This week marks the thirty-ninth anniversary of the world’s first free standing four-plex, the Fashion Square 4, in La Habra, CA. Built by AMC, the venue was an early entry in the company’s emergence as a national powerhouse and a precursor to the “mulit-plex era”.
While not having invented the multi-plex (depending on your definition of “multi-plex”, that honor goes to either Nat Taylor’s expansion of the Elgin Theatre in 1957 or Jame Edwards’ Alhambra Theatre in 1939), AMC is generally recognized as having pioneered/refined the concept. Allegedly, AMC’s Stanley Durwood came up with the modern multi-plex, in 1962, while standing in the empty lobby of a theatre; noting what an inefficient business model the classic single screen theatre was. A year later, Durwood expanded his Kansas City, MO. Parkway Theatre in to a twin, moving on to four and six plexes within a few years. By the time AMC opened the Fashion Square 4, plans were already underway for a twelve screen theatre in Cincinnati, OH. Of course, this would ultimately lead up to the 20+ screen mega-plex era of the mid to late 90’s.
Some might view the Fashion Square 4 as somewhat of a dubious milestone, as the theatre exemplified the industry’s movement in to a more homogenized, “mass consumption” direction. The decade that followed saw classic movie palaces either subdivide their once grand auditoriums or give way to the sterile, “shoebox”, multi’s all together; the “big” theatre experience turned in to an assembly line of efficiency. Yet, this milestone also marked a step in the industry’s modernization, after having remained relatively unchanged for the better half of a century. For better or worse, the Fashion Square 4’s 1969 grand opening helped to herald in a new cinematic era.
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