How do you remember Phoenix? Stories from long time residents... (Chandler: woodpecker, director)

[Arizona Mike]

I think the towers are still there. I don't remember the Globe department store being in Tower Plaza but that's probably just a faulty memory on my part.

I remember enjoying Jack in the Box a lot as a kid - there was one right off the beach in La Jolla where we would go after a day of body surfing on our zonie vacations as a kid, staying at the Surfer Motor Lodge (still there) on the beach. I don't think any meal has ever tasted as good as sitting on a curb in the Jack in the Box parking lot next to the beach, all wet and covered with sand, watching the sun set over the Pacific. Complete satisfaction.

[jukebox47]

Arizona Mike - Thanks for all the info! It is fun looking and reading it all!

My wife still has a light-up mirror with a magnifier lens from Globe. I bought it before we were married so prior to 1968. It was a good mall in its day.

[slowesthand]

when the Globe stores closed some of them were taken over by Fed Mart, including the Tower Plaza store.

I remember when Fed Mart was closing ,every week there was more discounting. The shelves were pretty bare, but in the last week of there "going out of business sale" I was able to get some photography equipment, which I still have today.

[observer53]

Originally Posted by hotashell

btw does anyone know why there wasn't anything done to save christown mall or the theater in front of it?

I don't know what "theater in front of it" you are referring to. The theatres that were part of the mall were on the south side, which would be the back. The Bethany Theatre was northwest of the mall, on the other side of 19th Ave and the other side of Bethany Home.

Part of the indoor mall is still there, but the shopping area is dominated by the big box stores at each end which are not connected to the mall. It was "saved" more than Thomas Mall or, for that matter, Park Central, which has very little shopping at all any more.

[ELOrocks17]

Didnt they totally demolish Valley West mall on 59th & Northern before rebuilding it into a strip mall with Walmart and Lowes?

[hotashell]

Originally Posted by observer53

I don't know what "theater in front of it" you are referring to. The theatres that were part of the mall were on the south side, which would be the back. The Bethany Theatre was northwest of the mall, on the other side of 19th Ave and the other side of Bethany Home.

Part of the indoor mall is still there, but the shopping area is dominated by the big box stores at each end which are not connected to the mall. It was "saved" more than Thomas Mall or, for that matter, Park Central, which has very little shopping at all any more.

sorry, the former harkins theater with the giant auditorium, faced 19th ave. just wondering why there were no petitions for that one.

[Arizona Mike]

Originally Posted by observer53

I don't know what "theater in front of it" you are referring to. The theatres that were part of the mall were on the south side, which would be the back. The Bethany Theatre was northwest of the mall, on the other side of 19th Ave and the other side of Bethany Home.

Part of the indoor mall is still there, but the shopping area is dominated by the big box stores at each end which are not connected to the mall. It was "saved" more than Thomas Mall or, for that matter, Park Central, which has very little shopping at all any more.

I think there was an interior theater (United Artists Cinema 6) whose box office was in the interior mall and that you entered using an escalator from inside the mall, and a Chris-Town Theater 11 that was separated from the mall proper, still within the mall's parking lot but on the west side of the lot and facing out on 19th Avenue - this was the older theater that used to host the Wallace and Ladmo shows.

The Bethany Theater was different (but I don't have a photo of it) - I remember The Exorcist playing there as a first run movie for a l-o-o-ng time.

UA Cinema 6




The Chris-Town Theater, later the Chris-Town 11 - seen from the outside in the thumbnails.


There's supposed to be some big plan to renovate and "repurpose" Park Central Mall (yet again) as a "multiuse" center, but I don't know what that will entail.

[cjs123]

Neat photos and info, Mike.

I didn't move to AZ till April 1990, but I've seen my share of changes over the past 25 years (I posted some of them in this thread back in October 2009). When you mentioned listening booths, I was reminded of a Wherehouse store in Tempe around 2002; I could give them my driver's license and listen to a full CD.

[jukebox47]

Originally Posted by observer53

I don't know what "theater in front of it" you are referring to. The theatres that were part of the mall were on the south side, which would be the back. The Bethany Theatre was northwest of the mall, on the other side of 19th Ave and the other side of Bethany Home.

Part of the indoor mall is still there, but the shopping area is dominated by the big box stores at each end which are not connected to the mall. It was "saved" more than Thomas Mall or, for that matter, Park Central, which has very little shopping at all any more.

My memory is clouded but I believe we stood in a long line to see the movie "Earthquake" at the Bethany. The sound system had incredibly loud and powerful amplification & speakers. It seems like, sometime during that movie's run, a crack appeared in the structure's ceiling and was of some concern. I wonder where all of that sound equipment ended up? For some reason I keep thinking the theatre closed partly due to structural problems (probably not from the movie) but never reopened as planned. Perhaps someone remembers? I believe they also played "Gone With The Wind" there for an extended run.

[hotashell]

anyways, it sucks they tore down so much of christown mall, and those movie theaters.