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Attraction boards fill the space above the lobby windows.  Exit doors are on the left, with the ticket booth and entrance on the right. - , Utah
Grant Smith, 24 December 2011
Showstar Cinemas 6
(Mann 6, Plaza 5400, Showcase Cinemas 6)

5400 South Redwood Road
Taylorsville, Utah 84123

(1980 - 2016)

The Mann 6 Theatres opened on 2 October 1980 with an invitation-only gala attended by Ted Mann and his wife, Miss Rhonda Fleming.  Mr. Mann owned nearly 300 showhouses in the nation, with extensive theater holdings in Utah, Idaho, and Montana.  Miss Fleming was a Utah native and “star of motion pictures, stage and television.”  The theater, the first six-plex in Utah, was part of the Plaza Shopping Center and opened to the public on Friday, 3 October 1980, with showings of Coast to Coast, Lady and the Tramp, Airplane, and “That Special Movie” Book II (the Deseret News would not publish the actual title of the film, but it starred George Burns as the title character.)[1][2]

Carmike Cinemas closed the Plaza 5400 after final showings on 24 August 2000, as part of the theater chain’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  Carmike overextended itself financing new state-of-the-art theaters with digital sound and stadium seating.  The Plaza 5400, City Square 4, Riverdale 4, Creekside 3, and Central Square 4 “had not met expectations, and it was in the best interest of the company to close those theater.”  The leased buildings were returned to their landlords. Prior to its closing, the Plaza 5400 played first-run films at discount prices.[3]

Consolidated Theaters re-opened the theater as a dollar house on 13 April 2001, renaming it Showcase Cinemas 6 and "promising added attention to service and lower-than-normal concession prices."[4]

Showcase Cinemas 6 was operated by Red Carpet Cinemas in 2003 and CinemaStar Theatres in 2005.  By 2009, no chain name appeared in its advertisements.[2]  In October 2011, the name of the theater changed to Showstar 6. On 9 September 2016, Showstar Cinemas posted a final message on its Facebook page:

“SHOWSTAR CINEMAS 6 THANKS YOU FOR YOUR PATRONAGE OVER THE LAST 16 YEARS!

“The theatre has permanently closed as of Sept 5th.  We are auctioning everything in the building on September 15th at 10am, and auction previews will be held on September 13th and 14th from 10am to 4pm.  Everything must go. Thousands of Movie Posters, 1200 theatre seats, available singly or in groups are ideal for churches, meeting rooms or your entertainment room, patio, etc.”[5]

Sean P. Means, movie critic for the Salt Lake Tribune, toured the closed theater during the auction preview and described the theater and its demise as follows:

“Nobody would confuse the ShowStar Cinemas 6 with the movie palaces of Hollywood's golden age.  The ShowStar is a flat building in a strip mall just off Redwood Road. The glass front, with large lighted boxes holding posters, runs parallel to a long concessions counter. At the end of that counter, one takes a right turn into a dark-red hallway, lit with six red LED readerboards, each marking the door to one of the building's auditoriums . . .  The auditoriums were pleasant enough, with gently ramped aisles and a gradual slope . . .  The seats had plastic molded backs with a not-thick-enough layer of fabric-covered foam . . .  

“Looking out the lobby windows . . . one can't see the main reason the ShowStar Cinemas 6 is doomed. About a block away, across 5400 South, a new multiplex is being built — the first location in Utah for Regal Entertainment Group . . .  The new Regal Cinemas will be big and shiny, a place where kids going to their first movies will make lifelong memories.  Just remember, though, that there were some suburban Utah kids who had their first movie experience in that flat box in the strip mall. For those kids, the ShowStar — or Mann 6 or Plaza 5400 or Showcase — will always be their movie house.”[6]

1. "Six-plex theater to open Thursday", Deseret News, 1 October 1980, page B13
2. "Advertisements", Showstar Cinemas 6 (Taylorsville)
3. "Carmike closes 5 theaters", Deseret News, 24 August 2000, page E1
4. "Movie house merry-go-round", Deseret News, 20 April 2001, page W01
5. "Showstar Cinemas 6", facebook.com, retrieved 1 January 2018
6. "In a closed movie house, seeing where memories once were made", Salt Lake Tribune, 15 September 2016