briefly as Chief of Staff at GCC Valley View in late 1983. One of the projectionists there at the time was David Roberts, who became a good friend of mine. There was an older union projectionist, as well. Searching my memory, I think his name was Roland Cross.
For the record, I worked at GCC in many capacities in the 1980s and 90s, starting as a concessionist at the Galleria shortly after it opened. Also worked at the Prestonwood IV as Assistant Manager, Park Plaza in Arlington as Manager, and then much later on at Galleria and Collin Creek in Plano as projectionist. —Roy Jenkins
“Oddly excised” is right. I visited the site not too long ago, and you still see the footprint of the theatre, complete with sloping ground where the seats would be. There is rubble there, with some black and white tile from the walls. You can see the driveway that ran in front of the box office, too. The library is still there to the north, but what used to be a Dairy Queen on the south side of the theatre looks like it’s been a few other things, before it shut down as well.
I miss this place. Even though I was its caretaker for only seven or eight months back in the mid ‘80s, it was a cool building that smacked of style at a time when theatre construction was boxy and thoughtless. I wish I had done more for it, but I was only a nineteen-year-old GCC manager with a polyester blazer, and deluded ideas of what the job should be.
It’s exactly the kind of place that should have been renovated (with all of those silly interior walls removed to make it a single-screen palace), but as I can see from recent visits, the area is just crap.
As I recall, there was a similar, sister theatre operated by GCC at the time in Richland Hills, called Richland Plaza.