Opened: October 26, 1965 by the Stanley-Warner circuit as a single screen 70mm equipped theatre and known as the Stanley-Warner Topanga. It was on the east side of the street just south of Victory Blvd. This story about the new theatre is from the October 11, 1965 issue of Boxoffice.
An opening day ad. Thanks to Mike Rivest for locating it. "The Bedford Incident" was a one-off benefit premiere. The feature for the regular opening on the 27th was "Ship of Fools."
Architect: Drew Eberson. Inside it was a typical 60s theatre with drapes all the way around.
Seats: 1,350 originally. It was down to 800 as a triplex.
Projection: Norelco AAII projectors, Ashcraft Super Cinex lamps, Ampex amps and RCA speakers.
A booth view from the August 16, 1967 issue of Boxoffice. Thanks to the site From Script To DVD for including it on their page about the Topanga.
The theatre, along with other Stanley Warner houses in southern California, was acquired by Pacific Theatres in 1968 and then known as the Pacific Topanga. It got twinned in 1972 (but kept its 70mm capability on one side) and reopened May 24. It was triplexed in the early 90s. With the new AMC Promenade 16 a block away it went to second run status in 1998.
Closing: Pacific closed the theatre in 2000 and the building was later used as a furniture store.
Status: The building was demolished in September 2007. There's now a Crate & Barrel on the site.
1965 - A December photo with the theatre running "Agent 008 3/4" and "The List of Adrian Messenger." It appeared in the Boxoffice issue of January 17, 1966 along with "Construction Uptrend in 1965." Boxoffice noted that $147 million had been spent building 454 new theatres in 1965. 258 of those were in shopping centers as the theatre owners were interested in "taking the movies to where the people are."
1984 - Another view from the American Classic Images collection.
1989 - A look at the theatre as a triplex. It's from the collection of John Sittig, formerly of Pacific Theatres, and appears on the From Script To DVD page about the theatre. The page also has many interior and exterior photos taken after the building became a furniture store.
More Information: See the Cinema Treasures page on the Topanga. The Cinema Tour page has 11 lobby and exterior photos from 2001 after the theatre had closed.
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