Big Bear Theatre

42171 Big Bear Boulevard,
Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

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1951 photo via Bill Kelder.

The Big Bear Theatre was on a main street and was opened on April 28, 1946 with Gary Cooper in “Saratoga Trunk”. It was still open in 1957.

Contributed by David Zornig

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MichaelKilgore
MichaelKilgore on November 26, 2021 at 8:37 pm

The Grizzly (Big Bear Lake) noted on Sept. 21, 1945 that “Big Bear Theatre, formerly the Grizzly,” would close for the season that month, and that owner Earle C. Strebe planned to construct a new building for the theater “on the highway next to Safeway”. “The foundation was poured and laid this summer, but actual work on the structure of the modern steel and re-inforced concrete building was delayed.”

That new building opened on April 28, 1946, “when a capacity crowd of valley residents and visitors packed the first show to see the Gary Cooper-Ingrid Bergman vehicle, "Saratoga Trunk.” … The youthful looking Strebe - he has not yet reached 40 years of age - is well known in Palm Springs theatre circles, having operated two cinema parlors at the desert spa for many years. In addition Strebe owns a theatre in Las Vegas and controls several units in the Lake Arrowhead-Crestline area."

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