Memphis movie theaters

[crabbj]

Hi all. I am new to the board. Great site. I lived in Memphis from 1973-1993, now living south of Nashville.

I have been looking at a website called www.cinematreasures.com trying to find information about a few Memphis theaters which are now gone, but have noticed a few are missing on the site. Does anyone have any information on the theater which was once at White Station and Poplar in the Eastgate Shopping Center? A Shoneys big boy used to be right next door I believe. Pretty sure it's a Stein mart now.

And another... I am not sure if it is still around but at White Station and Summer there was a theater... I want to say it was called Fun Land or something (Land) close to that, was wondering whatever became of it. I saw Star Wars there in 1977. I really enjoy this site as I am always interested in comparing the Memphis skyline of today as compared to 20 yrs or so ago. I return every year to see all the vast changes, and just this week, noticed the demolition of BMH. where I was born. Hope I can provide some answers as well regarding Nashville and Memphis topics.

-Alex

[sleepy]

Hi all. I am new to the board. Great site. I lived in Memphis from 1973-1993, now living south of Nashville.

I have been looking at a website called www.cinematreasures.com trying to find information about a few Memphis theaters which are now gone, but have noticed a few are missing on the site. Does anyone have any information on the theater which was once at White Station and Poplar in the Eastgate Shopping Center? A Shoneys big boy used to be right next door I believe. Pretty sure it's a Stein mart now.

And another... I am not sure if it is still around but at White Station and Summer there was a theater... I want to say it was called Fun Land or something (Land) close to that, was wondering whatever became of it. I saw Star Wars there in 1977. I really enjoy this site as I am always interested in comparing the Memphis skyline of today as compared to 20 yrs or so ago.

[crabbj]

Thanks for the reply, Sleepy. That movie theater, to the best of my memory, was very close to the Panchos restaurant off Summer, probably a little west of the White Station/Summer intersection, quite possibly in the same shopping center.

Skateland brings back some memories... Shakey's Pizza wasn't too far from there either. There was also another music store (not Yarbrough's) right next to Skateland where I took violin lessons in the late 1970s.

Thanks for the info on Paramount, I know I saw some movies there years ago, but can't remember which ones. My father used to work at the Woolco in Eastgate, which I think is now Burlington coat factory.

-Alex

Welcome to the board.

I too was born at Baptist Hospital.  What was torn down this past week was the old one.  The big, 22 story, four-winger comes down this fall.  I will be in Memphis sometime before that to take pictures--it will leave quite a hole in the downtown-med center skyline.  Just hope UT's biotech park is something nice.

The theater at Eastgate was opened around 1964 and was called the Paramount Theater.  If I recall correctly its first film was The Sound of Music which I saw with my parents.  It was quite a place, the first in Memphis with rocking-chair style seating and a huge, huge screen.  I think the only other theater in Memphis that was also not in Midtown or Downtown at that time was the Plaza Theater.

That Shoney's was a big high school hangout back in the day.

I'm not sure about the other theater.  You're talking about the general area of what was called the Cloverleaf Shopping Center.  I lived off of White Station, a couple blocks north of Walnut Grove--midway between Eastgate and the Cloverleaf.  If the Cloverleaf had a theatre back in the 60's, I think I would have known about it.  I could be wrong.  I know that in the 70's--80's there was a theater a couple blocks west of there on Summer that was an art house.

Maybe you're confusing the name "Fun Land" with the roller rink that was right there called "Skate Land".

I remember going to the Plaza Theater in the 50's when I was growing up in the Buntyn neighborhood.  Also the old Crosstown and the Memphian in midtown (which is Playhouse on the Square now).  There was a theater on the Highland strip--the Normal I think it was called--that I could walk to.

I remember all the old downtown theaters--the Malco (Orpheum)--took a bus downtown with my friends to see the Beatles flick "Help" at Loews-State back in the mid-60's.  In those days, if you were 15 or so you could buy whiskey in downtown Memphis, drink it on the riverbluff, throw up, and take the bus back home. 

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