Lafayette Square Cinema

dallasmovietheaters on December 7, 2021 at 7:21 am

Edward J. DeBartolo Sr. launched the Lafayette Square Mall in 1968. The first theatre there was an original tenant and was an interior 925-seat single-screen operation for General Cinema Corp. (GCC) as the Lafayette Square Cinema. Due to the success of both the mall and the cinema, GCC would add this exterior outparcel triplex - the Lafayette Square II-III-IV - on November 5th, 1976 in the southeast corner of the mall at 4220 West 38th Street.

The interior screen facility was duplexed in 1977. The interior venue was renamed as the GCC Lafayette Square I & II. Since “II” was already in the use, the interior’s new name caused the exterior facility to be renamed as the GCC Lafayette Square III-IV-V. Confused customers arriving at the wrong “II” were simply directed inside or outside. Modern megaplexes challenged GCC’s aging duplexes, triplexes and 6- and 8-screen multiplexes in the mid-1990s but these two venues held their own.

The interior I-II finally closed at the end of a 30-year lease on May 26, 1998. The exterior was renamed one final time carrying on as the Lafayette Square Cinema (Roman numerals redacted) until closure on October 18, 2000 when General Cinema was in free fall economic collapse and closing its older multiplexes all over the country.

The naming of the theaters here is a bit of an oddity in that the opening name of the original interior theatre became the closing name of the exterior. Had they simply renamed the exterior as the GCC Lafayette Square I-II-III, it would have held the distinction of the circuit’s only theatre in its history to hold the names of the xx I-II-III, II-III-IV, and III-IV-V. Somebody missed a bet!