AMC Fashion Square 4
West Imperial Highway and Idaho Street,
La Habra,
CA
90631
West Imperial Highway and Idaho Street,
La Habra,
CA
90631
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Grand opening ad posted.
According to the LA Times display ads, Krikorian Theatres reopened this location on 1/31/1992 appeared to operate this until 9/4/1997. This and the La Mirada 7 were not sold to Regal when Regal bought the other Krikorian Theatres.
The drive-in theater became a Super K-Mart which was closed in 2008/9? Target demolished the k-mart and a new target was built in its place. There was a Circuit City there that went out of business almost immediately as they went bankrupt. I grew up in the Fullerton area and used to ride my bike to this theater and play games at the Milky Way arcade. Was one of the best arcades around but was in decline with the rest of the mall at the time.
Oh my god! this theatre was my childhood. Remember seening so many movies here as a kid. Even attempted to sneak into and R rated movie only to get kicked out by the usher. I also remember the restrooms being downstairs under the auditoriums.
I worked at AMC Fashion Square in the late 70’s. I inherited an Usher position from my brother who was going away to college. The people who worked there were great back then. Awesome memories. I also was General Manager of the theatre in 1985. The business volume had dropped but still a great character theatre!
I grew up in the Euclid/Imperial Hwy area right up the street. The La Habra Fashion Square 4 was an institution in our family. I recall seeing many movies there. Among them I recall was “Young Frankenstein”,“Gorky Park”, “Blue Lagoon”, several Disney films, if I really think about it I’m sure I could come up with a long list. Sometimes after a movie we would go to the little “Fiddlers Three” restaurant right next door. It was a cute little family owned place with some reasonably good food.
I no longer live in California but one day on a business trip I was in the area and drove past and was shocked to see it was all gone. In fact the entire Fashion Square Mall was gone! It was never a great theater, average at best, but it made me sad to think of all the good times I had there. What was really tragic is when they tore down the La Habra Drive-In across the street. The neon out front was beautiful and it was all destroyed in vain. They built a Target store there which failed in that location and has been closed and boarded up for years now. So sad.
I have so many memories of the Fashion Square 4. I saw The 1976 King kong, Superman the movie, and so many others. One od thing I do remember, When I first started going they used a detached ticket booth to the left of the building (When facing the main door) then shortly after stopped and switched to a window at the main door. I never could find out why.
Gary
The theatre’s total sating was 1,150.
Two large auditoriums: 375 each
Two small auditoriums: 200 each
The original interior color scheme was red and gold.
Here is a 1970 ad:
http://tinyurl.com/yvs45s
Here is a January 1980 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/2j89ae
I loved this theatre! Not because it was a great theatre, but just because I had so many memories there. Me and my mom and best friend went there all the time. And, I eventually worked there in the mid-80s, as well as my best friend. I liked its quirkiness—the odd shape of the theatres, the brick red coloring, the free-standing box office, the cagey off-limits projection booth, the restaurant Fiddler’s Three next door.
Fun Facts—one-time manager Monica Dashwood went on to manage many of AMC’s flagship theatres (and her sisters were AMC managers too), and eventually was hired to run George Lucas’s THX operation.
Also, my best friend met his future wife there, a co-worker, and they now have two great kids.
A few things about this theater:
It had curtains on the screens, rare for a multiplex.
The Projection Booth was off-limits to everyone except for the Projectionist, of course, and the Theater Manager- No visitors or tours. It was said that Durwood did this so his Theater set-up would be hard to copy.
Finally, the Projection Booth used the change over method, employing 2 projectors with 6000' reels in the 4 Theaters.
Here is a satellite look at the old AMC 4 in 1994, and the Regal in 2005.
View link
I had made a comment on this, why was it deleted?
Anyhow, this theatre was located in the East End of what used to be the La Habra Fashion Square. When the mall was closed, the entire area except for the outbuildings and the theatre were torn down.
The theatre lived into the new center. After AMC Closed the theatre in 1992, Krikorian Premiere Theatres ran the cinema for a few years, then was sold to Regal Theatres, which bought most of Krikorian’s theatres.
Regal closed the theatre and built the stadium next to it. Today, the parking lot on the side of the Regal is where the old AMC once stood.