Over it’s long and diverse history, the West End Theatre passed through a “who’s who” of early Orange County cinema operators, was renamed four times, and remodeled three times. Originally one of the county’s top draws for first run Hollywood fair, the theatre transitioned in to art house booking for a time, before finishing out it’s final years as a highly controversial adult cinema. Caught in the middle of Santa Ana’s high profile 1970′s pornography crackdown and urban renewal efforts, the West End (then known as the Guild) was closed in 1978.

While standing beside an area that was ravaged by civic redevelopment over the ensuing decades, the West End managed to survive the wrecking ball. Today, the theatre is outwardly restored to it’s look of 1915, serving as home to a couple of small retail stores and maintaining some interest for potential use as a cinema once again.

Beginning in the late 1950′s, this problem became particularly palpable, as residential populations shifted towards outlying suburban communities, leaving behind the formerly thriving cinemas of urban downtown’s. A trend later exacerbated with the arrival of multiplexes and “modern” cinemas. In an attempt to circumvent the “white elephant” issue, the 60′s and 70′s saw an increase in theatres being designed as temporary configurations, which could be converted to alternative uses with a minimum of effort.

One Orange County example of these “disposable” theatres can be found in Buena Park. Today, the modest cinder block building ,standing at 7886 Beach Blvd, serves as the home for a popular skateboarding retail outlet. However, back in 1959, the structure opened as the “functionally modern” Electrovision Corp. Buena Park Theatre.

In stark contrast to the cavernous auditoriums and ornate designs of other county cinemas, the Buena Park was purposely designed “on the cheap”, with cinema specific features that could easily be altered or removed. Built for $75,000, the theatre featured a false auditorium floor (which could be removed to reveal a conventional level slab) and non load bearing internal framework (allowing the floor plan to be reconfigured readily). Even the venue’s box office, concession, and projection areas were designed for seamless removal; utilizing a minimalist approach for each. While serving up an under whelming moving going experience, the approach was unquestionably cost effective and, some forty years later, allowed for the theatre to live on as the Identity Boardshop.

The movement towards “disposable” theatres never caught on as an industry standard. While AMC utilized the idea heavily during their early 70′s national expansion (even going as far as to include ground floor projection booths in many locations), the concept transitioned more in to tighter design budgets, than truly temporary cinemas. At most, the “white elephant” issue may carry some of the blame for a generation of generic shoebox multiplexes, which plagued much of the cinema landscape throughout the 70′s and 80′s.

In an interesting bit of cyclical history, the present day exhibition industry is beginning to face the “white elephant” issue once again, as a generation of expensive, 20 – 30 screen, megaplexes become increasingly obsolete. Thus far, the reaction has been to build slightly smaller venues. However, one has to suspect it’s only a matter of time before someone revisits the idea of “disposable” theatres.

Widely considered the first true megaplex, the AMC Grand 24 opened in May of 1995 and set off the “more is better” attitude, which defined the late nineties exhibition industry, to a rather notorious extent. During the theatre’s early years, the Grand 24 set a host of attendance milestones (including a 21,000 single day attendance) and stood as one of the country’s most successful cinemas up to the new millennium. However, with the passage of time, the Grand lost ground to ever increasing competition and changing local demographics. No longer able to generate the revenue necessary to validate the Grand’s hefty overhead, AMC opted out of renewing their lease on the property; which, baring another operator stepping in, will close on November 30, 2010.

The Beverly Center 13 (originally featuring 14 screens) opened on July 16, 1982, with what was then the highest screen count in the country. An L.A. hotspot for nearly a decade, the Beverly Center thrived more as an 80′s novelty, than quality movie going destination. None the less, the theatre was a showpiece of the time, hosting countless studio screenings and sold out blockbusters. Eventually falling victim to the decline of mall culture and higher quality competition in the area, the Beverly 13 slipped from it’s premiere perch and experienced a revolving door of operators throughout the site’s final decade. Deemed more valuable for retail space than as a functioning cinema, the unit was leased to a clothing outlet and closed on June 3, 2010.

Some might say the passing of the first megaplex and one of the era’s earliest pioneers is a poetic bit of cyclical history. Each site surely played a significant role in the closure of the multiplex era and drove a somewhat final nail in the era of grand single screens. However, both of these theatres were also home to a new generation of memories and shared experiences. Just as earlier generations lost something through their era’s cinemas fading out, another generation begins to lose a little bit of itself through the closing of the Grand 24 and Beverly Center 13.

As with most ozoners, rising property values and declining attendance eventually resulted in the drive-In’s land being worth more than the business. After closing in the summer of 1993, the site was quickly leveled and sold for redevelopment. Today, the former drive-in is a middle class neighborhood, located down the street from Cypress college, on Lincoln Avenue.