Deaths of Dallas Malls Reflect Suburban Sprawl and Social Isolation
Recently, I saw a post about a photographer who traveled the
country – specifically, the “rust belt,” in order to capture images of derelict
shopping malls. I could not find the original article, but another that
contains similar photographs can be found here: https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/completely-surreal-pictures-of-americas-abandoned-malls?utm_term=.stBvqP3dRD#.yoeQm0lxMn
The haunting images stayed with me not just because of the
macabre nature of abandoned places but also because of what malls once meant.
They were more than mere concentrated areas in which to spend money, although
in the 1980s, the focus on shopping and materialism was fairly intense. They
were also places to socialize. We met our friends at the mall, made new friends
at the mall, people-watched at the mall, had deep conversations at the mall,
and through all of this, we learned about ourselves at the mall.
Let’s look at some movies from the 1980s-1990s set at least
partially at a shopping mall to gauge its social importance. These are just a
few I could easily recall; I didn’t even touch on Valley Girl or many other films that also feature settings in a
mall:
- Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Phoebe Cates starred in the 1982 cult classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083929/?ref_=nv_sr_1) in which we see another side of the importance of malls in teen life: for many teenagers, the mall represented the first foray into the workforce. They worked in arcades, food courts, shops, and movie theaters. The teens in this film dreamed of moving on to bigger and better things, but for now, Orange Julius matched their level of experience.
- In Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1985) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096928/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) we witness how Beethoven, Genghis Khan, Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon, Jesse James and Joan of Arc react to the Modern era through encounters at the mall. Genghis Khan finds new armor and weapons in a sporting goods store while Joan of Arc takes over an aerobic workout session, Beethoven plays the keyboards in a music store, and Napoleon falls in love with ice cream. Malls truly had something for everyone – even time-traveling celebrities.
- Also in 1985, audiences watched as Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) met Doc Brown at the Twin Pines Mall (later the Lone Pine mall) to witness the beginnings of time travel in the special DeLorean equipped with the flux capacitor in Back to the Future. Doc reflects nostalgically on a time when the mall area was open farmland. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088763/?ref_=nv_sr_1
- In the 1987 teen hit Can’t Buy Me Love (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092718/) Patrick Dempsey’s pre-McDreamy-era nerdy character visits the mall to buy a telescope. He has been mowing lawns and saving money for quite some time, but when he sees a popular cheerleader in distress in a nearby clothing store, he concocts a plan to trade her that money for dates and, by extension, popularity. The mall brings two teens who would never speak in a school setting together.
- The 1991 film Scenes from a Mall follows Bette Midler and Woody Allen through the mall as they celebrate their 16th wedding anniversary and look for the perfect gifts for each other. However, one revelation after another about feelings, infidelities, and resentments threaten to make this their last anniversary. Sure, it’s dramatic. It was written by Woody Allen, but deep conversations did often happen at the mall. Though malls represent the most public of places, there was a certain amount of anonymity as well as each person blended in to the sea of shoppers. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102849/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
- Mallrats (1995) – written and directed by Kevin Smith, features teens who seek refuge at the mall. Ultimately, a lot of social commentary lurks behind the teen angst, and the mall provides the setting in which characters played by Shannen Doherty and Ben Affleck attempt to work through their melodrama. There’s plenty of humor there, too, and even a cameo by Stan Lee. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113749/
Some malls continue to thrive: the Dallas Galleria and Frisco’s Stonebriar
Mall remain busy. However, even busy malls don’t have the same feel as they
used to. People walk around with cell phones out, less likely to strike up
conversations with strangers. The ice rink at the Galleria has shrunk (I’ll
never understand the logic behind making it smaller), and several of the low- to
mid-priced restaurants like Bennigan’s are gone in favor of higher priced
cuisine. Fun, affordable shops like the Bonsai store and a discount bookstore have
been replaced by yet more trendy clothing stores that look exactly like all the
others and feature items that only the Dallas elite and the visiting wealthy
can afford. Those in on the secret used to be able to access a track running
around the perimeter of the mall’s glass tile roof by taking the Westin’s
elevator to the 4th floor, but that access no longer exists for mall-goers
in the know. People still shop in packs, but they don’t interact with each
other the same way, and that’s just a sign of our time. Why watch people and
talk to people when you can view the world via a tiny screen? Stonebriar is
relatively new and therefore unchanged. Its target clientele are suburbanites
with vast resources of disposable income, and the mall is doing just fine.
Meanwhile, malls like Golden
Triangle and Vista Ridge are
dying. More and more vacant storefronts, fewer people in the malls, and even
fewer with bags in their hands mark the beginning of the end. It seems like
yesterday that Vista Ridge was the jewel of the Lewisville area with its blue
lights and surrounding fields from which Independence Day fireworks were once
set off. Now, my students laugh about its imminent demise. Even those who work
there.
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| Prestonwood Mall Clock |
My husband and I share some regret that we didn’t visit Prestonwood Mall before its
destruction, one last time, to reminisce and take pictures. Neither of us have
pictures of that mall in which we spent so many hours, both before and after we
met, because few of us carried around cameras back then. We lived in the moment rather than focusing
on chronicling the appearance of the
moment. Plus, film and its development were too expensive for most teens. With
no cell phones to coordinate meeting, plans were made ahead of time. At
Prestonwood, I often met friends under the giant clock, in the food court, or
at the arcade. The clock featured giant chimes that rang out each hour and
provided the perfect means by which to tell if friends were running late. The
food court provided a prime vantage point from which to look down on the ice rink,
and it was the first place that my cousin Katie and I ice-skated. I bought my
first music tape with my own money at that mall on the last day of 8th
grade. I learned to give out a fake phone number at the arcade, Tilt, when boys
harassed me, and since they couldn’t check the number right away, that delay
tactic worked to keep them at bay long enough for me to run out of lives on Ms.
Pac Man. I grew up a lot at that mall. On one of my first dates with my
boyfriend who later became my husband, his car
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| Prestonwood Mall |
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| Valley View Mall Entrance, 2016 |
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| Empty Fountain, 2016 |
Not wanting to make the same mistake as we did with
Prestonwood and miss out on seeing the mall one more time, my husband and I recently
headed to Valley View Mall. The
deterioration of the parking lot and general infrastructure provided a preview
for what we would find inside, but I still wasn’t mentally prepared to see the
spaces I once knew and loved vacant, crumbling, and lifeless. Some storefronts
are currently rented out as art galleries, but the only real traffic was for
the AMC theater now located on a section of 3rd floor that didn’t
even exist when I frequented the mall. The fountain in which I threw many
pennies, wishing for true love, is now empty. I wonder where the pennies and wishes went. Though my wish for love came true, I’m still awaiting the riches I sought. I ran up the down escalator for
old time’s sake (after taking about 3 minutes to work up the courage – at 12,
the possibility of falling never occurred to me; at 42, falling seems a very
real prospect). It was a good thing, for it doesn’t show well in this photo, but
the up escalator featured some broken steps. In the bottom right corner of the
photo, you can just see part of one of the step plates stuck in the grate. The
ceiling is marred by water damage, the long, empty corridors smell musty, and
the food court – once the heart of the mall – is almost empty.
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| Few Escalators Function in 2016 |
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| Water-damaged Ceiling, 2016 |
Most of the
tables and chairs are gone. At its peak, so many stores were full that
temporary rooms sprung up throughout the mall to house jewelry stores and
knick-knacks. Now, only the bleak facades of stores remain, and I struggled to
place some of the shops that had once seemed so fascinating. The pet store
where I bought my snake, Adriel, the Spencer’s Gifts that both horrified and
intrigued me as a middle-schooler due to its “novelty” section, and the cigar shop
where my husband and I purchased several Pocket Dragons through layaway to have
signed by Real Musgrave himself only exist in our memories.
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| Valley View Mall in Better Days, 1978 |
There are big plans
for the future of Valley View as a pedestrian-friendly condo-complex with shops
and restaurants. Some interesting details about the further development to what
was once Valley View can be found here:
or
Are the mall-deaths a tragedy? No, I guess not. Change is
inevitable. Super-malls like the Galleria and Stonebriar have moved a lot of
the shopping away from the smaller malls of the 1960s-90s. Online shopping has claimed
a percentage of sales, as did the recession that still affects the middle and
lower classes. I guess what I long for, besides the nostalgia of youth, is a communal
place where the young and old came together and interacted without the obvious
signs of technological divide. I miss watching people do something other than
stare at their cell phones. I miss the mall as the heart of a community. Now,
even in a mall full of people, that sense of community just isn’t there.
I’d love to know what you think. What changes have you
noticed in the way we interact at the mall? Do you have any old photos of mall
life? What mall memories do you have? I invite you to comment below.
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