Independence Center Cinemas I & II

This was the first movie theater I went to when my family moved to Independence in Jan, 1978. We had just moved from a very small town in middle MO so going to the Independence Center mall was a big deal. I was 12 years old and remember riding up and down the escalators over and over in that mall. Man, everything was new and shiny, we’d drive by and this theater and I remember Blazing Saddles and Heroes(w/Henry Winkler) wer on the marquee for weeks. I didn’t really understand why they showed the same movie for week after week, why didn’t they show other movies? Anyway, we did go see Blazing Saddles so that must’ve been the first movie I saw there. A few weeks later they finally showed another movie—Grey Lady Down with Charleton Heston and I remember it was a Friday or Saturday night and the theater was jam packed, for such a sub-par movie :). After I turned 13 I did one crazy thing and that was to walk from our apt. complex(Glendale) all the way down I-291 to see Animal House. I bought a ticket for the other PG movie showing and snuck in and watched R rated Animal House, might have went with my friend Anthony..must’ve because I don’t think I would ever walk those several miles alone. Other movies I saw there were Saturn 3, The Fish that saved Pittsburgh, Top Secret! and the first Terminator. There were a few others but really we mostly would go to see movies at Blue Ridge Cinema East as that was a much more lively theater with bigger screens and 5 selections instead of just 2. Years later I remember coming home on leave and they had torn this theater down and I think it was a Circuit City(where service is state of the art). Kind of missed the old place.