GCC Santa Anita 4
400 S. Baldwin Avenue,
Arcadia,
CA
91007
400 S. Baldwin Avenue,
Arcadia,
CA
91007
4 people
favorited this theater
This theatre was located on the second story of the Santa Anita Fashion Center (now Westfield Shoppingtown Santa Anita). It opened May 14, 1975 and closed on November 5, 1998. It was replaced with an Old Navy store.
It was a typical mall GCC with little flair. A small box office and a long corridor to the theatres in the back of the mall stores.
AMC, which bought GCC, later built a new 16 screen theatre in the same mall.
Contributed by
Jeff Arellano
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Recent comments (view all 11 comments)
Anyone know when this theatre opened? Im guessing sometime in the 70’s (I beleive the mall was built during that time).
The main feature I remember about the Santa Anita 4 was that if there was a major feature playing it was a pain in the butt to wait in line for tickets for to be let into the theater or to visit any of the stores directly around the cinema because the “lobby” (said long corridor) just wasn’t set up to handle crowds. When I lived in Pasadena, I wound up going to the Pacific Hastings Ranch or the Mann’s Hastings Ranch, the UA in Old Town when that opened, or the Colorado, or Esquire to see features because they were just more pleasant and easier to deal with.
I still remember trying to do some shopping Memorial Day weekend of 1983 when the Santa Anita 4 was running “Return of the Jedi” almost non-stop for that opening weekend. The word “nightmare” comes to mind.
The theatre might have opened sometime during late 1973 to 1974. Because GCC’s first theatre in Southern California was the Montclair Plaza Theatre.
Here is GCC’s unit roster from June of 1973.
WESTWOOD
Avco Center 1-3
Crest
BEVERLY HILLS
Beverly
HOLLYWOOD
Hollywood Cinema (aka. Paramount)
Holly
Century
REDONDO BEACH
South Bay Center 1-3
NORTHRIDGE
Fashion Center Cinema 1-3
SANTA MONICA
Cinema on the Mall
LOS ANGELES
Baldwin
Picfair
CANOGA PARK
Holiday
INGLEWOOD
Cine
GLENDALE
Roxy
PANORAMA CITY
Panorama
PASADENA
Colorado
CHATSWORTH
Cinema
SAN GABRIEL VALLEY
Capri
Covina
GRANADA HILLS
Granda
WOODLAND HILLS
Valley Circle
OXNARD
Carriage Square Cinema
SAN BERNARDINO
Inland Cinema
Studio
MONTCLAIR
Montclair Plaza 1-2
LONG BEACH
Lakewood
FULLERTON
Titan
FOUNTAIN VALLEY
Fountain Valley 1-2
ANAHEIM
Century 21
BUENA PARK
Buena Park
STANTON
Stanton
So Santa Anita 4 and Woodland Hill 3 had to have come after that on the roster of units.
Likely this was the Cinema West 4 (1968 – 1969, single screen; 1974 – 1975, fourplex) later renamed Mall Cinemas 4 (1979 â€" 1990).
Does anyone have a photo of this theatre??? Or does someone have a link to photos of it???
This was a great job. The view of the mountains and the horse track with all the wide open spaces was mystical. I use to relieve Bob, the regular projectionist, over there.
Bob later transfered over to their Sherman Oaks plex.
You know a lot folks talk about how boring GCC theatres were.I wish I had little GCC triple to go back to instead of these Monster 20 plexes or more.You really miss it and managing a smaller theatre.But most of you wouldn’t understand.
Last date of showings: November 5th, 1998
Here are some of the movies I saw there, starting in June of ‘75 and ending spring '98. The Land That Time Forgot with The Neptune Factor, Journey Back to Oz (rerelease), King Kong (1976 remake),The Spy Who Loved Me, Grease, Moonraker, Hero At Large, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Return of the Jedi, Twilight Zone:The Movie with Blue Thunder, Splash, Dreamscape, Back to the Future (multiple times over nine months), Real Genius, Warning Sign,Twice in a Lifetime, Short Circuit, The Fly (1986 remake), The Boy Who Could Fly, An American Tail, The Gate, Sleeping Beauty (Cannon Movie Tales), Masters of the Universe, Pass the Ammo, They Live, Fearing and Loathing in Las Vegas