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Time was, today marked the start of “National Relaxation Week” and the opportunity for theatres to advertise their relaxing amenities. Holding true to the fast paced lifestyles and short attention spans of today, “National Relaxation Week” has been whittled down to “National Relaxation Day” (recognized on August 15).

This month marked the forty-fifth anniversary of the long gone Fountain Valley Drive In.      While grand opening boasts of “world’s largest” and “most spectacular” were typically exaggerated exhibitor hype (check out the Westminister 4 for a humorous example), Fountain Valley truly lived up to the marketing spin.

On this day in 1933, Richard Hollingshead (along with Willie Warren Smith, Edward Ellis, and Oliver Willets) opened the world’s first drive-in theater, in Camden, New Jersey. Built for $30,000, the aptly named “Drive-In Theatre”, featured inclined slots for 400 cars and a “60 foot talkie screen”; unlike later drive-ins, sound was produced via large […]

In recognition of the 85th anniversary of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre (May 18, 1927), I wanted to share a couple of pictures from the grand opening dedication/“King of Kings” premiere program.      As with the Grauman’s Egyptian program, I will be posting a PDF file of the full program soon.

The Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation conducted another one of their fascinating “All About” tours this past weekend; covering Grauman’s Chinese this time around. Among the numerous non public areas featured was the theatre’s subterranean level. While presently serving as a standard basement (storage and support system duties), prior to the theatre’s late 50’s “Windjammer”/Cinemiracle […]

Today, March 17, marks the 133rd birthday of one of Hollywood’s greatest showmen, Sid Grauman.

The excellent Orange County history site O.C. History Roundup currently features a post about the 1979 destruction of downtown Anaheim, including several pictures of the Anaheim Fox Theatre’s demolition. The post and pictures can be viewed here.

In what could easy be viewed as one of the more surprising of survival stories, the Santa Ana/South Coast Metro area’s Village Theatre turned forty last week. Opened on December 22, 1971, this modest triplex has managed to outlast all of its area peers and currently stands as Orange County’s fifth oldest theatre, in continuous […]

Forty years ago this week, the Fullerton area was host to a “star studded” grand opening for the Yorba Linda Cinema (aka Yorba Linda Jerry Lewis Mini Cinema). In addition to mingling with area VIPs and cutting the customary opening ribbon, the celebrities in attendance, Debbie Reynolds and Glen Ford, also left their hand prints […]

Today’s oddity comes from a 1938 edition of “Popular Mechanics”. This unique idea involved converting a fifty-five foot commercial truck trailer in to a traveling theatre, as a way to bring movies to rural communities. The “World’s First Traveling Theatre” sat sixty people, had a fully functional projection booth, and even featured a small stage […]