Big Bear Theatre
42171 Big Bear Boulevard,
Big Bear Lake,
CA
92315
42171 Big Bear Boulevard,
Big Bear Lake,
CA
92315
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There are two theaters in Big Bear Lake being named the Big Bear Theatre. In July 1972, a newer Big Bear Theatre opened nearby on Village Drive, which would later rename the Village Theatre in 1975. It’ll have its own CT page soon.
Final showtime was “Hawaii” on January 27, 1968. A fire the morning of February 2, 1968 destroyed the venue prior that evening’s showing of “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” It was demolished.
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."