This past weekend marked anniversaries for both the beginning and closing chapters to one of the more storied periods in Orange County movie going. On March 13, 1968, Fox West Coast/National General opened the South Coast Plaza Theatre, marking the theoretical start to Costa Mesa’s “golden era” of movie going. Forty years later, the same week saw the demolition of the South Coast Plaza cinema complex.
Prior to the late 60’s, Orange County had been relegated to somewhat of a B market, for film distribution. While the Santa Ana area had once been host to first run bookings and even a few movie premieres, the county cinema scene had slipped dramatically by the dawn of the second world war. Known more for agriculture and bedroom communities, than a thriving entertainment scene, studios had begun to view the county as a secondary film market, that was far less sophisticated than it’s northern neighbor. While Orange County would receive all the latest titles, booking would come after runs in the “big city” markets.
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The early breakthrough in Orange County’s re emergence, as a moving going powerhouse, came when James Edwards sought to take advantage of the county’s ever growing, yet under served, movie audience. Edwards, who had previously operated a theatre chain in Los Angeles, opened his first Orange County theatre on the corner of Adams and Harbor, in 1963; the modern,1,000 seat, Costa Mesa Cinema. Recognizing the potential of more lucrative bookings, Edwards initiated a practice of guaranteeing box office receipts, in order to secure early film releases. The approach proved to be an immediate success and the groundwork for a rejuvenated county cinema scene was in place.
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Following on the heels of the Costa Mesa Cinema’s early success, a host of larger operators began to eye the Costa Mesa area and Edwards began expansion plans of his own. This cinema boom officially getting under way with the opening of the South Coast Plaza Theatre. Within a few years, a second theatre was added to the South Coast Plaza, Edwards opened an additional cinema in Costa Mesa, and a string of venues appeared along the Costa Mesa/Santa Ana border. In turn, the entire county began to see an influx of theatres, overseen by the “Westwood of Orange County”, Costa Mesa.
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By the mid 1970’s, studios began to consider Costa Mesa the “Westwood of Orange County”, in reference to the area’s collection of highly popular theatres and demographically desirable movie going audience. No longer viewed as an unsophisticated after market, the former open fields of Costa Mesa had given way to a burgeoning movie going hub. Be it a “sure bet” blockbuster or “want to be” contender, the area was coveted as a place films simply had to play. And, amid the numerous theatres that dotted the area, the South Coast Plaza stood as the high profile centerpiece; the venue’s tower signage acting as a proverbial movie going beacon. While the county box office crown would rotate between various theatres over the ensuing twenty years, the South Coast Plaza, and it’s landmark tower, remained the symbolic capitol for cinema throughout the era.
The era finally drew to a close by the early 1990’s. While still a popular movie going destination, Costa Mesa had fallen victim to Orange County’s success on a larger scale. Having seen multiplexes spring up throughout the county, Costa Mesa’s aging cinemas no longer had the drawing power of years past. The county had become a movie going hub, as a whole, and Costa Mesa just another city within this cinema hot bed. Over the decade, each of the “Westwood era” cinemas began to slip in to irrelevance and close; the South Coast Plaza shutting down by the new millennium, to make way for the near bye Edwards Metro Pointe 12.
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After sitting vacant for nearly a decade, the centerpiece of this era was torn down in March of 2008. Sadly, as the bulldozers and demo crews hacked away at the South Coast Plaza theatre complex, few even noted the passing. The “Westwood era” was long forgotten and the South Coast Plaza Theatre was little more than an unwelcome eyesore, buried amidst the glass and steel towers of “progress”. Movie goers had moved on to their local mega-plexes and stadium seating. Yet, despite vanishing in relative obscurity, the South Coast Plaza Theatre and it’s long gone peers had left a legacy. Today, Orange County exists as one of the country’s top grossing film markets, all set in motion by the former “Westwood of Orange County”.
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[…] 6th, 2009 by ccrouch I took this photo last year, during one of my last visits to the South Coast Plaza Theatre. By the time of this picture, the original South Coast Plaza Theatre was down to little more than […]
[…] and a host of theatres that had sprung up around the South Coast Plaza area (forming the “Westwood of Orange County“). In 1981, Edwards took over the Mesa and the theatre quickly slipped in to decline, as the […]
[…] Mecca for Orange County, the South Coast Plaza Theatre. Some two decades removed from the “Westwood of Orange County” glory days and over a year since the complex was razed, the, now empty, lot’s past is […]