Dort Mall Cinema

Info Updates:

2/11/2008 - Bob Naismith

Norman Christenson was the manager in late 1976 and had only been there about month or two before he hired me as his assistant manager. Norman lasted another six months before quitting. This left me holding down the fort. This wouldn''t have been a problem except I already had a full-time job and another part-time job besides working many hours at the theater. They had me keep it going until they hired a new manager, Doug Lonsbury. Doug and I become good friends, even after I left a couple years later. He moved on to Chicagoland area to manager a huge multi-screen cinema later.

The Dort Mall Cinema was a great place. Movies were doing well at the then "Small Mall". When we had a big movie, we would have two big lines leading way out and around the corner deep into the mall area. It was a fun place to work.

As David mentioned above, both theaters were like bowling alleys and weren''t the best place to watch a movie in old movie house style, but the screens were bigger than most multi-cinemas of that day. Sound was excellent and the concession stand served the best of products. General Cinema did a good job operating the place. They had the Green Acres Cinema in Saginaw and us in Flint, along with several cinemas in the Detroit area at the time.

8/7/2003 - David Kingham

I was the manager of the Dort Mall Cinema in 1976. As I recall the capacity was about 425 + 425 after it had been split. The splitting ruined the place - it was badly proportioned - long, narrow and tall. The bingo hall mentioned in a previous message was put in part of the former Zodys store. It was when they were trying to revive the property, re-naming it "The Small Mall". The remodeling saw the theatres marquee removed from the front of the mall, split in half, and put up on a post out by the road.

HomeMovie TheatersDort Mall Cinema