Just realized that we’d never updated our description after the great community-wide fundraising for conversion to digital equipment in May 2012! It’s a beautiful thing to be able to offer the newest technology right alongside the traditional, and still to have retained the best live performance acoustics! :)
Best of all is to still be operating, when so many traditional, independent theatres were not able to make the conversion and have been lost to their communities.
The Whittier, in the 1940’s and 50’s was the “posh” theatre in town, and it was a real treat to go to a movie there instead of the Wardman or the Roxy: the night sky ceiling was glamorous and mystifying, and the courtyard felt like we were visiting one of the Missions instead of just being a few blocks from home. The building was on a bit of a hill and there were retail spaces around the corner on the right, as well as those on the street frontage: one of them was the beauty salon my grandma went to every Friday, and did that ever feel like a big deal to go with her :) The last time I got to attend the Whittier was when I was down for my grandpa’s funeral in 1982 and it still looked as wonderful to me then as it ever had, but that may have been nostalgia. I think my mom and I saw Indiana Jones that time, because I remember thinking that it was such a great place to be watching that particular movie. The next time I was back, the year after the earthquake, it was gone. Thank goodness the Wardman is still there.
Just realized that we’d never updated our description after the great community-wide fundraising for conversion to digital equipment in May 2012! It’s a beautiful thing to be able to offer the newest technology right alongside the traditional, and still to have retained the best live performance acoustics! :) Best of all is to still be operating, when so many traditional, independent theatres were not able to make the conversion and have been lost to their communities.
The Whittier, in the 1940’s and 50’s was the “posh” theatre in town, and it was a real treat to go to a movie there instead of the Wardman or the Roxy: the night sky ceiling was glamorous and mystifying, and the courtyard felt like we were visiting one of the Missions instead of just being a few blocks from home. The building was on a bit of a hill and there were retail spaces around the corner on the right, as well as those on the street frontage: one of them was the beauty salon my grandma went to every Friday, and did that ever feel like a big deal to go with her :) The last time I got to attend the Whittier was when I was down for my grandpa’s funeral in 1982 and it still looked as wonderful to me then as it ever had, but that may have been nostalgia. I think my mom and I saw Indiana Jones that time, because I remember thinking that it was such a great place to be watching that particular movie. The next time I was back, the year after the earthquake, it was gone. Thank goodness the Wardman is still there.