AMC Orange Mall 6

If my memory serves me correctly, this theatre and the old Broadway department store were torn down for the construction of the Wal-Mart now at the mall.

This theatre was dreadful and typical of AMC's 1970s fare. Tiny screens, tiny auditoriums, mostly mono sound, picture slide ads and terrible presentation. The seats were pretty uncomfortable. AMC spent very little time to design this theatre, and very little money to build it and it showed. It had no curtains over the screen, unlike the much more luxurious Cinedome on Chapman Avenue (also demolished). The staff, as I recall, seemed like they wanted to be somewhere else.

It's hard to believe that AMC built so many of these similar theatres in the Southern California market and thrived with such mediocrity. I'm not sure if AMC pioneered the idea of slide show ads prior to a movie presentation, but even as a kid, I found these obtrusive to the movie experience.

It wasn't until around 1987 that AMC took some planning, time and money and built some nicer theatres like the MainPlace and Century City 14.

The La Habra theatre, as I recall, was just as dreadful as the Orange Mall 6. There was another one in, I believe, Cerritos or Norwalk called the Alondra 6. I was a kid when these theatres were doing some good business (since they were usually very small, it was easy to pack the auditoriums on a Saturday night). At least in the case of Orange, there were two great alternatives in the Cinedome and City Center.

Still, the 'ol Orange Mall 6 held some fond memories for me being a kid growing up in nearby Anaheim Hills. Since it was close and very inexpensive, most of our parents could drop us off there during a Saturday matinee. The theatre used to run some second run or return engagements of recent films like "Star Wars" and "Airplane," and used to run most of the Disney releases/re-releases.

One of my friends hadn't seen "Star Wars" yet, so he and I went to see it at Orange Mall 6 in 1979. He wasn't impressed by the movie! Come to think of it, it didn't have the same feeling as it did when I saw it at the Orange City Center Theatre. Bingo! We were watching "Star Wars" in a tiny, cramped theatre in 35mm mono sound. When I saw it in 1977, it was shown in 70mm Six Track Dolby Stereo. Talk about a difference in how one experiences a movie.

I saw a lot of the Disney re-issues here. And I think the first Dolby Stereo presentation I saw there was "The Karate Kid." I recall being excited that this theatre finally had stereo sound. I'm not quite sure when AMC installed Dolby Stereo, but even after "Karate Kid," they didn't seem to run a lot of films in the format. By that time, I was going to the Cinedome much more often anyway.

Indeed, when the Orange Mall finally got renovated a few years ago, the Broadway dept. store was demolished, as was the Orange Mall 6.

The double feature on the right was advertised as showing at the Orange Mall 6 in October 1973:
http://snipurl.com/205zn

The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing was released on June 20, 1973.

That title sounds more like a porno than a Burt Reynolds film.

AMC ran the theatre as a relatively successful discount house in it's later years. It's closing coresponded not only with the mall's redevelopment, but also with AMC's expansion of their Fullerton venue. The staff and management were offered positions at the Fullerton 20 (expansion opened a couple of weeks after the Orange Mall 6 closing), but only one individual accepted the offer.

I have great memories of seeing movie here when I was a kid, including "Hot Lead and Cold Feet" with Don Knotts, "Hooper" with Burt Reynolds, and "Superman II."
As a teen I got to see lots of great horror movies here such as "A Nightmare On Elm Street," "Dawn of the Dead," "The Evil Dead," and "Friday the 13th The Final Chapter."
Also, Midnite Movies were a big deal at the AMC Orange Mall 6 Theaters, showing stuff regularly on Saturday nights like "Rocky Horror," "Eraserhead," and "The Song Remains the Same." Good times!

This is from Boxoffice magazine in August 1971:

ORANGE, CALIF.-Construction got underway in early August on American Multi Cinema's first sixplex in California, the Mall of Orange, on Tustin Avenue at Heim in Orange. The fourth AMC multi-theater in California, the Mall of Orange will have three 300-seat auditoriums, two 196-seat auditoriums and one 293-seat auditorium. American Multi Cinemas has scheduled a December 22 opening date for the entertainment complex.

Copy of Grand Opening Ad.
http://occinema.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/orange-mall-6-flyer.jpg