Tarpon Mall Twin Cinema

Groundbreaking for the $3 million Tarpon Mall took place in February of 1969. An original destination in the mall was Floyd Theatre’s Tarpon Mall Theatre, a 430-seat single screen venture. The first store, an Eckerd Drug Store opened first in the center on June 26, 1969. Judy Limoseth was the opening manager of the Tarpon Mall Theatre that launched on December 9, 1969 with “Winning” starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. It was the Floyd Circuit’s 45th theater and likely was operating on a 30-year leasing agreement.

The venue was twinned into two, 230-seat auditoriums on March 16, 1978 with “Saturday Night Fever” and “Greek Show” becoming the Tarpon Mall Twin Cinema I & II. An oddity occurred at the Tarpon Mall Twin on June 22, 1987. The assistant manager spoke about a frequent ghost in the cinema named George. He invited two men into one of the auditoriums as he put together a print of “The Devil’s Own” to test it. He then put together another print in auditorium on audi 2 of “Volcano.” One of the two invited transients went into see “Volcano.” The assistant manager thinking the house was empty heard noises attributing them to ghost, “George.” He picked up a wrench and clubbed the ghost injuring the guest and landing the assistant manager in jail.

As the theater’s lease was getting close to its expiry, the days of twin screen theater’s viability was long since past. Tarpon Mall Twin was closed on October 15, 1998 with Kirsten Dunst in “Small Soldiers” & Bruce Willis in “Armageddon”. It was demolished around 2004 to make way for a new strip center.

Yep It was a twin.

Here is an article I found. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19691204&id=Z2FSAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9HsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5991,2583962