Stan Durwood; Multiplex Theater Pioneer
Stan Durwood, a movie theater entrepreneur credited with inventing the multiplex theaters that now dot nearly every suburban mall, has died. He was 78.
Durwood, chief executive of AMC Entertainment Inc., died Wednesday night at his Kansas City, Mo., home after a long battle with esophageal cancer, the company said Thursday.
Kansas City-based AMC has grown into one of the nation’s largest-grossing theater chains, operating 218 theaters with 2,729 screens in 23 states and the District of Columbia as well as in Hong Kong, Japan, Portugal, Spain and Canada.
“Our goal,” Durwood told the Associated Press in a 1996 interview, “is to say to the consumer, ‘We love ya. We really appreciate your business. We want to make your stay pleasant and fun.’ ”
The title of father of the multiplex is also claimed by James Edwards Sr., founder of the Southern California-based Edwards Theatres, who says he created the first movie multiplex in 1939 when he gutted a grocery store next to his theater in Alhambra and put up a second screen.
But Durwood, whose father and uncle began the business with a few theaters in Kansas City, said he stumbled onto the multiplex idea when he tried to open a theater in what is now a Kansas City mall.
The developer said the building’s support columns would not allow a large theater. So Durwood came up with the idea of building two small theaters next to each other. They opened in 1963.
It was clear he didn’t quite have the multiplex figured out yet: Both screens played the same movie, “The Great Escape,” starring Steve McQueen and James Garner. But the idea was born, and according to AMC, Durwood coined the multiplex name at that time, too.
Durwood’s company first built a four-plex in 1966. In 1969 came a six-plex. A few years ago, AMC opened the world’s first megaplex, a 30-screen, 5,700-seat complex in Ontario, Calif. The newer complexes emphasize amenities such as stadium-style seating, large seats with cup holders, and deluxe sound systems.
“I can tell you that Stan is an exhibition mogul no different than in the times of Jack Warner,” Tom Sherak, distribution head for 20th Century Fox, once said.
Durwood’s father, Edward Dubinsky, and an uncle, Maurice Dubinsky, crisscrossed the Midwest near the turn of the century, performing melodramas in tent shows.
They finally settled in Kansas City and opened about a dozen movie houses. The family later changed its name to Durwood. Stan Durwood joined the family business after returning from military service in 1945.
After his father’s death in 1960, Durwood steered the growth of the company to become today’s AMC Entertainment. In 1996 he was named showman of the year by the National Assn. of Theater Owners.
Durwood also was the leading backer of a big redevelopment project approved by voters in his hometown last year. The Power & Light District, named for the historic Art Deco power company building in the area, would encompass about 12 blocks and feature a 30-screen AMC theater, restaurants, live theater venues, shops, hotels, apartments, offices and parking.
