Starlight Lakewood Center
5200 Faculty Avenue,
Lakewood,
CA
90712
5200 Faculty Avenue,
Lakewood,
CA
90712
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While a couple of earlier items in Boxoffice attribute the design of the Lakewood Center Theatre only to architect George T. Nowak, an illustrated, multi-page article about the house in the May 20, 1968, issue of the magazine names both Nowak (George T. Nowak & Associates) and architect Mel Glatz of Mel C. Glatz & Associates as the architects of the theater. The article also says that the decoration of the house was handled by the Heinsbergen studio.
When Pacific Theatre operated this theatre as a quad, the seating capacities were 1197, 742, 399, 371.
The only movie I specifically remember seeing in the big house at the original Lakewood Center Theatre was Rocky III. I don’t know why that’s the only one that stands out, as I wasn’t particularly thrilled with the film, but it is what it is. Memory is a funny thing. I remember walking in to that auditorium and being astounded by how massive it was. Growing up in Long Beach in the 70s and 80s, we had lost most of the classic single screen houses downtown, and the Belmont had already been turned in to a racquetball club, so the big houses at the UA Marketplace 6, which sat maybe 500, were what was big to me at the time. So that #1 house at the Lakewood Center Theatre was just mindblowing.
I did end up going back to the Lakewood Center 16 one in the late 1990s after its grand reopening. Pushing Tin was playing in one of the smaller, newer houses, but I peeked in to that big house. It was still pretty big, but it just didn’t have the same charm as before. Changes done in the name of progress rarely improve what was already a good thing.
I have to say this theater was way cooler before the renovation: it was lots of gaudy gold drapes and carpeting, and crystal chandeliers, almost reminiscent of a poor man’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. When I went here it was a 4 plex (although I have been there once as a 16 plex and swore never to go again), and the theater to be in was the main auditorium to your left, directly behind the snack bar.
Everything about this theater was big, from the screen and sound, to the restrooms the size of Montana. The main auditorium had four entrances, one per aisle, and the screen was rounded; I also seem to remember pre-show Muzak. I saw a ton of 70’s and 80’s films here: Alien, Back to the Future, Goonies, Purple Rain (?), Nightmare on Elm Street, Poltergeist 2, Flashdance, Footloose, Superman III, Out of Africa, Color Purple, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
The renovation completely neutered the character of this place.
Nevermind, i read the other article. So the 3 plex was to the east of the buffums store and then 6 screens added at the buffums.
Where was the 1,2,3 located at originally. I know the 9 plex opened when the old Buffums store closed and that was converted to the 9 plex.