Walker's Theatre
220 N. Bush Street,
Santa Ana,
CA
92701
220 N. Bush Street,
Santa Ana,
CA
92701
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My dad was the Victor M Walker mentioned above (I am Victor M Walker Jr.), and Chuck Walker is my half-brother. I grew up in Santa Ana, and remember the State Theater. I visited the old Walker Theater a few weeks before it was demolished. I would have been 10 then. Good memories.
I was born (1945) and raised in Santa Ana and remember the Walker, West Coast, Broadway, Yost and State theatres well. I attended many Saturday shows at the Walker and West Coast, admission was 10 cents or two Bubble Up bottle caps. The West Coast is now a church. The Yost was always Hispanic during my tenure in Santa ana (1945-1968). The State was basically used for storage. I went to grammar, junior high and senior high (SAHS) schools with Chuck Walker (graduated 1963 SAHS)of the Walker dynasty. While at a SAHS reunion in 1973, Chuck said he owned the Wagon Wheel bar in Costa Mesa. Chuck, are you still around? Contact me is you want.
Harry “John” Verburg, Jr.
End of the road, 2/3/63, per the LA Times:
The Walker Theater at 3rd and Bush Streets will be demolished under a $3300 contract which the city has with Walter Hesse of Gardena.
Here is an LA Times article from 10/22/49 about the sale of the theater:
Four Santa Ana Theaters Sold
Charles V. Walker and his son, Victor M. Walker, Orange County theater owners for the past thirty five years, announced that ownership of their four Santa Ana theaters would be assumed by Milton B. and Harry Arthur, owners of the Cabart Theater Corp.
The Walker’s, State, Yost and Princess theaters transaction represents one of the largest major business deals ever made here although no consideration was announced pending completion of escrow proceedings.
George A. King, president of the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce and manager of the five West Coast theaters in Orange County, is a brother-in-law of the Arthur brothers and has represented the family interests in Orange County. The late Harry Arthur Sr. was a long-time theater operator in Anaheim and his sons have extensive theater holdings, with head offices in Long Beach.
I’ve been unable to find the name of the architect who designed the 1909 Temple Theatre, but the August 2nd, 1935, issue of Southwest Builder and Contractor contains an article saying that the architects who prepared the plans for remodeling the theatre for C.E. Walker were Austin & Wildman, of Santa Ana.