This video cassette was found in the rubble of a mostly demolished Rolling Acres Mall. The tape was supposedly sent to potential buyers to help showcase the many beautiful features of the mall.
I acquired this video in early 2017 but it wasn’t until September that I finally hooked up my VCR to watch it. I had no idea what was on the tape and upon watching I was absolutely flooded with emotion and memories of Rolling Acres Mall. I watched the video at least 5 times that night and dozens more in the weeks that followed, it just never really got old.
Here are a few of the highlights:
- Smooth Jazz by Pat Metheny
- The Janitor cleaning the fountain in the court of twelve trees
- The flickering storefront lights at the USPS store
- Escalators in motion
- The chandelier
- Picnic Place
- People shopping
This video is around 14 minutes long and it’s really worth watching the whole thing. It’s a full video walkthrough of an alive Rolling Acres Mall albeit long past it’s prime days.
Please let me know in the comments below what your favorite parts were.
This place has some seriously amazing Rolling Acres Mall logo shirts
I worked there between 92-94 at Record Town/Saturday
Matinee. The Mall was packed and vibrant. Seemed sw
iftly (Don’t want to sound like the “Get Off My Lawn ” guy.
As far as being mean and crotchety…. LARGE groups of
unruly kids started hanging out harassing people. A lot
of times they blocked Roming Road out front. There wer
e Constant fights several stabbings and shootings. We
would have to pull down the gates to the store and lock
them until the mayhem stopped. I was personally threat
ened on more then one occasion and seeing as a warnin
g a gun in one of the guys waste bands after catching a
person with him shoplifting. SO SAD. The new reason f
or malls being abandoned is Totally different than Rollin
g Acres situation. Online shopping and the one stop Gia
nts that offer it all killed the small ( we get browsing and
Revenue from other stores in this GIGANTIC LOCATION)
Joe,
I would LOVE to hear some of your stories man! Please hit me up with an email paul.m.a.smith@gmail.com…It was definitely pretty rough there at times, I was there during a riot in the late 80s, but I still loved the place. My mom used to just dump us off there to play games at Aladdin’s Castle or browse music at Recordtown which was far superior to Sam Goody in every way.
Thanks for taking the time to comment and hope to hear from you.
Paul
This is amazing.
Thanks for keeping the spirit alive.
Cory,
Your welcome! Thanks for taking the time to watch and comment! I have lots of Rolling Acres memorabilia so check back from time to time!
Thanks,
Paul
Wow, crazy something so big would go bust. RIP Rolling Acres. 1975-2009
I owned a dollar store in Rolling Acres. What a trash pile of humanity. Crime city.