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Santa Fe Theatre

2170 Santa Fe Ave. Long Beach, CA 90810 | map |

Opened: May 29, 1946 as the sixth house for Cabart Theatres in Long Beach. It was on the east side of the street between E. 21st St. and Hill St. The 1983 photo, taken after the building had ended its second career as a bowling alley, is from the now-vanished American Classic Images website.

Seating: 948
 
Architect: Hugh Gibbs 

In a post on Cinema Treasures, that site's contributor Dallas Movie Theaters commented:

"Cabart Theatres announced this $125,000 project in 1945 as the War was ending. The theater was designed to hold 1,000 patrons and its interesting feature was to allow for the usage of television which Cabart felt would be important post-War. Its streamline moderne design by architect Hugh Gibbs featured a 110 foot sign tower. Starting out well, the theatre quickly struggled to retain its audience in the correctly-predicted world of television. 
 
"The theatre had launched May 29, 1946 with Fred MacMurray in 'Pardon My Past' and Deanna Durbin in 'Because of Him.' But just 7.5 years later, it ended operations with Doris Day in 'Calamity Jane' and Peter Lind Hayes in '5000 Fingers of Dr. T.' Hugh Gibbs was brought back to the project to redesign the facility as a bowling venue. It launched as the Santa Fe Bowl on November 7, 1958. It closed and was demolished in favor of multi-family residences."
 
 

A drawing of the new theatre from Hugh Gibbs that was spotted by Mike Rivest in the May 29, 1946 issue of the Long Beach Press-Telegram. Visit his site: Movie-Theatre.org

 An opening day ad. Thanks to Mike Rivest for locating it. 

Closing: 1953.

Status: It was converted into a bowling alley in 1958 and demolished in the 1980s. There are now apartments on the site.
 

1983 - Thanks to American Classic Images for this view of the south side of the building. 
 

2019 - The apartment complex on the Santa Fe site. We're looking north in this view from Google Maps.

 More Information: See the Cinema Treasures page on the Santa Fe.

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