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Anaheim’s Gardenwalk theatre is scheduled to reopen under the management of San Diego based Ultrastar Cinemas today (8/20). The former Sanborn/Movie Experience Cinemafusion had been tied up in rather contentious bankruptcy proceedings, after investors lost an estimate $5 million on the theatre, with much of the venue closed and partially stripped of fixtures for the [...]

After five years of vacancy and sporadic use as a horror theme attraction, the Brea Plaza 5 has reopened as a cinema. .   I stopped bye the Brea 5 this past week and was pleased to see that the new operators, Tristone Cinemas, have placed a great deal of work in to refurbishing the thirty three year [...]

The young man pictured below is Lyndon “Lynn” Aufdenkamp (circa 1916). In addition to having been a prominent figure in Laguna Beach’s early twentieth century development, Mr. Aufdenkamp was also the  city’s first cinema operator and the namesake for all of the movie theatres which have operated in Laguna Beach over the past ninety five years. .   Laguna’s [...]

Orange County’s newest movie theatre, Cinema Fusion (aka Gardenwalk 14, The Movie Experience 14, and a few other monikers), is preparing to close after a two year run. Opened in July of 2008, the self promoted “future of movie going”, never managed to capture a sizeable share of the movie going market and struggled to even [...]

This week marks the 95th anniversary of Santa Ana’s West End Theatre. In addition to being Orange County’s second oldest remaining theatre structure (the Yost being the oldest), the West End was the first county venue built expressly for use as a cinema. Prior to the West End’s construction, Orange County cinema venues were comprised [...]

Forty five years ago, this evening, a sell out audience welcomed Santa Ana’s “ultra modern and luxurious” United Artists Theatre on to the Orange County cinema scene. The VIP grand opening festivities included a pre release screening of the John Wayne picture “In Harms Way” and a star studded reception, which featured the likes of Maureen O’Hara in attendance. Amid [...]

During my visit to the Studio of the Theatres open house, I was made aware that many people aren’t familiar with the transformation downtown Santa Ana has undergone over the past twenty years or so. “I never knew this was here” seemed to be a common statement at the event. Unfortunately, far too many people retain images of [...]

Theatre structures have regularly posed a dilemma for property owners. While serving as potentially lucrative tenants and offering up considerable consumer drawing power, there is often a problematic issue once a theatre has run it’s coarse as a viable business. After movie goers have moved on, the property owner is left with a “white elephant”; [...]

This coming week marks the anniversaries of two county drive-ins; the 55th, for Westminster’s Hi-Way 39 Drive-In, and the 50th for Santa Ana’s Harbor Drive-In. Both were opened by Pacific Theatres, on June 29th, but separated by five years (Hi-Way 39 in 1955 and the Harbor in 1960).  As with their county peers, each is now long gone and redeveloped; the [...]

This month marked the forty fifth anniversary of a south county theatre which barely managed to leave a discernible mark on local cinema history during it’s brief fifteen year run.   The Niguel Theatre opened on June 9, 1965, as an anchor for the Monarch Bay Plaza commercial development, in the, then new, planned community of Laguna Niguel. Standing between the borders of [...]