SaiGon Performing Arts Center
16149 Brookhurst Street,
Fountain Valley,
CA
92708
16149 Brookhurst Street,
Fountain Valley,
CA
92708
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If we’re going to be thorough, the previous chains should include Loews and General Cinema.
This is a theatre I frequented many times during childhood. This is the theatre I was at when I had the realization that I no longer wanted to drink/eat anything while watching a movie because I was tired of having to use the bathroom in the middle of a film. LOL! I also have a memory of my mom taking my sister and I to see the movie OLD DRACULA (which she incorrectly thought was going to be a family friendly comedy) and about 10 minutes into the movie when a female character in the film was shot with a crossbow she made us leave. I remember she asked the manager if we could switch sides of the theatre to see what was playing on the other side: HERBIE RIDES AGAIN.
Closed as a cinema in 2000.
Grand opening ad posted for this theatre and the South Bay 3 in Redondo Beach.
The SaiGon Performing Arts Center is still in business and appears to be doing well, based on two things: Google Street Maps dated December 2017 (the camera car drove into the shopping center’s parking lot, right up to the theater), and a video just posted on YouTube today, May 31, 2018 (although likely shot in February 2018) – https://youtu.be/N7l5WaLN0-c
As of 2012, Star Performing Arts Center is back open as SaiGon Performing Arts Center, featuring Asian/ Vietnamese music and entertainment hosted by celebrities. SaiGon Performing Arts Center appears to be a success now.
I believe the theatre may have closed once again. The Star Performing Arts Center’s website no longer exists and the listed phone number has been disconnected. Additionally, there appears to have been no events at the venue for nearly a year.
Edwards took over the theatre in 1978.
The Fountain Valley Twin was opened by Loew’s on 12/24/71. The opening features were “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight” and “T.R. Baskin”. General Cinemas took the theatre over in 1973.
This theatre was built and operated by General Cinema Theatres of Boston before they sold it along with Saddleback 3 to Edwards in the late 1970’s. The Fountain Valley Twin was the original GCC design for twins from the 1960’s. The theatre lobby was in the center with one screen going to the right of the lobby and the other to the left. The only other theatre in Southern California with this GCC design was the GCC Twin in Montclair, CA.
Here is a December 2008 article from the OC Register:
http://tinyurl.com/6bg8kq