Star Theatre
402 North Coast Highway,
Oceanside,
CA
92054
402 North Coast Highway,
Oceanside,
CA
92054
9 people
favorited this theater
The Star Theatre opened in August 1956 with a seating capacity for 986. There were 546 seats in the orchestra and 440 in the stepped loge section at the rear. Behind the loge seating area was a cry room, that was equipped with electric fixtures for bottle warmers.
This was once a popular movie house, located in downtown Oceanside. In it’s darkest days it fuctioned as an adult theater operated by Pussycat Theatres, but has recently been renovated and is used for live performances.
Contributed by
Ian Ehrnstrom
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Recent comments (view all 26 comments)
Here is a photo circa 1974:
http://tinyurl.com/2zbyrk
Sidecar Racers was released in February of 1975.
ken mc, they changed the name of Hill Street to Coast Highway. I don’t know the year.
More photos can be seen here, here, and here.
Some photos I took back in November 2000, when it had recently closed as a movie theater and its fate was uncertain. Sorry the first two aren’t the sharpest, early digital cameras were unpredictable things:
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1983 Photo
1983 Photo
1983 Photo
1984 Night Photo
Another photo of the Star Theater is here.
The Balch in the firm of Balch, Bryan, Perkins, Hutchason was William Glenn Balch, the considerably younger brother of theater architect Clifford Balch. Following the dissolution of the firm of Balch & Balch, in 1946 Clifford Balch formed a partnership with Louis L. Bryan. Balch & Bryan became Balch, Bryan, Perkins, Hutchason, Architects in 1953, with the addition of partners John Loring Perkins and W.K. Hutchason.
Here is a Boxoffice article about the Star Theatre. It notes that William Glenn Balch had “…designed over 180 southland theatres over the last 25 years….”
Jim Heiser and I connected during the re-opening of the Star Theater when it played TITANIC in late June of 1998. I had just released the book “The Wreck and Sinking of the Titanic” and he asked me to open the theater. So with microphone in hand I stood at the curtain and gave a breif overview of the history then took questions. After the showing I sold books in the lobby. I was saddened to see it close.
Douglas Westfall, Publisher
www.SpecialBooks.com
Replacing an expired link to a trade article cited above by Joe Vogel: boxoffice