Fact Friday 232 - Tryon Mall Theater

Happy Friday! 

Tryon Mall Theatre was the sister theater to the Queens Park 6. The north Charlotte theater closed three years earlier than its south Charlotte counterpart, and today sits in a white wash of decay.

This theatre was located in the back of the Tyron Mall Shopping Center at the intersection of North Tyron Street & Sugar Creek Road. The Tyron Mall Theatre was Charlotte’s second Ultravision theatre (after the Park Terrace Theatre), and the last single screen theatre to be built in Charlotte. The Tyron Mall Theatre upon it’s opening was an ultra-modern showplace of charm and beauty, with its luxurious seating, full stereophonic sound and spectacular Ultravision screening. This cinema was beautifully designed both inside and out under the ABC Southestern Theatres banner.

 

The Tyron Mall Theatre’s premiere attraction was Paul Newman and Lee Marvin in “Pocket Money” on March 24, 1972.

 

By 1974, a second auditorium was added to the original building making it a twin. It was renamed Tyron Mall I & II Theatres on December 25, 1974 with James Caan in “Freebie and the Bean”.

 

By 1983, the original auditorium was split down the middle to add a third screen, and by late-1984, the second auditorium was also split down the middle, making it a four screen multiplex with shoebox auditoriums and smaller screens. By 1989 it went from showing first run features to becoming a second-run discount movie house until the Tyron Mall closed in 1996 (but later revived as the Asian Corner Mall).

 

"King Kong" advertisement from December 1975. 

ABC Southestern Theatres discount advertisement from the early-mid 1970s.

 

Until next week!