Star Theatre

Joe Vogel on January 6, 2010 at 8:28 am

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….”

lostmemory on June 7, 2009 at 6:29 pm

1983 Photo

1983 Photo

1983 Photo

1984 Night Photo

lostmemory on March 22, 2008 at 1:25 pm

More photos can be seen here, here, and here.

lostmemory on March 17, 2008 at 10:04 pm

Sidecar Racers was released in February of 1975.

lostmemory on September 15, 2007 at 1:57 pm

Here are some recent photos of the Star Theater. Click each photo to expand it.

kencmcintyre on July 28, 2007 at 4:56 pm

Here is a July 2007 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/2hxrz6

JayAllenSanford on June 22, 2007 at 3:31 am

There’s a cover article in today’s San Diego Reader, detailing the histories of all the downtown theaters once run by Vince Miranda, at one time co-owner of California’s Pussycat Theatre chain. This is one of the theaters chronicled in the piece, which is built from a series of email interviews with Cinema Treasures contribs Dan Whitehead and Tim David (David is Miranda’s godson). Unfortunately, the online version doesn’t have any of the great photos and graphics seen in the printed version – I wrote the piece and will probably put scans of the graphics on my own webpage before much longer, after the next issue comes out. Here’s a link to the article on the Reader site:

View link

This is our second major feature on southern CA theaters in about a year (the other, “Field Of Screens,” is just on San Diego drive-ins and can be found on the Reader site with the search bar). If anyone here likes the article(s) and would like to encourage the publisher to greenlight more, feel free to leave your thoughts about the piece in the comment section after article. The paper really pays attention to reader comments!
http://www.sdreader.com/ed/cover/

lostmemory on February 15, 2007 at 11:22 am

This is a 09/03/2000 article about the closing of the Star Theater.

“Oceanside, Calif., Theater Closes Its Doors.

Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Author: Johnson, Craig

Sep. 1—OCEANSIDE, Calif.—A 6 p.m. showing of “Sunshine” marked the final screening at the downtown Star Theatre, with owner Jim Heiser shutting the doors for good Thursday.

“I’m looking forward to the time off,” Heiser said, as the last film played in the theater at the northeast corner of Civic Center Drive and North Coast Highway.

Heiser said the effort to sell the 868-seat theater to the Encinitas-based Poinsettia Theatre Group was moving along and he cited that as a key reason for closing the facility.

Meanwhile, members of the Poinsettia group met in the theater office Thursday to discuss a fund-raising plan for purchasing the building. A consultant told the group it needed to raise $1.7 million, the amount Poinsettia President Ann Schulz has estimated it would cost to turn the cinema into a performing arts venue.

The theater first opened in 1956. The first movie shown in it was “Moby Dick,” starring Gregory Peck. But after years as a North County showplace, it fell on hard times and for a while became an “X-rated” movie house.

Just two years ago, Heiser spent several hundred thousand dollars to renovate the Star, which had fallen into disrepair and been closed for four years.

He was nostalgic Thursday about the cinema’s closing.

“This theater is too big just to be a movie theater because of its capacity,” Heiser said.

Using the Star for live theater as the Poinsettia group would do could prove a better use because the theater would have performances that are unique to it, he said.

As a movie theater, it has competed more recently with multiplexes in other parts of Oceanside that often showed the same films — including the new Regal Cinemas just down Coast Highway at OceanPlace.

“It’s one big piece of pie that everybody is cutting,” Heiser said.

Other factors also played a part in Heiser’s decision to make Thursday the theater’s finale, he said. September has traditionally been a slow month in the movie theater business and his staff was also returning to school about now, Heiser said".

hownowbrownpaul on April 2, 2006 at 12:48 am

There are several photos of the Star Theater here:
http://www.cinematour.com/tour/us/25026.html

lostmemory on November 1, 2005 at 4:51 pm

This is a photo of the Star Theater.

forevryours123 on September 6, 2005 at 4:55 pm

Dose anyone no the adress name for tehcoast kids theather group website???

KenRoe on December 7, 2004 at 11:06 am

The street address of the Star Theater is 402 N. Coast Highway, Oceanside, CA. 92054

The architects were; Balch, Bryan, Perkins and Hutchason and construction was commenced in February 1956 for the owner/operator Fred Siegel. Seating capacity was given as 986 on one level.

The Star Theater opened on 18th August 1956 with the movie “Moby Dick” starring Gregory Peck.

The theatre boasted the largest marquee in San Diego County. It is 65 feet wide and 6 feet high. Above the marquee carrying out the name theme is a field of flashing and twinkling stars; for company the stars have an electrical waterfall cascading from 48 feet in the air.

The auditorium was fitted with surround speakers built into the ceiling of the theater, for the ‘then new’ stereophonic movies.

The Star Theater remained in the hands of the Siegel family until 1980 when they sold it to an outside developer. It changed hands several times eventually operating as an ‘Adult porno’ movie theatre from 1987. From April 1989, it returned to showing regular release movies again (although the first offering was the ‘R’ Rated “Skin Deep” and “Seige of Firebase Gloria”).

The Star finally closed to movies in September 2000 when the building had been purchased by the Poinsettia Center for the Performing Arts as a performing arts center.

It is now home to the Coast Kids Theatre and the Star Theatre Company. They have installed 446 plush new seats (the current capacity), new lightboard and sound systems. The stage is 33 feet deep, by 40 feet wide.