A footnote to the stabbing incident: George Escobedo, 15 had moved from San Antonio TX in 1964 to live with his sister in Huntington Park. He was well known to juvenile authorities in Texas, and had been involved in a stabbing there as well, according to news reports of the Alcazar murders. In 2008, a 59 year old George Escobedo was killed by fellow gang members in San Antonio.
According to Bisbee Public Radio’s “The Copper Chronicle,” Lowell boasted the first movie house in the district to show talkies. The first feature was “In Old Arizona” starring Warner Baxter as the Cisco Kid.
The Grand Opening ad is a great find. I was 13 years old, and we rode our bikes over to the theater when we saw the searchlight (the old carbon arc version). There were reporters interviewing people on the red carpet. It was a big deal for an otherwise boring part of town. The date had to be June 1966, though. The movie wasn’t released until December 1965.
Contrary to the description above, the Northgate Theatre was/is a free-standing building, not part of a strip mall. The building included a few small retail spaces to the left of the theatre entrance. The theatre was built near the Southwest corner of Northgate Shopping Center, a large and popular mall in the 1960’s. Patrons parked in the shopping center parking lot. It was the only walk-in theatre in Northeast El Paso for decades, and offered first-run movies as well as 50-cent Saturday matinees for kids. Sonny and Cher actually made an appearance there when their movie “Good Times” made its El Paso debut in 1967. It was originally a single-screen theatre, and later divied into two screens.
A footnote to the stabbing incident: George Escobedo, 15 had moved from San Antonio TX in 1964 to live with his sister in Huntington Park. He was well known to juvenile authorities in Texas, and had been involved in a stabbing there as well, according to news reports of the Alcazar murders. In 2008, a 59 year old George Escobedo was killed by fellow gang members in San Antonio.
According to Bisbee Public Radio’s “The Copper Chronicle,” Lowell boasted the first movie house in the district to show talkies. The first feature was “In Old Arizona” starring Warner Baxter as the Cisco Kid.
The Grand Opening ad is a great find. I was 13 years old, and we rode our bikes over to the theater when we saw the searchlight (the old carbon arc version). There were reporters interviewing people on the red carpet. It was a big deal for an otherwise boring part of town. The date had to be June 1966, though. The movie wasn’t released until December 1965.
Contrary to the description above, the Northgate Theatre was/is a free-standing building, not part of a strip mall. The building included a few small retail spaces to the left of the theatre entrance. The theatre was built near the Southwest corner of Northgate Shopping Center, a large and popular mall in the 1960’s. Patrons parked in the shopping center parking lot. It was the only walk-in theatre in Northeast El Paso for decades, and offered first-run movies as well as 50-cent Saturday matinees for kids. Sonny and Cher actually made an appearance there when their movie “Good Times” made its El Paso debut in 1967. It was originally a single-screen theatre, and later divied into two screens.