The General Cinema Northpark I & Ii: a Case
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THE GENERAL CINEMA NORTHPARK I & II: A CASE STUDY OF A THIRD GENERATION MOVIE THEATER by JEREMY FLOYD SPRACKLEN Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Arlington in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN HISTORY THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON MAY 2015 Copyright © by Jeremy Floyd Spracklen 2015 All Rights Reserved ii Acknowledgements I would like to express my appreciation for all of the friends and family who encouraged and assisted me throughout my academic career and the writing of this thesis. Specifically, Bob and Diana Cunningham, Cindy and Gary Sharp, and Jessica Tedder. I am humbled by the amount of support that I have been given. I am thankful to my committee, Bart Weiss, Dr. Gerald Saxon, and chair Dr. Robert Fairbanks. Their suggestions and guidance throughout the research and writing of this work cannot be understated. Additionally, I am thankful to Adam Martin for his encyclopedic knowledge of theater buildings. But most of all, I would like to thank Ron Beardmore. His infectious love for the art of projecting film, and the theaters that show them, was the primary factor in choosing this subject for study. April 14, 2015 iii Abstract THE GENERAL CINEMA NORTHPARK I & II: A CASE STUDY OF A THIRD GENERATION MOVIE THEATER Jeremy Spracklen, MA The University of Texas at Arlington, 2015 Supervising Professor: Robert Fairbanks The purpose of this thesis is to present a typology of movie exhibition eras and then explore one of those eras in greater detail by studying a specific market and theater within that market. This methodology allows for influential industrial, social, and economic trends to be tracked before, during, and after the operational life of what is identified as a third generation movie theater. By choosing a single theater as a case study for this thesis, national shifts in business practices and economics are examined in order to study how these affected theaters at a micro level. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. iii Abstract .................................................................................................................................... iv List of Illustrations ................................................................................................................... vii List of Tables ........................................................................................................................... ix Chapter 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 The Third Generation Movie Theater .................................................................................. 4 First and Second Generation Theaters in Dallas ................................................................ 5 Dallas’ First Theater Row .................................................................................................... 7 Notes on Form and Structure .............................................................................................. 9 Chapter 2 Why A Twin For NorthPark? ..................................................................................12 Population Migration.......................................................................................................... 13 Raymond Nasher and the Development of NorthPark Center .......................................... 16 Changes in the Movie Industry .......................................................................................... 19 The General Cinema Corporation Comes to Town ........................................................... 22 Functionality over Aesthetics: Designing the NorthPark ................................................... 24 Opening Night ................................................................................................................... 32 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 34 Chapter 3 From Roadshow to Multiple Run Bookings at NorthPark, 1965–1974 ..................36 Booking Strategies and the Paramount Decrees .............................................................. 37 First Runs and Roadshows ............................................................................................... 38 The System in Practice ..................................................................................................... 42 1971–1974 ........................................................................................................................ 46 1974: A Case Study .......................................................................................................... 48 The End of NorthPark’s First Decade ............................................................................... 52 Movies Exhibited at NorthPark 1965–1974 ....................................................................... 52 v Chapter 4 Competition and Saturation Bookings, 1975–1984 ...............................................56 Northern Expansion........................................................................................................... 56 Saturation Booking ............................................................................................................ 60 The Movies: From Star Wars to Return of the Jedi ........................................................... 64 The Effects of Saturation Booking on North Dallas Theaters ........................................... 70 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 72 Movies Exhibited at NorthPark 1975–1984 ....................................................................... 72 Chapter 5 Industry Expansion and the Return of Vertical Integration, 1985–1994 ................76 Industry Expansion – National .......................................................................................... 76 Theater Expansion – Dallas .............................................................................................. 81 Stagnation and Decline ..................................................................................................... 85 The Movies ........................................................................................................................ 88 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 92 Movies Exhibited at NorthPark 1985–1994 ....................................................................... 92 Chapter 6 Industry Expansion and Contraction, 1995–1998 ..................................................97 The Fifth Generation – The Grand Megaplex ................................................................... 97 NorthPark in the Fifth Generation ................................................................................... 103 The Last Picture Shows .................................................................................................. 107 Movies Exhibited at NorthPark 1995–1998 ..................................................................... 110 Chapter 7 Epilogue and Conclusion .....................................................................................113 The New NorthPark and the Future of Dallas Cinema .................................................... 117 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 124 Bibliography ..........................................................................................................................127 Biographical Information .......................................................................................................132 vi List of Illustrations Figure 1 - Dallas Theater Row Circa 1948 ............................................................................... 8 Figure 2 - Opening Day Promotional Brochure ......................................................................13 Figure 3 - Map of Future NorthPark Center Site from the 1948 Dallas City Planning Commission ............................................................................................................................16 Figure 4 - 1959 Southern-Facing Aerial View from www.texasfreeway.com .........................17 Figure 5 - Aerial Photo of NorthPark Center 1965 .................................................................18 Figure 6 - Charlottetown Mall .................................................................................................24 Figure 7 - Scan from Original Blueprint ..................................................................................25 Figure 8 - NorthPark Cinema I & II Exterior ............................................................................26 Figure 9 - NorthPark Cinema I Interior ...................................................................................27 Figure 10 - Blueprint Design of Cinema I Shadowbox ...........................................................30 Figure 11 - Example of Proscenium (Fox Theatre, Atlanta) ...................................................31 Figure 12 - Example of a Shadow Box Screen Frame 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