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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 this red carpet and scanning searchlight Hollywood glamour, one city dignitary commented, “Santa Ana is thankful to United Artists for bringing this wonderful showpiece to our city…It will be a source of community pride for years to come.” Within a decade, the city would have a very different outlook on the theatre.

 

The cavernous United Artists Santa Ana had a relatively short run as a community friendly movie going destination. Built towards the tale end of the single screen era and at a time when the city was experiencing a dramatic public image downslide, business trailed off within a few years of the theatre’s opening. By the 1970’s the theatre, not to mention Santa Ana as a whole, had fallen victim to shifting demographics and a greater focus towards south Orange County. No longer able to stay competitive, the United Artists Santa Ana closed on September 1, 1975.

 

Two days after closing out, with the family friendly “The Apple Dumpling Gang” and “Swiss Family Robinson”, the theatre reopened as the latest venue in the Mitchell Brothers’ adult entertainment empire. Operated as a “porno theatre”, the newly re christened Mitchell Brothers Santa Ana, experienced an immediate change of fortune, pulling in an estimated $1,000,000 per year in ticket revenue. However, a highly successful porno theatre was hardly the sort of business the city desired to be associated with.

 

Over the ensuing eleven years, the City of Santa Ana filed 47 lawsuits and paid out in excess of $700,000, all in an attempt to close down the theatre. Yet, despite the well publicized efforts, the Mitchell Brothers repeatedly prevailed in court and continued to operate in Santa Ana until June 30, 1990. Finishing out with a triple bill of “The First Time”, “Hot Lips”, and “The Devil in Miss Jones IV”, the theatre was closed, not as the result of any legal proceedings, but due to United Artists (still the master lease holder at the time) electing not to renew the Mitchell Brothers’ lease. Two years later, the vacant theatre was demolished, as part of a Horner Plaza redevelopment project.

 

In contrast to the civic pride Santa Ana dignitaries voiced at the July 14, 1965 grand opening, twenty five years later, a city councilman  remarked “I would just have to say good riddance to an ugly cancer in our community “, on hearing of the theatre’s closure.