Estes "Star Wars" Flying Model Rockets

With the success of "Star Wars" it was only natural that Estes would want to get in on the huge cash pie.  

Enter the Estes flying models in the "Star Wars" flavor.  

I'd long been a fan of model rocketry and the Estes catalogs held the same kind of fascination with me that the Dinky diecast toy catalogs held ... they were filled with things that as a child I thought were neat beyond belief but which I didn't seem to ever be a part of.  Estes catalogs featuring that impressive camo German V2 rocket and the "Star Trek" versions of the "USS Enterprise" and the "Klingon Battlecruiser" drew my child-like fascination.  

Oh, I saw a few model rocketry shows in my childhood but my attempts to build model rockets always met with failure.   I was much better with models of rockets rather than model rocketry and it remains that way even today.  While interesting, model rocketry just isn't a hobby that I think I would get very much enjoyment out of ... 

I digress.

In the late 1970's Estes produced several flying rocket models under the "Star Wars" license; the Proton Torpedo, the X-Wing Fighter, the TIE Fighter, and IIRC, a flying R2D2 rocket (yeah, where was that in the movie?).  I always wanted the X-Wing and the TIE Fighter because the X-Wing looked really cool (better than the MPC kit IMHO) and since MPC never made a model of the basic Imperial TIE Fighter I wanted the flying model rocket just to put together as a static, non-flying model.  Never did that, either, but it was a wish, a hope and a dream of mine back in that special time that was 1977 to 1979.


The Estes Proton Torpedo ruined me as a child and as a "Star Wars" fan because it looked so plausible ... then whoever it was that finally designed and drew the canon proton torpedo made it look like a snow cone sitting on top of a fire extinguisher and ... well, I like the simplicity of the Estes Proton Torpedo better.   I mean, what happens to the casing after the torpedo is fired?

Discussion for another time, I guess.  Given that, here's three 1978 period advertisements for the Estes products ... the X-Wing Fighter, the TIE Fighter and the Proton Torpedo.  I really, really wanted the X-wing and TIE simply because MPC didn't make a TIE Fighter model (not a regular TIE Fighter) and the X-wing looked better than the MPC model did (at least to me).

Advertisement - Warren's "Creepy" magazine, June 1978, showing more "Star Wars" merchandise.

New Star Wars products on Page 67!

Advertising from Warren's "Creepy" magazine, June 1978, showing more, new "Star Wars" merchandise including the first four plastic models by MPC, a cheapo Darth Vader costume, an Estes flying model rocket of Luke Skywalker's "Proton Torpedo" and the first three movie related toy vehicles designed for the (then) new action figure line.

If you look close at the windshield of the Landspeeder you'll see the arm of the Luke Skywalker action figure.  The rest of the image of the toy was cut off and manipulated.  I had all of the MPC model kits except Darth Vader's TIE fighter ... not sure why I never had that but I just never did.  Likewise for the Vader costume and the Estes rocket because neat as it was I really wasn't into model rocketry when I was young.  

My first action figure vehicle was the X-wing fighter which I received for my birthday in June of '78.  I was 9 years old.  Later that Summer I got the TIE fighter while on vacation visiting my uncle and aunt in Chattanooga, TN.  The Landspeeder was the hardest vehicle to find and I didn't get it until the late Fall of 1978 when I found it at a local Western Auto store, of all places ... it was the only one they had and, as far as I know, the only one they ever got in.

As for the MPC plastic models, the X-Wing Fighter was a real step-bitch to put together, ditto for the R2D2 model with its opening panels and extending leg.  The C3PO model went together fairly easily.  None of the models survived into my early teenage years ... thankfully MPC later not only reintroduced these models but added a whole lot more to the lineup.

Kenner "Star Wars" Laser Pistol and Laser Rifle Toys

(reproduced from my Angst and Speed blog)

There came a time in my childhood when two of the most awesome guns were made available by Kenner; the Star Wars (Han Solo) Laser Pistol and the Star Wars 3 Position Laser Rifle.  This gave the "good guys" a gun to use and the "bad guys" a gun to use as well.  For Christmas of 1978 I received the Star Wars 3 Position Laser Rifle while my friend three houses down got the Star Wars Laser Pistol.  After that, the hours were spent running around the neighborhood draining pairs of C and D sized batteries to our hearts' content and our parents' dismay (disposable batteries were kind of expensive during the Jimmy Carter era).

The weapons were somewhat faithful reproductions of their on screen counterparts but the sounds that these toys produced were nowhere near what the sounds in the movie were.  In fact, both toy guns were activated by a two stage trigger system ... a small nipple type button in the hand grip activated something inside the gun so that when the trigger was pulled the toy gun made a noise reminiscent of either a buzzsaw at a lumber mill or a hamster being put in a blender.  We both found that even at the age of 8 years old we could make more accurate Star Wars blaster sounds using our mouths than Kenner could using electronics and back then electronics was the big thing in toys ... an electronic toy was cutting edge and these toy guns weren't the cheapest toys on the market.  They weren't the most expensive, but they weren't the cheapest either.

Pictured above ... Han Solo's German Mauser based heavy blaster pistol.  The trigger always felt like it would break off if you pulled it too hard.  You unscrewed the two twist knobs on the side and inserted two "C" sized batteries in the toy.  The batteries had amazingly short lives, IIRC.  Oh, yeah, both weapons had "secret buttons" which really weren't that secret in hindsight.

I think one of the things that endeared me most to the weapons of Star Wars was the fact that all of the weapons were built out of real world counterparts ... familiar counterparts ... mostly taken from World War II which fit right in with my pre-Star Wars love affair of all things World War I and World War II.  Years of being weaned on "Sgt. Rock" and "The Unknown Soldier" and "The Losers" and other combat comics and of playing with Marx "green army men" had made me more than aware of the many, many weapons used in the major wars.  As such, it was easy to see where Han Solo's blaster was made out of a early 20th century German Mauser (one of my favorite pistols of all time).  The standard Stormtrooper weapons included the standard issue blaster rifle (created from a Sterling 9mm submachinegun) and two heavy blasters created out of a German MG34 machinegun and a British Lewis machinegun.  Scopes and doo-dads were added liberally to these classic weapons but their cores, their guts, were unmistakeable which I guess made them all the more believable when they were being used because I had seen so many combat movies where the cores of those fantastic weapons had been used.

The 3 Position Laser Rifle was probably the neater (and more expensive) of the two blaster offerings but it was also the more prone to break.  Loading batteries into this toy weapon required that you twist / pop the rear loop off at the rear of the weapon, take a cover off and insert two "D" sized batteries (batteries not included).  When you pulled the secret nipple trigger below the trigger guard and then pulled the trigger the 3 Position Laser Rifle did something that the Laser Pistol did not ... it spun a yellow with black stripes "barber pole" inside the barrel ... and made a sound reminiscent of a failing starter on a AMC Pacer.

The rear loop, for whatever reason it was included, was both prone to breaking through hard play and even more prone to simply fall off and disappear.  I'm not sure why the rear loop was part of the design as it wouldn't hold the rifle on anything like a belt loop or a shoulder srap.  The rear loop wasn't required for the laser rifle to work but it was something that when it went missing you felt like your toy was incomplete.  The trigger was also way more substantial than the trigger found on the laser pistol.

What really set the Laser Rifle apart from the Laser Pistol was the three position folding stock hence the name of the weapon being 3 Position Laser Rifle.  The stock was affixed to the weapon at two swivel points located at the back and to each side of the hand grip.  On the front, a simple clip "snapped" the folding stock in tight against the barrel.  This clip also did not survive strenuous childhood rough housing and when it broke it would leave you with a folding stock that simply had to either be deployed full or held tight against the barrel.

The three positions, seen above on the box, were folded (standard), shoulder pad down up front (guard) and fully extended (turning the rifle into a real rifle).  While we never saw any of the three positions of the stock being used in the movie that didn't stop us from taking it as canon and running with it.

Although my original 3 Position Laser Rifle never made it with me out of childhood I was lucky enough to find a replacement on Ebay a few years ago.  The toy did include the rare (and often lost) rear D-ring type clip but the front clip for the stock was broken.  The toy blaster did not work even with new batteries and a quick inspection of the screws used to secure the casing showed that the tiny screws were heavily rusted and corroded.  If I go into this toy to see if I can fix it, it's going to require new screws as I have doubts if the heads of the current screws may even make it through a very careful disassembly.  I also plan on using a simple pair of magnets under the barrel to "grab" the stock and secure it in the folded position.

I said that I never owned the Laser Pistol ... now I do, from the same Ebay seller and in similar condition (though this toy still had some obscure, cheap-ass "C" size batteries in it that were rusting to pieces).  Other than the non-functioning electronics and the broken stock retaining clip on the laser rifle, both toy weapons seem quite well preserved for 36 year old artifacts from my childhood.  Both are dusty as hell and will require hours of careful cleaning to be fully presentable but the plastic is still non-discolored and uncracked.

I think I'll mount them on pegs on the wall of my study where, like my other iconic toys from the 1970's, I'm sure they'll incite conversation from those who remember these toys.  As I hold these toy weapons in my hands, I'm taken back to cold winter days where imagination ran free and so did we through the yards of our neighbors yelling and laughing and not having a care in the world other than how much fun we could have.

Advertisement - First Marvel "Star Wars" Comics Action Figure Ad - Issue #14, August 1978

Here is the first in-issue advertisement for Star Wars action figures from Issue #14, August 1978.  Note the price of a Marvel comic book back then ... 35 cents!

The color is good but wrong, also note the price ... $2.79 each plus fifty cents shipping and fondling.  The original three vehicles (Landspeeder, X-Wing fighter and TIE fighter).  Again, just the first nine figures.  Missing in action are the three rarer figures; the Sand People, the Death Squad Commander and the Jawa.  

I've said before that, at least for me, the Sand People, Death Squad Commander and Jawa were the hardest figures to find.  Maybe I wasn't the only one that this happened to.  All told, it took me nearly a year after the Early Bird Kit to finish out my original twelve back figure collection.

Advertisement - first Star Wars merchandise listing - Warren Publishing - "Creepy" and "Eerie" Magazine - October 1977

Growing up in the 1970's, Warren Publishing's "Famous Monsters" was big among kids my age but for me it was Warren's other horror offerings, "CREEPY" and "EERIE" magazines which were a mixture of fantasy, horror and science fiction.  Many famous artists contributed to these magazines, artists like Richard Corben, Pepe Moreno, and Frank Frazetta.

After "Star Wars" debuted in May of 1977, the story aspect of these two magazines began to be less horror and more science fiction.  Also, after "Star Wars" merchandise started to roll out the ad sections at the back of these magazines became clearing houses for all the good stuff.

Here is the first Star Wars merchandise advertisement in Warren Publishing's "Creepy" series magazine, Issue 92, and "Eerie" series magazine, Issue 87, both circa October 1977.  Figures and toys were still several months away but these early merchandising items were the first few snowflakes of the marketing and merchandise avalanche that was soon to follow.

Here we have the original four masks, a few films, the original double LP (vinyl) soundtrack, the novelization of the movie, a movie poster and four T-shirts.  The movies were available in two formats; black and white (with subtitles) for $9.95 or color with sound for $29.95 (which back then was quite a bit of money).

For what it is worth, in the Summer of 1978, the local Hattiesburg public library had a special showing of the color 8mm movie with sound.  They touted that they were showing "Star Wars" but it was only about 10 minutes long ... butchered for the Super 8 genre but hey, it was "Star Wars" ... again, and I loved sitting on that tile floor in the dark in the old public library and watching 10 minutes of pure magic.  

Advertisement - early Star Wars Action Figure ad - "Creepy" Magazine, May 1978

Back during the late 1970's we didn't have the Internet, toy companies didn't have websites and the only way to find out about new toys or cool stuff was this mass media object called a "magazine."  It was like a soft book, it had pages inside of it, most of them black and white.  There were sections for the editors to talk to you ("news") and sections for you to respond ("mail" or "feedback") which, I guess, was like an early type of message forum.  Nevertheless, way back in the 1970's the way that we, as kids, found out about new toys was often in the back of magazines like "Starlog", "Fantastic Films" and of course, Warren Publishing's "Creepy" and "Eerie" magazines which were a treasure trove of new toys.  I usually found out about new Star Wars toys first in "Creepy" and "Eerie" because those were two magazines that I read each month.  

I never bought the magazines, I just read them and that's because my mother would go grocery shopping at Jitney Jungle near Cloverleaf Mall and Jitney Jungle had a well stocked magazine section that had everything from romance novels to best sellers and of course, magazines.  While my mother shopped for groceries, I would sit on the lower magazine rack (it was angled slightly upward, like a pew at a church) and I would take each magazine and read it from cover to cover.  I was a quick reader but my mom usually took about 45 minutes to an hour to shop and compare prices, etc.  This gave me plenty of time to "catch up" from what I had read and learned from last month's issues.  

Among the magazines were such (then) contemporary favorites like "Cracked", "Mad", "Starlog", "Fangoria", "Fantastic Films", "Creepy", "Eerie" and later, "The Rook."  While the glossy sci-fi magazines had some sections at the back to advertise products and toys you could buy the Warren Publishing titles were like a set of horror, fantasy and science fiction stories stapled to a toy catalog.  Once the last story was told, page after page of toys, games, puzzles, models, novels, movies, posters, clothing ... just about anything and everything ... was listed for sale and since "Star Wars" merchandise had such a high demand (and a high profit margin), the "Star Wars" section soon grew from a single page to several pages during the late 1970's.  Sometimes full color spreads of "Star Wars" merchandise would grace the back cover or inside covers of these magazines, such was the attention that these items were demanding and getting.

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May 1978.  New "Star Wars" products!  See page 73.

"Star Wars" and its merchandise was so hot that magazines advertised the fact that you could purchase this stuff out of this magazine ... with the intent being that even if you didn't like the magazine you might just buy it so you could fill out the order form and purchase some of the "Star Wars" merchandise.  Selling "Star Wars" merchandise from a magazine, with the magazine offering itself as a conduit to this amazing swag and booty, was itself a selling point.  All just part of the magic of the era.

 

Already assembled!!!!   I don't ever remember any action figures that ever needed any assembly.  Very early ad from the back of Warren Publishing's "Creepy" magazine, Issue 97, May 1978 (a full year after "Star Wars" hit the theaters) advertising nine of the original twelve Kenner action figures.  Not shown is the "Death Squad Commander", "Sand People" and "Jawa" which would be (at least for me) the hardest three figures of the original twelve to find. 

This was the tip of the iceberg, the snowball that started rolling downhill from the top of the mountain and started the avalanche that covered everything below.  Soon every major cult magazine would be advertising "Star Wars" related merchandise in the hopes of getting their share of the giant cash pie that George Lucas had baked and served up hot and fresh. 

Ghosts of Hattiesburg: Theaters that once showed "Star Wars" and that are now gone but not forgotten ...

Every single theater, drive-in or cinema that I ever saw "Star Wars", its sequels or its prequels in, has been swallowed by the relentless march of time and is no more.  Just as Disney has purchased "Star Wars" from Lucas and is planning on rebooting the franchise so too will the new movies to come be played in theaters that the old movies never saw.  I thought some would find this interesting, those who like to see urban decay and "what ever became of ..." type pics.  Here are some pictures of how the movie houses of my youth are today ...

Cloverleaf Cinema Twin

The Cloverleaf Cinema Twin, where I first saw "Star Wars" in the fall of 1977, had died the slow death of a theater stuck in a mall that had long ago lost most of its businesses and in turn become a rented out office space and business lease facility.  Opened in 1972 as a first run theater by United Artists, the Cloverleaf Cinema Twin was later (crudely) converted to a triple screen by taking space for the third screen from the existing two screens (making the third screen in between the other two).  

By the late 90's, after losing business to the Turtle Creek 9 for years, the Cloverleaf Cinema Triplex gave one last go at it and became a discount movie house charging only a dollar a show.  The Triplex finally shut its doors and turned the projectors off for the last time in 2004 ... just a few years after having shown both the reworked "Special Editions" of "Star Wars" and "The Empire Strikes Back", both movies which, in their original format, had played on the same screens way back in 1977 and 1980.  What was interesting is that when the local radio and news announcers told us of the demise of the Cloverleaf Cinema Triplex invariably each and every one of them mentioned that it had been place where they had first seen "Star Wars" back in 1977.

Here is the entrance to the old Cloverleaf Cinema in the old Cloverleaf Mall.  You can see one of the stage door / emergency exits there to the right.  I couldn't get into the mall there to take a pic of the inside as it looked like most of that entrance had been remodeled and may now be an entrance to a business office complex.

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The Gulf States Hardy Court Cinema Twin

The Gulf States Hardy Court Cinema Twin in the Hardy Court shopping area on Hardy Street was where "Return of the Jedi" first appeared in 1983.  My friends and I piled into his mom's big Dodge passenger van and we all went to see it.  That was probably the largest group of kids I'd ever gone to see a movie with, there were six of us, if I remember correctly ... ages 12 to 15.   This is the theater where I also saw "Blade Runner", "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan", John Carpenter's "The Thing" and Toho's version of "Star Wars" that we all know and love as "Message from Space."  

In college, I had friends who worked at this theater.  Sometime in the late 1990's or early 2000's the theater closed its doors and is now a laser tag arena.  I've played laser tag there a few times with my children, it's kind of creepy and eerie to have a birthday party in the old projection room and be able to look out on the twin screen area knowing that in the past there were rows of seats down there and now there's just futuristic laser tag obstacles splashed with fluorescent paint to fluoresce under the batteries of black lights.

The sign has changed some over the years for Hardy Court but the ad marquee is the same one that used to advertise what movies were playing at the Hardy Court twin cinema oh so long ago.

Here's the entrance to the old Hardy Court Cinema Twin.  You can still see the exterior poster displays where movie posters were displayed showing what was (then) currently playing.

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Broadacres Cinema

The Broadacres Cinema, opened in 1975, was originally a twin screen facility.  Two more screens were added in 1980 and two more in the years to come giving it six screens and almost 1200 seats.  This is where I saw "Star Wars" when it returned in the summer of 1979 along with the first trailer / preview for the upcoming sequel "The Empire Strikes Back."  

Almost two decades later, this is where I would see the Special Edition of "The Return of the Jedi".  Owned by O'Neil Theaters, the Broadacres cinema closed its doors in 2006 when it could not compete with the newly opened "The Grand" (the cinema building is still there but it's slowly being turned into a storage facility).

Here's what the Broadacres Cinema looks today ... cracked pavement on the parking lot with grass and weeds growing through the cracks, buckled pavement and even some big car swallowing pot holes.  Work crews are converting this old cinema into ... something.  A sign said that it was going to be a storage facility but that didn't make a lot of sense.  I guess time will tell what it eventually becomes.

 

Here's another example of how badly this site has been allowed to deteriorate ... this is one of the parking lot lights, grown over now with weeds.  These lights haven't been lit in almost a decade now ...

Here's the back of the cinema, it was considerably grown over a year or so ago.  Some of those are exit doors from the cinema screens.  I guess they cleared up the landscape when they started to recondition the building.

This will give you some sense of how hard it is and was to get to the Broadacres Cinema.  that's the cinema lower left corner with the big parking lot.  It was way off the beaten path.  The big building a little to the right is the old Woolco department store.  In t his area there used to be a gas station, convenience store, Kroger grocery store, Woolco, Broadacres Cinema and a bank.  For a while in the 1970's this area was the main shopping area for residents who lived in North Forrest and the surrounding areas, even when south Hattiesburg seemed to grow in dominance for a while.

At one time it was thought that Hattiesburg would expand towards the north so this was prime real estate.  When Hattiesburg instead exploded to the west this area was left to wither and dry up.  The Woolco went out of business long ago (early 1980's) and is some kind of trucking company now.  The bank is now a Greyhound bus station, the Kroger was bulldozed to the ground long ago and is just a slab to those who remember what used to be there.  A bingo hall was built several years ago but some criminal activity there closed it down and nothing has been there.  They did build a Cracker Barrel restaurant near the old bank and that draws a lot of traffic off of the highway.


There are a lot of other areas here that are important to my teenage years and young adult years ... the Lost Road, the Inn on the Hill, the old Sharky's Shuck and Jive, Krystals, and the loading dock of the old Woolco building but those are all stories found on ... Tales From The Driver's Seat.

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The Beverly Drive-In Theater

The Beverly Drive-In theater, first opened in 1948, was long a historical land mark in this area.  It was at the Beverly where I saw the summer re-release of "Star Wars" in 1978.  I remember seeing James Bond's bid for "Star Wars" cash, "Moonraker" when it first came out.  The Beverly Drive-In theater had a sister drive-in a few miles away, the Broadway Drive-In theater.  It was there that I saw the Italian "Star Wars" known as "Star Crash."

The Beverly Drive-In was heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

In November of 2010, the Beverly Drive-In was completely destroyed in a fire. 

The Broadway Drive In theater was demolished long before the Beverly burned down.  The only way to see where the old Broadway Drive In used to be is to have been old enough to have gone there and still be able to go to that general area.  A look on Google Earth or Google Maps shows the rough outline of the drive in's parking lot.

The Beverly in less than prime condition but before it burned to the ground.  There was a goofy / miniature golf in front of the drive-in, there where the chainlink fence is.  The original owners built their house below the main screen and lived there.  I was lucky enough to talk to one of the owners and visit the interior of the house back in 1990 when I did a college project based on the Beverly.

Here is the Google maps view of the Beverly from a few years ago. 

Just for fun, here's an aerial view of where the old Broadway Drive-In theater used to be, it's the scraped raw spot there in the lower middle.  They've since built a business on it.

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Avanti Twin Cinema

The Avanti Twin Cinema was old when I moved to Hattiesburg in 1976.  Hard to get to, facing Hardy Street from a narrow sidewalk and with little or no parking I guess it was intended as a walk-to theater for the college crowd at the University of Southern Mississippi across the street.  "Jaws" played there first run in 1975 but I saw only one movie there as a child that I remember and that was Dino De Laurentis' "King Kong" (the then modern remake).  

Fast forward to 1992.  

I was lucky enough to see "Star Wars" one last time at the old (nay, by then ancient) Avanti twin screen theater across the road from the University of Southern Mississippi.  The theater had been taken over by the college and turned into a student organization run movie house that showed old movies like "Jaws" or "Apocalypse Now" for a meager fee to any active student with an ID.  It was my senior year in college and for one last showing, one showing only, the student body showed "Star Wars" the 1977 original film.  I rode my '84 Honda VF500F Interceptor up there to the 9:00 showing that night.  The theater was packed and I sat, once again, near the rear so that I could see the whole screen.  I mouthed the script silently, I cheered when others cheered.  I boo'ed when others boo'ed and at the end, when the credits rolled, I stood with the others and clapped.

While the theater was emptying, I sat back down and stayed through the credits.  I stayed past the squiggles on the screen until the screen went white and the projector shut off.  It was only then that I got up, walked down the aisle, exited from the side door and stood there where I'd parked my Honda.  I felt sad ... like I'd just said goodbye again, this time forever, to a good friend.  Fifteen years after it had first entered my life and my imagination, "Star Wars" was still a blockbuster movie and I had gotten to see it one last time, in an old theater, in the way that it was meant to be seen.

The Avanti lasted about a decade and a half after that but was used less and less frequently by the student body.  It was torn down in the name of progress to build an intersection and the demolition of that theater took place in June of 2006.

The Avanti Twin Cinema used to stand where those purple trees are now ... demolished in the name of progress. 

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United Artists Turtle Creek 9

The Turtle Creek 9 was a huge cinema plex, larger than anything that Hattiesburg had ever been part of before.  Opening in 1994 with the then brand new Turtle Creek Mall the Turtle Creek 9 was where I saw all three of the "Star Wars" prequels as they debuted in 1999, 2002 and 2005.  The Turtle Creek 9 was heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina in the early fall of 2005, repaired, briefly opened for a year or two and was then shut down for good in 2007.  Currently it is being used as a church.  Yes, a church, in a mall, and the concession stand still works.  

The showcase movie poster panels outside the theater, the panels that used to advertise the movies then currently playing now hold posters advertising for the church.  Turtle Creek Mall, the mall that killed Cloverleaf Mall and was its replacement is now on its last legs ... you can tell a mall is new when it has a toy store, a book store, a music store and an arcade.  You can tell the mall is dying when the arcade, book store and toy store are all just memories and have been replaced by such crowd rousers like the "As seen on TV" store and a premium mattress store. 

Here's the exits from two of the cinema screens.  I've come down that ramp there late at night on many occasions but sadly no longer ...

The main mall entrance leading to the Turtle Creek cinemaplex on the right.  That's another ex-theater exit door there on the right in the corner.

 

Here are the "Now Showing" movie poster advertisements outside the old theater ... now used for ads by the church to attract new visitors and members.

Not sure what the old ticket booth is used for now, if anything, but the marquee there above the church sign shows inspirational message scrolls.
 

Looking inside the locking flex-gate you can still see the massive concession stand lit.  The entrance to the cinema screens was at the top there, where the two green lights are, up a small flight of stairs and with screens to your left and right down hallways.

 

Here's the old theater in its entirety ... main entrance, ticket booth / office and the advertisement posters on the wall.  Hard to believe that this is now a non-denominational church ... in a mall.

 

Here's the original theater marquee as it stands today.  Dick's Sporting Goods is just behind me in another building that's seen its fair share of companies and owners over the years.

 

As luck would have it, I had an old photo of the UA Turtle Creek Cinema marquee back when it was the major theater for the area.  I took a picture mainly because someone incorrectly listed a movie as "Laser of Disguise" instead of "Master of Disguise."  I'm glad I remembered this picture as it shows you what the old marquee looked like before it became a church.

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