UA Mall Cinemas 1-2-3-4

It is just Cerritos, ken – and, judging from the Finish Line location, the address was 333 Los Cerritos Mall, Cerritos, CA 90703. Interesting that you should call it a “shoebox,” Jeff – it’s a shoe store now!

Positioned in the corridor between Robinson’s and the Broadway, the theater was on the west side of the mall across from the early-80’s arcade Mecca “Sega Center”. I remember the ticket booth out front was made of dark wood veneer with a suspended, illuminated cube with the numbers 1 – 4 in 70’s “Laugh-In” font. Once you purchased the ticket you walked through the glass doors behind the ticket booth; the snack bar was to the left in a large-ish lobby. Directly across from the snack bar were video games like Pac Man or a pinball machine (or both).

The theaters set off a central corridor. The screens and auditoriums were never as big as the UA Twin outside, but they helped me kill a lot of Summers. I remember seeing Black Beauty, For Your Eyes Only, and my favorite first-run double-bill: 9 to 5 with Airplane!; in fact, I think this theater ran a lot of double features in the early 80’s. Later I saw The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover there, must have been the early 90’s?

I managed this dump ,for 6 months it was really a grind house it opened at 10 am and ran 1045pm shows in the evening, UA didn’t spend a dime on this place the twin was in the parking lot, my friend Josephine was the Manager of the twin, it was a lot nicer than the 4 plex in the mall and it had great sound and 70mm, it played all the big first run films and then they moved them to the mall after they were dead. Marsha Naify was the District Manager any one know where she is? still in Long Beach?

Meredith,

A few things… The UA Mall didn’t have 70. You’re thinking of someplace else (perhaps the UA Twin out in the parking lot). Also, AMC was not in the Los Cerritos Center shopping mall, but a short distance away on Alondra. In fact, it was called AMC Alondra 6. Alondra 6 became a discount house by the late 1980s. Marsha Naify, of the Naiy family that once owned United Artists Theatres, was a Southern California DM for UA as well as a film booker for that chain. I believe she did work out of San Francisco for a while (when UA’s main office was there) but eventually she did bookings from Encino. I saw her name in (I believe it was a horse racing) article a couple years ago. Anyone know where Mark Naify is now?

I just read that Marsha Naify married a women named, Ana Pinheiro.