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While disruptive children are often portrayed as a modern hassle of movie going, this problematic issue has likely been around as long as parents have been taking children to the movies. These days, the problem is generally taken for granted or occasionally addressed through alternative admissions programs (21 and over only, “mommy Mondays”, etc.). However, there was once a rather simplistic answer to this […]

Demonstrating how swiftly the tides of notoriety shift with cinemas, we have Cinema Viejo. Opened in 1970, as the area’s fist movie theatre and one of the only modern cinemas south of Newport Beach, Cinema Viejo was, for a time, a heavily cited selling point in literature for the, then new, community of Mission Viejo. .   Twinned and renamed the […]

Pictured below is a 1951 photo of Buena Park’s Valuskis Theatre (once known as the Grand); a venue with a sorted history that included one of the darkest moments in Orange County cinema. .   On May 19, 1951, a ten year old girl, Patty Jean Hull, was abducted from the theatre and murdered by a convicted sex […]

Following up on the Brookhurst post the other day, I thought it might be worthwhile to take a closer look at the Brookhurst Loge.   Opened on February 18, 1970, with a screening of “Oliver!”, the Loge was intended as a luxury, “adults only”, option for patrons of the Brookhurst Theatre. The theatre featured a small, level auditorium (i.e. […]

Conventional theatre lore has generally hailed Santa Ana’s Temple theatre as the first cinema in Orange County, having opened in 1909. However, I recently stumbled across a picture that suggests the first movie theater in Orange County was possibly opened a few years earlier and at a different site all together. The Santa Ana Theatre (alternatively billed as […]

Opened on April 5, 1961, Anaheim’s Brookhurst Theatre was the first Orange County cinema to feature 70mm films and was one of the county’s finer movie going destinations, well in to the 1970’s. At the time of the theatre’s opening, the design was termed “ultra modern” and the amenities were considered a step above other county movie going options. As a result, the […]

With the arrival of a new year, it’s time to look back on the year that was in Orange County cinema:  . . New Arrival   The Movie Experience at the Anaheim Garden Walk/Cinema Fusion – Veteran Southern California chain, Sanborn/SoCal/The Movie Experience, returned to the Orange County market with an equally branding challenged cinema, across from […]

We here at Cinelog wish you all a happy new year. May you have fond memories of the year that was and make some wondeful new ones in the year to come. Pictured above is a view of the South Coast Plaza Theatre’s auditorium (circa 1969). The former Fox West Coast venue was later twined by Mann Theatres […]