{"id":283,"date":"2009-08-05T11:14:57","date_gmt":"2009-08-05T11:14:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/?p=283"},"modified":"2009-08-05T11:20:10","modified_gmt":"2009-08-05T11:20:10","slug":"a-unique-postscript-the-anaheim-drive-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/2009\/08\/05\/a-unique-postscript-the-anaheim-drive-in\/","title":{"rendered":"A Unique Postscript: The Anaheim Drive-In"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fifty four years ago this week, Orange County welcomed it’s fifth\u00a0ozoner with the grand opening of the Anaheim Drive-In<\/a>. Once billed as “Orange County’s most luxurious super drive-in theatre”, the venue had a thirty-five year run, before closing in the spring of 1990. The Anaheim Drive-In also had a rather unique after life,\u00a0being the site of one of the county’s more notable failed\u00a0“lifestyle center”\u00a0projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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A few years after closing the drive-in, Pacific Theatres announced plans\u00a0for a 26 screen megaplex and entertainment complex to be built on the property\u00a0by the spring of\u00a01997.\u00a0In addition to the 100,000 square foot cinema, the plan called for\u00a0ten restaurants and stores, a 30,000 square foot video\u00a0game arcade, and 2,300 parking spaces; all set within a design that was to\u00a0be modeled after Newport Beach’s Fashion Island shopping center (complete with “playful” fountains). At the time, the theatre would have been among the largest in the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Work on the proposed center began in July of 1996, with a VIP\u00a0screen\u00a0demolition ceremony\u00a0that included local politicians and Pacific executives in attendance.\u00a0Over the ensuing weeks, the lot was graded and a “coming soon” message was posted on the old drive-in marquee. However, by the end of the Summer, work came to an end almost as quickly as it has begun. Without explanation or an official announcement, the project was abandoned; the lone acknowledgement being the removal of the marquee message.<\/p>\n

Rumors around the planned center’s demise have generally centered on AMC’s quick ten screen expansion of their neighboring Fullerton 10 theatre<\/a>, in 1997. Yet, considering the potential drawing power of a full entertainment complex and new megaplex, one must question how\u00a0the halfhearted expansion of an aging multiplex would have\u00a0threatened Pacific out of a venture they had already committed considerable means in to launching. A second, less circulated rumor, involving a\u00a0lack of financing, seems a more likely explanation. In any case, the lot\u00a0sat empty for a few more years, before being sold and redeveloped in to a\u00a0generic retail park; anchored by a hardware store and health club, rather than a cinema.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fifty four years ago this week, Orange County welcomed it’s fifth\u00a0ozoner with the grand opening of the Anaheim Drive-In. Once billed as “Orange County’s most luxurious super drive-in theatre”, the venue had a thirty-five year run, before closing in the spring of 1990. The Anaheim Drive-In also had a rather unique after life,\u00a0being the site […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":288,"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions\/288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}