With a lineage that stretches back to the Fox theatre chain of the late 1920’s, Mann’s decline, over the past two decades, has been stunning, to say the least. Having formerly operated industry cornerstones, like Grauman’s Chinese and the fabled Westwood cinemas; expanded to some 510 screens, at the chain’s peak; Mann now faces the inevitable curtain call with only the Westlake Village 8 on its cast list.

Companies like Amusement Supply and the Miles Brothers (profiled in an earlier post) sold all of the equipment and promotional materials necessary to launch your own cinema (initially more portable than permanent), but their true business was in renting films. A lucrative business model, once they had sold an aspiring exhibitor the startup supplies, they pulled in a steady revenue through regularly supplying the new operator with films to screen.

If you have ever attended a movie in February, you’ve likely encountered Variety, the Children’s Charity. Prior to the mid 90′s, you may have seen a celebrity endorsed trailer for the charity, followed by a donation basket being passed through the audience. In more recent years, you’ve probably noted your theatre of choice selling gold, heart shaped, pins this time of year. For those who have ever wondered what this fundraising effort was all about, or why movie theatres were involved:

On Christmas Eve, 1928, an infant was discovered, abandoned, at the nursery of the Sheridan Square Theatre, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A note accompanying the child stated that the mother already had eight children and could not afford a ninth. The baby’s name was given as “Catherine” and the reason for choosing a theatre as, “I have always heard of the goodness of show business and I pray to God that you will look out for her.”

Fortunately, for Catherine, the theatre’s owner, John H. Harris, was one of eleven entertainment industry businessmen who had recently founded the Variety social club. He and his fellow Variety Club members decided that, since the infant had been entrusted to show business people, they should underwrite her financial care. Starting with that one abandoned child, who they named Catherine Variety Sheridan, the eleven businessmen began assisting other needy children; ultimately converting their local social club in to an industry wide charitable organization. In addition to long standing fund raising drives and telethons, the organization initiated the annual gold heart program in 1991; which has collected over $100 million for disabled and disadvantaged children to date.

As for Catherine; after becoming  somewhat of a period celebrity, she was adopted by a couple in Long Island, New York, and renamed Joan Riker (to afford her a more normal upbringing). She went on to become a nurse and start a family of her own, before returning to the spotlight in 1980, as an ambassador for the Variety Club charity. Ms. Riker passed away in 1994, but the organization founded around her continues to support children’s charities, hospitals, and camps throughout the United States and eight other countries.

As we enter February, movie theatres across the country will once again be selling gold heart pins to raise money for Variety, the Children’s Charity. If you happen to be catching a movie during this time, consider purchasing one of the $2 pins and help make a difference in the life of a child like Catherine. 

Pictured below is a promotional foldout postcard, sent to a San Bernadino theatre operator in 1907, from the Miles Brothers Exchange. The Miles Brothers Exchange was an industry defining business model that both revolutionized film distribution and made full time movie theatres possible.

In the early 1900′s there was an exploding interest in motion pictures, but exhibitors were having a difficult time successfully running full time cinemas. With film costs high and there often being an erratic supply of new product (especially in areas outside of large cities), most exhibitors were forced to rotate between motion pictures, glass slide presentations, and live performances or operate as traveling tent shows.

Seeing a business opportunity, Harry, Herbert, Joseph, and Earle Miles began purchasing films from production companies, in bulk, and renting them out to theatres on a weekly basis (supplying a new film as each old title was returned); creating the film exchange concept in 1903. This simple idea allowed exhibitors to have a steady supply of films, at one fourth of the cost, and production companies a standardized distribution outlet for their product. In turn, the standardized availability of affordable films made formal movie theatres possible; the nickelodeons, traveling shows, and part time venues gave way to the cinemas we’ve known for the past one hundred years.   

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.

Back in 1993, the Foothill Ranch Development Company announced plans to build a retail and entertainment center, on a fifteen acre parcel, beside the Foothill Transportation Corridor. The centerpiece of this development was to be a 24 screen, 4,000 seat cinema, run by AMC. At the time, the theatre would have been the nation’s largest and AMC’s fourth venture in to Orange County. This announcement also came on the heels of Edwards’ plans to develop an eighteen screen venue a few miles away, at what would later become the Irvine Spectrum complex.

True to form, Edwards didn’t take this encroachment on their home turf lightly. Accelerating and expanding their Irvine project, the chain opened the Spectrum theatre early (before the retail portion of the development had broken ground) and increased the cinema’s screen count to 22. Also in retaliation to AMC’s Foothill plans, Edwards took a more aggressive approach to winning bids on cinema projects, in near bye Aliso Viejo and Mission Viejo. Faced with ever stiffening competition from Edwards, AMC officially backed out of the Foothill Ranch project in the summer of 1996.

The following year, another suitor entered the Foothill Ranch Cinema project, via Knoxville, Tennessee based Regal. At the time, Regal was a newcomer to the Southern California market, having entered the area through the purchase of Krikorian Theatres’ original chain. The Foothill location, while now downsized to a 22 screen plan, was slated to be the company’s west coast flagship. However, as with AMC’s earlier effort, Edwards quickly took action to hinder the project.

Initially threatening to build it’s own theatre across the street from the Foothill Ranch Center, Edwards managed to push, then cash strapped, Regal in to a “wait and see” mode. After waiting out Edwards’ fruitless threat, Regal completed the Foothill cinema in 1999, only to consider a last minute offer, from Edwards, to purchase the venue. However, having lost the company’s patriarch in 1997 and recently entered in to a $250 million financing deal with Bank of America, Edwards was unable to pull off the deal, making way for the theatre’s long delayed opening, on September 17, 1999. None the less, Edwards did manage one parting jab, offering a week long free popcorn and fifty cent hot dog promotion at it’s locations, to coincide with the Foothill’s opening week festivities.

The ensuing years would see Edwards and Regal slip in to bankruptcy; both ultimately falling under the same ownership and Regal Entertainment Group banner. The Foothill Ranch cinema, which had been the source of so much contention, for the better part of a decade, would prove to be a disappointment, settling in to being one of the county’s under performing theatres.