Crest 1 & 2 Cinema

Joe Vogel on April 18, 2010 at 1:58 am

The West Coast Theatre was part of an office-commercial project called the Platt Building, erected for local developer Frank C. Platt. The project, planned from the beginning to include a large theater, was designed by San Bernardino architect Howard E. Jones.

The West Coast Theatres circuit signed a lease for the theater before the project was publicly announced. West Coast brought in Los Angeles architect Lewis A. Smith, who had designed a number of projects for the circuit, to work in association with Jones on the details of the theater. Jones was not unexperienced in theater design, having been the architect of the San Bernardino Municipal Auditorium, erected in 1923. He is also credited with the rebuilding of a Savoy Theatre at San Bernardino in 1921, and late in his career designed the Arrow Theatre at Fontana, California.

Fred Stein Theatres acquired the West Coast Theatre in 1960, and immediately began renovations. The house reopened as the Crest in June that year, according to Boxoffice of June 20.

kencmcintyre on April 18, 2009 at 9:51 am

Here is another 1983 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/cldsbo

richjr37 on December 22, 2008 at 9:58 pm

This was an OK twin,opened as a single screen by Fox West Coast,it had a large screen downstairs and a smaller one up a staircase where the original balcony was back in its hey day.

When i was a kid in the ‘80s,both screens would have triple features for a $1.50 “Platoon”,“Spaceballs”,“Hiding Out” and the Prince concert movie “Sign O’ The Times” were just a sample of movies that played here.

A couple doors away was one of the last surviving Pussycat theatres at the time.