Rolling Hills Theatre

The murders actually occurred in the projectionist room, I know, I worked there at the time. I only said my 2 cents worth in their memory. We played nothing but Disney movies for a whole year afterwards.

Meant to pop back in here a few months ago with a bit of an update. I spent some time in and around Torrance/LA/the beaches with my dad back in September. While we were driving back to the hotel from Long Beach, I had him pull into the shopping center. I recognized the theater building immediately – the roof line, textured walls, etc., are still the same. Seeing it really pulled at my heartstrings…

Hope you all are doing well. :–)

While cruising the web,
I came across this remarkable site and read everything with great interest. I lived on the hill from 1969-74 and after reading the threads and watching “scaterdater” short I was taken back to that time in history.
A time of true innocence.
But let me put in my two cents worth of history.
I was in college and was taking flying lesson at Torrance airport and to help pay for this, I worked at the BBQ joint across the parking lot from the theater. it was called “Love’s Wood pit BBQ” and it was a chain from the SF valley, they also had a store on Hawthorn bl.just north of Torrance blvd. but for some reason, resturants seem to fail at that corner, eeven the Parosol as good as it was
however,no matter how many good memories we had of theater,
the one blight that will always over shadowed it was the gruesome murders that took place there.
like many that wrote, most forgot details.
and after more than 3 decades later,
I could'nt remember if anyone was ever arrested, but
this column cleared up that curiosity
yes indeed, in many ways, it was the beginning of an end and shortly there after,
I left for Las Vegas and never returned………

Ken mc, Jeff Arellano posted a overhead shot of where the theatre building is on Apr. 6th, 2006 and Ed Collins agreed that it was the former theatre building near the AMC 20 plex.

The architect of this theatre was Roland Decker Pierson. Sterling’s Rolling Hills was one of several theaters featured in an article on theater concession stands published in the October 19, 1964, issue of Boxoffice Magazine.

The November 30, 1970, issue of Boxoffice had an item saying that Sterling had again hired Pierson, this time to design a two-screen addition to the Rolling Hills Theatre. Each of the new auditoriums would seat 500, and would have been stacked one above the other. This would have been the first such theater in the Los Angeles area had the plans been carried out.

After designing the Rolling Hills Theatre, Pierson also designed at least two other theaters for Sterling: The Montclair, in the city of the same name, and the Hastings in Pasadena.

Here is a screen capture from the short film “Skaterdater” that shows the theater.
View link
And the movie Skaterdater.
View link

I can shed some light on the man accused of committing the murders. My husband and I were very young, (I was 17) living in Redondo
Beach, in late 1972/early 1973. It was an age of ‘crash pads’ and hippies, and our door was always open to friends. A rather round man named John Mahue was one of our friends. we were pretty much always broke, and he always seemed to have money, even though I don’t think he had a job. So he would sometimes take us out to eat (we went a lot to Norms on Hawthorne Blvd.) Other times he would leave money for us in places where he knew we would find it, like in our books or in the tv guide.
We thought he was just a regular guy. Never would have suspected he could commit such a gruesome murder.
A day or so after the murders, he was arrested and taken to the jail in Torrance. The night he was jailed, he died of a massive overdose of barbituates. I have always found it odd that he had access to downers, since he would have been searched before being put in a cell. Nevertheless, upon his death, the police said that he was the killer. We’ll never know if he was or not. I’ll leave the conclusion to the reader.

Who remembers? The small little play ground with sand, steel slides and monkey bars across from the Rolling Hills Theater? The Smorgesboard in the Rolling Hills Plaza? The Gumm’s who owned the barber shop who did Chuck Norris' hair. The moto-cross track behind Food’s Co. and the Rolling Hills Theater? 5 cent ice creams at Thrifty and 15 cents for a triple? That “Scater Dater” was one of the first 8mm movies about skate boarding filmed all around the Rolling Hills Plaza? The time when an armed robber took hostages in the Rolling Hills Plaza jewelry store and fired shots all day with SWAT outside? The Parasol Restaurant across the street? UA Theater’s with its upstairs balcony on the NE corner of PCH and Crenshaw? And for a bonus quetion…the eating place Farrel’s where if you ordered “the zoo”, a huge steel tub of ice cream. They would bring it out on a stretcher with siren’s sounding. Oohh baby I got lots more!

TESTING

Wow, this thread has been quiet for awhile and what an incredible message from Outdoorsman for those of us who remember so very fondly our Saturdays at the Rolling Hills in the ‘60s. Next time I’m in So. Cal. / Torrance on vacation, I’m going to make a point to visit the building (haven’t seen it since 1969 when my family moved to Nev.) Thanks much, guys.

I drive by this intersection all the time. Is the old theater in the mall with Trader Joes and Whole Foods? Can you narrow down the location for me? I would like to see it.

I currently work in the building where the rolling hills theater used to be. The projection window were Clyde Felts worked is still visible from inside the Adventure 16 outdoor outfitter store. The projection room is upstairs in the japanese market Najiya next door. I helped construct the interior of the new store in 2005. The acoustics in the store are characteristic to the old theater to this day. The walls still absorb sound. I was working when friends of the deceased came in the store to remember and to have closure 32 years after the murders. I was honored to talk with them. They told me all that transpired that Feb 11th night in 1973 like it was yesterday. They are still haunted by the memories and I too.