Whittier Theatre
11612 Whittier Boulevard,
Whittier,
CA
90601
11612 Whittier Boulevard,
Whittier,
CA
90601
6 people
favorited this theater
Opened in the summer of 1929 as the 1,200 seat McNees Theatre. It was was a pleasant, Atmospheric style neighborhood theater with hacienda style sidewalls. It was damaged in the the 1987 Whittier earthquake and never reopened.
Contributed by
BHousos
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Recent comments (view all 53 comments)
Nice! I went to Whittier College in the early 70’s and saw many a movie there. Afterwards we would go down the street to a burger place called Little Jeff’s. One of the best Chili style burgers I’ve ever had. Anyone remember the place….better yet, did you work there and know the receipe for the sauce? :–)
Great site and loved that theatre. I do remember the clouds.
cinema buffs, currently working on a new issue of the whittier conservancy newsletter & other special publishing projects—and looking for historic photos of old whittier & the whittier cinemas. anyone willing to share old pictures, please contact me (send note to ). what a shame that this place was destroyed unnecessarily.
I grew up in Montebello, I would drive by it all the time on the way to Whitwood or Lovells, although I only went to this theater once in 1983 and saw Flashdance and Porkys 2 double feature. I remember the place just always seemed run down to me and discount movies, wasn’t it like $1.99 for a double feature?, I was 13 at the time, the decor was interesting, it is something we don’t see anymore. I just remember the place smelled like dirty socks, I was looking at the ceiling and balconies wondering if someone hung smelly socks there, for 4 hours, it wasn’t pleasant. It is too bad so much of Whittiers style and history is being thrown away, I remember some beautiful buildings in Montebello on Whittier were damaged in the quake, all gone.
Here are two 1983 photos:
Photo1
Photo2
I grew up in Whittier and frequented both the Whittier Theatre as well as Wardman. I do remember the ceiling, it looked as if there were stars and clouds and it was magnificent, even then when I was a kid. How sad that they didn’t preserve this and so many other historical landmarks. Whittier just isn’t the same as it was when I left it in the 1980’s. Everywhere you look they have built another drug store, Walmart, it has lost it’s charm.
At “least” we had the opportunity to enjoy these landmarks before they were destroyed, for that I will ALWAYS be grateful!
I grew up in Whittier during the ‘60s and '70s. I did go to the Whittier Theater a number of times. Some of the movies that I remember seeing there were “Thoroughly Modern Millie” in 1967 and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” sometime after that. But what I remember MOST was that directly across the street from the theater on Hadley was a fast food place called Little Ol’ Taco Maker. My sister and I spent half of our lives at the fast food place. The food was really good. I think we went there starting in 1967 when I was in the 3rd grade all the way to High School around 1976. I remember right next to it was a car wash. I don’t know when they tore that restaurant down. Maybe after the earthquake??
I did also go to the Wardman (saw The Junglebook there) and the Whittwood but never the Roxy. It burned down before I ever had a chance to see a movie there. What memories.
I remember coming here with my mom and sisters,we lived in Pico Rivera,this was a big deal back then because there were not a lot of walk-ins.One movie that stuck in my head was Halloween and several scary movies were shown here as double features.It was so cool because it was one screen so it packed a large audience, no matter what movie.I remember always looking up above and the ceiling had stars that glittered and the left and rightsides looked like real stairways into spanish homes. It was such a popular theater that they had guys acting like club bouncers picking people to go in by there looks I suppose,they let me and my mom in I guess he thought she looked nice,lol.It was something we did every weekend.None of these modern theaters will never compare to the Whittier Theater and others like it. Nice memories here.
I saw the 1986 Disney movie “The Great Mouse Detective” at the Whittier. The interior atmosphere reminded me of the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago.
Too bad Whittier lost a great theater.
We moved to La Habra in December 1965. I remember going to the Whittier Theater to see the movie The Great Race in the spring of 1966. Coming from the midwest, I was awestruck by the Spanish architecture of the theater. Although I was only 13 at the time, I remember that theater as if it was yesterday – it made that much of an impression. I also went to many movies at the Whitwood Theater and at the Fashion Square Theater in La Habra. Fashion Square was unique for its time as it had four screens under one roof – a novel concept for that time. The Whittier Theater, however, was the most enjoyable theater I have ever attended.
The Whittier, in the 1940’s and 50’s was the “posh” theatre in town, and it was a real treat to go to a movie there instead of the Wardman or the Roxy: the night sky ceiling was glamorous and mystifying, and the courtyard felt like we were visiting one of the Missions instead of just being a few blocks from home. The building was on a bit of a hill and there were retail spaces around the corner on the right, as well as those on the street frontage: one of them was the beauty salon my grandma went to every Friday, and did that ever feel like a big deal to go with her :) The last time I got to attend the Whittier was when I was down for my grandpa’s funeral in 1982 and it still looked as wonderful to me then as it ever had, but that may have been nostalgia. I think my mom and I saw Indiana Jones that time, because I remember thinking that it was such a great place to be watching that particular movie. The next time I was back, the year after the earthquake, it was gone. Thank goodness the Wardman is still there.