Loma Theatre
109 W. State Street,
Redlands,
CA
92373
109 W. State Street,
Redlands,
CA
92373
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Fox West Coast Theatres
Previous Names: Liberty Theatre, Empress Theatre, State Theatre
Nearby Theaters
On November 23, 1974, The Redlands Daily Facts published a photo of the Loma Theatre’s demolition, in preparation for the construction of the Redlands Mall.
Here is a time line from the archives of the Daily Facts about the Loma:
1912–It Opened as the Empress Theatre.
1923–The name was changed to the Liberty.
1920’s–Theater came under control of the West Coast Junior circuit.
1930–Closed.
1940–It Reopened as the State Theatre by Fox West Coast Theatres.
1943–Because of high wartime theater attendance it was remodeled by West Coast Theatres and reopened as the Loma Theatre.
1949–The Loma Theatre was closed and used as for storage.
1958– The Loma Theatre was remodeled into a furniture store.
In the mid-1920’s The Liberty Theatre advertised in the LA times along with the local Majestic Theatre under the West Coast Theatre banner. The city building inspector closed the Majestic Theatre in December of 1928, just before the opening of the circuit’s flagship, the West Coast Junior Theatre in 1928. Another Redlands landmark, the 1,500-seat Wyatt Theatre was leased by the West Coast Junior Circuit but it appears its use was limited mainly to vaudeville and stage productions.
Contributed by
Ron Pierce
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Recent comments (view all 3 comments)
AKA:
STATE THEATER
Anyone have more info or photos?
A letter from J. L. Derfus in the November 20, 1915, issue of The Moving Picture World says that “[t]he Empress runs only once in a while, or twice in a long, long while.” The town’s other two movie houses, the Grand and the Majestic, were operating seven days a week.
It’s probably the fact that West State Street no longer exists between Orange Street and Eureka Street that has caused Google Maps to put its pin icon on East State Street. I’ve set Street View to look down the former alignment of the mostly-obliterated thoroughfare. The Loma Theatre was probably three to four hundred feet west of the intersection.