Comments about Cinema Twin Theaters in Goleta, CA

Joe Vogel on January 9, 2009 at 12:50 am

This house reopened as a twin in December, 1978, the same month Metropolitan reopened the Fairview Theatre as a twin and opened their new Plaza del Oro Twin in Santa Barbara. The opening day for the Cinema Twin was December 23.

djkrusty on January 7, 2009 at 4:35 pm

i am looking for a photo from opening night, april 15,1965, with joan crawford on stage giving my mom a check for the goleta boys club. i found the article in the newspaper. gilberts of goleta took the photo. any help is appreciated, thanks

Joe Vogel on January 7, 2009 at 12:03 am

The December 7, 1964, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that the 740-seat Cinema was being built for Metropolitan Theatres. The architect was Carl Moeller. The new house was to be managed by George D. McKenzie Jr., who would also continue to manage Metropolitan’s adjacent Airport Drive-In. The single-screen house was equipped to show 35mm and 70mm movies.

The April 5, 1965, issue of Boxoffice said that the opening of the Cinema had been set for April 6.

kencmcintyre on September 18, 2008 at 12:52 pm

Status should be closed/demolished.

kencmcintyre on October 26, 2007 at 12:26 pm

Here is a photo of the marquee:
http://tinyurl.com/2par8y

MagicLantern on December 10, 2006 at 12:26 am

This theatre is now demolished. Nothing left but an empty lot.

AdamPrimack on October 31, 2006 at 12:57 pm

Is there anything that studets of UCSB can do to save this place?
I feel theres so much potential…

bojeta on July 15, 2006 at 11:03 pm

Ahh, the Cinema… This was the closest theatre to my home as a kid (actually it was probably a tie with the Magic Lantern in Isla Vista). I remember seeing classics such as Little Big Man there as well as my own personal cinemagraphic low Saturday Night Fever while in high school.

Theatres didn’t come any plainer than this. Cinder block building painted harvest gold with the most basic of Marquees. It did have a little portico though. I remember my dad dropping my brothers and I off with strict instructions to be “out front” at a given time, whether the movie was over or not. If we weren’t there, we got to walk home (about five miles).

MagicLantern on March 14, 2006 at 2:37 am

Photo and story about this now-closed theatre is here: http://www.dailynexus.com/news/2006/11140.html

Demolition begins in about three months, apparently.

MagicLantern on September 17, 2004 at 4:18 pm

These are not actually the mounts for the screen, but instead for the drive-in marquee / signage.

MagicLantern on May 24, 2004 at 11:45 am

Opened in 1966, the Cinema Theatre sits beside the remains of the
Airport Drive-In Theatre (first listed at 6201 Hollister Avenue, an address that was changed later to 400 Frederick Lopez Road), founded in 1954 and operating through 1990. The lot is used now for airport parking, but the ticketbooth / gateway still remains, and just outside the far fences can be seen the mounts for the drive-in screen, lingering in the dust and weeds.

MagicLantern on May 18, 2004 at 11:12 pm

I appreciate the quick response in updating this listing, but does this mean that someone can excise the now-extraneous information in my original post?

MagicLantern on May 18, 2004 at 5:45 pm

The Cinema Twin is indeed a second-run theatre now; three auditoriums and tickets for $3. A modest little crackerbox directly in front of an old drive-in theatre now closed. The address is 6050 Hollister Avenue, Goleta, CA 93117.