Don’t remember the golf course or the crazy murals. (Are you sure they weren’t a product of what you were smoking in the bathroom at Rolling Hills?) Hard to believe there ever was a Sambo’s chain – with the story of “Little Black Sambo” told over the counter. Egads!!
Oh yes, the Bird Farm! That was a couple of miles west on PCH from Rolling Hills. Don’t remember the BBQ place, but there was a Shakee’s Pizza there, and a Sambo’s across the street.
FYI “SkaterDater” fans: “SkaterDater” won the Palme D'Or for Best Short Film at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Film the same year. The young director, Noel Black, went on to a long career in television.
Hi Kim. I honestly don’t remember any live shows or audience participation activities at the Rolling Hills Theater, but my time there was around ‘69-'73. Things I do remember: The L-shaped shopping mall that stood on the western edge of the RHT parking lot included a JJ Newberry’s (where my mother worked in the '50s, and where we would often go to sit at the counter for lunch or ice cream), and a large fabric store (where my mother would spend seemingly endless hours looking through pattern books). A small strip of stores stood on the east side of the RHT parking lot, and included a Swedish Smorgasbord (buffet-style) restaurant that seemed wildly exciting at the time. Then, of course, there was the fabulous Parasol restaurant across PCH, and the UA Torrance theatre across Crenshaw. Both the UA and Rolling Hills had huge screens and curtains that opened dramatically before screenings. (I can vividly remember the Buena Vista logo before Disney films at the RHT undulating as it was projected on the opening curtains.) This block at that time – with the two theatres, Newberry’s, Swedish Smorgasbord and The Parasol – was a real center of attraction for my family during those years. After the murders, focus moved to the Del Amo Mall a couple of miles northwest, and then briefly to the Old Towne Mall (a creepy carnival-themed disaster) another mile north. By the end of the '70s, with Torrance having quickly developed, there was no “center” of anything anymore. I remember going back to the now-split Rolling Hills Theater in '79 or '80 to see 'Apocalypse Now’, and finding the place full of too many sad memories. The murders were the stuff of legend in high school, but for those of us who had actually spent our younger years there, they were a distinct dividing line in our lives.
My little sister and I spent most Saturdays in the late ‘60s and early '70s watching Disney double features at the Rolling Hills Theater. All of our friends would be there – all of us parentless. That’s what made the brutality of the '73 murders even more shocking – this had been the safe place in the area to leave your kids for a few hours. It was truly an end of innocence for us all – both children and adults. (My father was the local locksmith at the time, and was called by the police to change all of the building’s locks even before word of the murders had been released. I can still remember the tension when he came home that night.) A huge turning point in my childhood.
Don’t remember the golf course or the crazy murals. (Are you sure they weren’t a product of what you were smoking in the bathroom at Rolling Hills?) Hard to believe there ever was a Sambo’s chain – with the story of “Little Black Sambo” told over the counter. Egads!!
Oh yes, the Bird Farm! That was a couple of miles west on PCH from Rolling Hills. Don’t remember the BBQ place, but there was a Shakee’s Pizza there, and a Sambo’s across the street.
FYI “SkaterDater” fans: “SkaterDater” won the Palme D'Or for Best Short Film at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Film the same year. The young director, Noel Black, went on to a long career in television.
Hi Kim. I honestly don’t remember any live shows or audience participation activities at the Rolling Hills Theater, but my time there was around ‘69-'73. Things I do remember: The L-shaped shopping mall that stood on the western edge of the RHT parking lot included a JJ Newberry’s (where my mother worked in the '50s, and where we would often go to sit at the counter for lunch or ice cream), and a large fabric store (where my mother would spend seemingly endless hours looking through pattern books). A small strip of stores stood on the east side of the RHT parking lot, and included a Swedish Smorgasbord (buffet-style) restaurant that seemed wildly exciting at the time. Then, of course, there was the fabulous Parasol restaurant across PCH, and the UA Torrance theatre across Crenshaw. Both the UA and Rolling Hills had huge screens and curtains that opened dramatically before screenings. (I can vividly remember the Buena Vista logo before Disney films at the RHT undulating as it was projected on the opening curtains.) This block at that time – with the two theatres, Newberry’s, Swedish Smorgasbord and The Parasol – was a real center of attraction for my family during those years. After the murders, focus moved to the Del Amo Mall a couple of miles northwest, and then briefly to the Old Towne Mall (a creepy carnival-themed disaster) another mile north. By the end of the '70s, with Torrance having quickly developed, there was no “center” of anything anymore. I remember going back to the now-split Rolling Hills Theater in '79 or '80 to see 'Apocalypse Now’, and finding the place full of too many sad memories. The murders were the stuff of legend in high school, but for those of us who had actually spent our younger years there, they were a distinct dividing line in our lives.
My little sister and I spent most Saturdays in the late ‘60s and early '70s watching Disney double features at the Rolling Hills Theater. All of our friends would be there – all of us parentless. That’s what made the brutality of the '73 murders even more shocking – this had been the safe place in the area to leave your kids for a few hours. It was truly an end of innocence for us all – both children and adults. (My father was the local locksmith at the time, and was called by the police to change all of the building’s locks even before word of the murders had been released. I can still remember the tension when he came home that night.) A huge turning point in my childhood.