Northpark West 1 & 2

“The Graduate” opened here fifty years ago today. The film ran a super successful six months (one of the longest in the history of this theater). And to commemorate the classic film’s golden anniversary, here’s a new retrospective article which includes some exhibition history (and other) details.

DIVISION MANAGER OFFICE WAS HERE, UNTIL LATER WHEN NEW TWIN OPEN 3 & 4, THEN HE AND FILM BUYERS OFFICE ON SECOND FLOOR OF NEW TWIN

moviebuff82: The UA Prestoncreek 5 was also THX certified for the “Return of the Jedi” release. (Plus one more venue in L.A.) The THX details (and lots more) can be found in my recent “Jedi” 35th anniversary retrospective article.

Opened on 22/9/1965 with on screen 1 with “The sandpiper” and on screen 2 with “The greatest show on Earth”.

Greetings everyone, my name is Dan Gable and I was the North Park Cinema Projection and sound technician from 1980 to 1995. This was the time frame when the theatre really stood out as a premire Theatre. Ron Beardmore was the chief projections during those years that made North Park 1 & II stand out above the rest for it’s top notch presentation in a very competitive time for Theatres. Most of those years Anna Carros was the theater manager who made the rest of the operation top notch. Ron was a perfectionist and so was I, we worked well together and had many all-nighters making sure everything was perfect for the next big movie. I am the technician that also worked with Tomlinson Holman, Clyde McKinney, and Anthony Grimani during the installation of the THX Sound System. Contrary to something said in another comment here, North Park 1 was the 3rd in the country and first in Texas. The first THX installation was the University of Southern California’s Eileen L. Norris Cinema, part of the film school. The second and third (North Park Cinema 1) installations were going in almost at the same time. But even prior to it becoming THX, the theatre already had great sound for that time. I had bi-amped the cinema with active crossovers and Ashley FET amplifiers, I also rebuilt the Altec Voice of the Theatre A2/4 VOTT loudspeakers and reinstalled the wings on them (much the same effect as THX modifications) and at the same time ran monster cable all the way back to the speakers and moved the low frequency amplifiers back of the screen at the speakers to improve the bass sound even further. This was done a couple years before THX was installed. It was Ron that made all this possible getting Jeff Lynn, The GCC GM, to spend the money to allow us to go the extra mile and make the unprecedented improvements prior to THX. It was a remarkable time and North Park Cinema 1 & 2 was a remarkable Theatre. It is greatly missed as are the great people behind it’s success.