Rosemead 4 Cinemas

I was wondering about the Monterey Park triplex. (I still think of the Atlantic Palace as being on Main Street, even though it’s on the corner. I’ve never actually seen the place, since it was built after I left, though I’ve seen many pictures of it on the Internet.) I only went to the Monterey Mall the one time. The style was sort of bland, but otherwise its was a decent place, and I thought the little entrance courtyard was a nice feature.

I did go to the Temple City Edwards once, shortly after it opened. I think that the auditorium I was in was one of the two larger ones, and I was a bit surprised to find that it wasn’t much smaller than the old Temple Theatre that was demolished to make way for the multiplex.

I remember seeing the Alhambra Place under construction, and I think that was in late 1983-early 1984. I always intended to go to a movie there, but never got around to it.

I’m surprised that the Monterey Mall building is still vacant. In the ‘80s, nothing stayed vacant for long in Monterey Park. There was construction going on all the time, and any empty storefront would have a new Chinese restaurant in it by the next week. They popped up almost overnight, like mushrooms. The whole town was very lively then.

It will be a Lowes 14 Screen Theatre. Ground should be broken in 05.

It will be where the old Superior Pontiac once was. That lot has been just that, a lot, for ages now.

Alhambra as we fondly remember it, like Monterey Park is all gone and only a fond memory. Along with all the old single screen theaters that used to line Main Street and Las Tunas (The Alhambra, El Rey, Capri, Century and Temple), all the old business are also gone. JC Penney’s, Lieberg’s Department Store, Downer’s, the block of shops on the south side of Main steet where the Mervyn’s is now, all gone. Pedrini’s and Max West Sporting Goods are all gone as well as the bowling alley, but Yama’s Japanese resturant is still hanging on for dear life. The Alhambra Bookstore was something in it’s time but like most of the old business in Alhambra it was relocated to a nothing space next to a Starbucks on second Street and later closed. I guess nobody reads in Alhambra anymore.

Rosemead 4 Theater was an A/C haven from the long summer heat of the San Gabriel Valley. I went there almost every Saturday afternoon as a young teen and at 15-½ years young (said I was 16!) I worked in the box office as well as the snack bar & as an usherette. We used to have a Brit manager who worked for Mitzi Gaynor who called our uniforms ‘costumes’! The night I pretended to work a double shift, yet actually when to see David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs concert at the Universal Amphitheatre, was the night the theatre was held up by a robber and the thief cut the face of the manager! I was glad I went to that concert!

I remember the Rosemead 4 vividly . I saw many movies there here is my list Airplane Cannonball Run 2 Karate Kid Dirty Dancing The lobby was very small , they would never make a theatre like that now . For the time it was fun to go there .