When a cinema closes, there is rarely an official effort made to preserve anything that doesn’t have a resale value. In recent decades, departing operators have even made a habit of damaging facilities and fixtures, to hinder any future use by competition. However, the former Edwards Huntington Cinema stands as a rare example of an operator thinking outside their bottom line (all be it through some prompting by an outside party).
The Huntington Cinema opened as Edwards’ second Orange County location, on Christmas Day, 1964, and managed to last up to the megaplex era. Having served Huntington Beach for thirty four years, the theatre’s bright orange “Huntington” sign became somewhat of a local landmark by the time the venue closed, in April of 1998. While the building was quickly gutted for retail use, nearby Huntington Beach High School thought there might be a second life in store for the well known exterior sign. After approaching the Edwards family, the school’s media department director, John Colby, managed to procure a donation and the sign was installed on campus in the summer of 1998.
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While present day students are likely oblivious to the sign’s origins and locals now associate it more with the school than any cinema past, the Huntington sign lives on.
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