Dunes Plaza Cinema 1-6
100 Dunes Plaza,
Michigan City,
IN
46360
100 Dunes Plaza,
Michigan City,
IN
46360
2 people
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What fond memories – I worked at the Dunes for nearly 4 years.
Some other facts about this theater:
It was frequented by Chicago Movie Critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, who both had vacation houses near by. Gene was soft spoken and nice. Roger..not so much.
The second floor where the projectors were housed was entirely open. It was a huge room. On the west-facing wall, a giant closet that store the letters for the 4-story marquee.
The east side of the second floor had two rooms for the projectors for theaters 5 & 6. Between them was the stock room.
The second floor also had the giant dual-kettle popcorn machine. You could fill up a 25+ gallon bag every 15 minutes. Woe be the person who got suck on popping duty…for a 7 hour shift! We would throw stale popcorn on each other’s cars and watch as the seagull would attack.
In 1989, the interior was renovated and the lobby had a new popcorn machine installed. I was the first person to clean it. What a pita.
In 1990, a terroristic threat was made upon the theater. The FBI came in and set up cameras and watched everyone for a coupe of weeks, but nothing ever happened.
After Light House Place opened, we saw a resurgence in attendance. Before retreating back to Chicago, day-trippers would often stop by and catch the 3 or 4 pm showing of something. 95% of the Diet Coke we sold were to people from Downtown Chicago.
Yes I was by there last night. The cinema has been demolished as has all the buildings on that east side. An Office Depot now stands where the cinema once was.
The strip mall that this cinema is/was in has just undergone some serious renovations.
Not surprised this theatre is closed. The strip mall it’s in is nearly moribund and the Marquette Mall across the street ain’t doin' much better either.
As I predicted above the Dunes Cinema has closed almost thirty years to the day after it opened. Too bad since it played a major role in my life. I imagine given the size of the building it will be converted into yet another superstore.
The Dunes Cinema is now a second run house with an early evening showing on weeknights and one matinee and one early evening show on the weekends. Also, the beautiful marquee that had been built is now gone. The sidewalk to the left and right of the entrance has weeds growing up through the sidewalks as well. It would appear Kerasotes is slowly giving up on this theater and it will close sooner rather then later.