Loma Theatre
3150 Rosecrans Boulevard,
San Diego,
CA
92110
3150 Rosecrans Boulevard,
San Diego,
CA
92110
15 people
favorited this theater
Although the Loma Theatre’s gorgeous signage is still intact, this S. Charles Lee designed former movie house is now a bookstore. Thankfully, much of the interior decoration has been retained.
Contributed by
Kathy Ramsey
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Recent comments (view all 44 comments)
The correct street address is Rosecrans Place, not Blvd.
“Rosecrans Place” may be just the address for the bookstore that now occupies this former theatre building, since the bookstore’s entrance is in the rear of that building. However, the box office and entrance for the movie theatre was in the front and faced the boulevard.
Check the map — the theater is between Rosecrans Street and Rosecrans Place. There is no Blvd.
But you’re right that Bookstar is using Place in their address, but Street is more correct for the theater.
The Loma held a “second anniversary party” for Sound Of Music when it hit the two year mark. They rounded up some of the child cast members and had a huge cake prepared. I remember seeing a photo in the Union of one of the two boys in the cast cutting the cake with Angela Cartwright (who by that time was appearing in “Lost In Space”). I don’t recall if the public was invited to the party or if it was just a PR stunt for the papers.
In the early to mid 1960s, the Loma ran Saturday morning matinees during the summer months. It may have been going on during the 40s and 50s but I was too young to have remembered. Usually a Disney flick, some cartoons, and a drawing for a free trip to Disneyland. At one point, if you presented I think a dozen Mountain Dew bottle caps, admission was free. Otherwise you paid 25 cents. It wasn’t a Saturday morning habit with me, but I recall going maybe half a dozen times as a kid.
“The Sound of Music” was playing at this theatre when my family moved to San Diego in April 1966, and it was still playing there when we moved away in November 1967. We saw most of our movies at the MCRD theatre and at the Aero Drive-In. The Aero was on El Cajon Blvd, if I remember correctly.
@TArbiter: Your recollection is most likely correct, Sound of Music began there in 1965 and—since it ran 2 ½ years—must have lasted until at least late 1967. I remember seeing “Rosemary’s Baby” at the Loma during sixth grade (1967-68), after Sound of Music concluded its run, so it must have been sometime in winter or spring of 1968. Internet Movie Database gives a March 1965 world premiere date of 29 March 1965 for Sound of Music (but it may not have opened immediately in San Diego), and a June 1968 USA premiere date for Rosemary’s Baby. So I must have seen the latter film shortly after eseen the latter film about the time school let out in June 1968.
By the way, the “Gateway Village” military housing along Barnett St was torn down several years ago and replaced by condominiums. St. Charles Catholic Church is still there. MCRD is still there as you knew it, but NCTD was torn down and today hosts homes and shopping areas, called “Liberty Station”. If you lived in Gateway Village, then you would have attended Dewey Elementary, Collier Junior High, or Point Loma High, depending on your school grade at the time.
March 29, 1965, is not the correct date for the world premiere (in New York) or the opening in San Diego. (March 29th is when the film premiered in London.) The world premiere of “The Sound of Music” was actually held on March 2nd. The San Diego premiere was held four weeks later on March 31st.
The IMDB…sigh… Great for actors and which films they starred in, but not very reliable for things like release dates or technical data. For more insight on “Sound of Music” release dates and its exhibition history, please see my article, Happy 45th, The Sound of Music
This opened on May 25th, 1945. Grand opening ad in photo section for this theatre.
Modernization described in this 1960 trade article: Boxoffice