Cinemaland
135 Colorado Place,
Arcadia,
CA
91007
135 Colorado Place,
Arcadia,
CA
91007
2 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Edwards Cinemas
Architects: Walter M. Bostock
Styles: Streamline Moderne
Previous Names: Santa Anita Theatre, Edwards Santa Anita Theatre, New Cinemaland
Nearby Theaters
The Santa Anita Theatre opened May 14, 1942 with Dorothy Lamour in “The Fleet’s In” & Henry Fonda in “The Male Animal”. It was closed November 6, 1966 for refurbishment. It reopened as Cinemaland in 1967 and closed in 1972. Repoened as New Cinemaland in 1975, it was closed December 31, 1975. It was demolished in 1977.
Contributed by
Gary Lookabaugh
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Recent comments (view all 17 comments)
I was also wondering if L.M. and W.M. Bostock were related- or maybe the W.M. in the article I cited in 2005 was another of Southwestern Builder & Contractor’s frequent typos? There may have been only an L.M. Bostock.
The L.A. Library website’s California Index has three cards referencing Southwest Builder & Contractor mentions of an engineer named W.M. Bostock. Though SB&C is notorious for typos, it seldom makes the same typo in every instance. I’ve also found a Los Angeles engineer named W.M. Bostock quoted in a 1933 Time Magazine article, so it’s probable that SB&C got the name right.
As for architect L.M. Bostock, the California Index contains no references to him. If ken mc’s source was The L.A. Times, which has usually been good at keeping typos to a minimum, I’d be inclined to believe that we are dealing with two different guys and L.M. was not just a typo. If L.M. Bostock was an architect, his absence from the California Index suggests that he was a fairly obscure one. But since W.M. is only mentioned in the context of two buildings (Cinemaland and the El Sereno Theatre), I guess he’s pretty obscure himself.
I lived right around the corner from Cinemaland on San Luis Rey, and saw many movies there as a child. As a matter of fact, I just moved away from that beloved house two years ago (it’s another Arcadia mansion now).
The last thing I remember seeing there was Silent Running (early 70’s I guess). Was eventually torn down due to two kids breaking in and flooding the place with the fire hoses.
The May 23, 1942, issue of Boxoffice magazine said: “Jimmy Edwards opened his new Santa Anita, near Arcadia, May 14. The 743-seater charges 40 cents admission and boasts a crying room and a parking lot accommodating 450 cars. The Edwards circuit, with this addition, numbers 20 houses.”
It’s listed in the 1948 and 1950 city directories as the Santa Anita at 131 W. Huntington Dr.
Colorado Place splits off from Huntington Drive almost in front of the theater (it’s a double-curved “Y” intersection, with Huntington veering southward while Colorado Place bends north.) The City of Arcadia must have decreed at some time after 1950 that the numbers on the north side of that block be reassigned from Huntington Drive to Colorado Place, because that’s where they are now.
The theater was called Edwards Santa Anita for about two decades. The name Santa Anita was on the marquee until the early 1960s (I don’t recall the exact year,) when it was changed to Cinemaland. However, for as long as I remember, the theater always had a vertical sign that said Edwards, in letters larger than those used for the marquee name. The same was true at Edwards San Gabriel, which was renamed Edwards Century about the same time Edwards Santa Anita became Edwards Cinemaland.
Most of the old Edwards circuit houses had the company name on their signage, though at most of them it was in small, white neon script over the theater names themselves, so it was barely visible by daylight, and not very noticeable even by night. The San Gabriel and Santa Anita were the only houses I recall having the big vertical Edwards signs, but a smaller vertical reading Edwards was featured on the Edwards Village Theatre in Azusa.
I worked many theaters in Southern California during the sixties while a student at UCLA. As a relief projectionist I got into lots of houses, and had a ball. I worked the CinemaLand Theater on many occasions.
I ran the original “Inspector Clouseau” there starring Alan Arkin, before Peter Sellers took over the role. I ran Rod Tailor’s “Dark Of The Sun,” and Jim Brown’s “The Split.” It’s funny how you remember where you worked by the movies you’ve shown.
This was one of my favorite places to work, and it was a first rate theater with beautiful architecture. The booth was spacious, well laid out, with really good air conditioning. Some places were cramped, really hot, with poor circulation and were miserable.
I was a young kid in my early twenties, and was treated really well by the staff. I loved being assigned there.
I think I’ll bop around the site and see if I can find some more theaters that i actually worked.
I worked there in ‘72, '73, as an usher and was trying to recall the name of the melancholy manager/owner of European, perhaps Mideast descent. American Graffiti playing interminably is my largest memory. Anyone recall his name? Thanks, c
clinkpage: I never attended Cinemaland, so I don’t know the name of the manager you remember, but the theater was owned by the Edwards circuit throughout its history, so the man you remember must have been only the manager.
The $100,000 Santa Anita Theatre opened May 14, 1942 in close proximity to the famed Santa Anita Park race track. The theatre was built by Steed Bros. with architectural plans by Walter M. Bostock of Huntington Park. Its covered colonnade got people from the 450-spot parking lot to the theater. It got a facelift in 1962 likely coinciding with the end of a 20-year lease cycle.
The theater closed on November 6, 1966 for another refurbishing reopening as Cinemaland in 1967. It closed again in 1972 reopening as the New Cinemaland as subrun discount house in 1975. That appears to have ended on December 31, 1975.
In January of 1977, the city discussed but rejected a concept to turn the vacant facility into a municipal auditorium sealing its fate. It was razed later in 1977 projected to make way for the Engineering-Science Inc. corporate headquarters.