Comments from tom1davidson

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tom1davidson
tom1davidson commented about Crestline Village Theatre on Sep 27, 2005 at 6:17 pm

I have fond childhood memories of this theater when it was used as a movie theater. In the early to middle 50’s, we would always rent a cabin at Crestline during the summer. Our vacation experience always included seeing a movie at this theater, swimming at Lake Gregory, visiting the Lake Gregory Arcade and having lunch at the Orange Julius. One summer we saw Walt Disney’s “Living Desert” and I think that it was the very first movie that I can remember seeing.

I am glad that the building didn’t get torn down as Crestline grew!

tom1davidson
tom1davidson commented about El Rancho Drive-In on Sep 27, 2005 at 5:26 pm

Everyone called this theater “El Cheapo” because of the carload admission price. It was a great place to go when you were broke and you didn’t want to hide anyone in the trunk! Most of the other drive in theaters, south of the Space Needle, played 1st or 2nd run movies and they checked trunks!

I can’t remember ever eating anything from the snack bar. I heard stories that you could get poisoned if you went into the snack bar.

This theater was between Renton and Kent on West Valley Hwy (84th ST). It provided the perfect neutral ground for high school kids from these towns to have a fight.

After seeing my comments, is there any question why this drive in was closed and demolished earlier than most other drive in theaters of it’s time.

tom1davidson
tom1davidson commented about Rosemead Theatre on Sep 21, 2005 at 9:08 pm

There definitely was a Edwards Rosemead Theater on Valley! It was located approximately one block from the intersection of Valley and Rosemead Blvd. Heading toward El Monte, on Valley, it would have been on the same side of the street as Pap Oden’s Union 76 Station and Al’s barber shop. In approximately 1953 it became Jax Market.

The first time we shopped at Jax Market the shopping cart started to roll toward the back of the store. I asked my mother why the floor sloped and she replied that the building was originally the Rosemead Theater and they didn’t change the building much. If you looked at the covered entrance you could see reminants of the original marquee.

I have no idea why Edwards put a theater in sparsely populated Rosemead or how long the theater was in operation. Maybe Edwards was expecting a building boom or expansion of Fletcher Aircraft.

I am glad that I found this site, but saddened by the loss of some of the fantastic theaters of my youth. I have not been to Rosemead since the late 70’s and by all accounts there have been quite a few changes.