Mission Theatre (I)

On April 8, 1921, the Santa Ana Register reported “Movie manager Cason is completing arrangements for building a movie House on the highway between the new Stoeffel building and San Juan Inn.”

At a cost of $10,000 the 250-seat theatre opened on September 24, 1921, as the Capistrano Theatre. By 1923 it was advertised as the Mission Theatre owing to its location across the street from the Mission. It was said that Mr. Cason was previously showing films in Woodman’s Hall where he jacked up the rear wheel of his Model T and ran a belt from it to power the projector.

The opening attraction was Harry Carey in “The Wallop", directed by John Ford. The film had opened the previous June at the Superba Theatre in Los Angeles and was reviewed as Carey’s best movie yet. Mr. Cason said Mr. Carey might attend but there is no follow-up to this story.

In October 1921 the Register said, “The old mission town is on the map theatrically.“ The occasion was the opening of Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Affairs of Anatole”, which had played to crowds in September at the Temple Theatre in Santa Ana and was still at the Rialto Theatre in Los Angeles. Interestingly, the film was banned by the Pasadena Board of Censors and after going to trial it ended with a split jury.

A Sanborn Insurance Map of 1929 shows the theatre as being across a small pathway from the Hotel Capistrano and in 1930 the building was moved back 20-feet and entered the sound age.

The final owner of the Mission Theatre was Mrs. Katherine Buchheim, who in April 1937 went into partnership with Mason Siler of the Balboa Theatre.

The Register noted on November 22, 1939, Capistrano’s first theatre, built by the late Fred Cason, was recently torn down. In 1947 a building now known as Ortega’s Capistrano Trading Post was built approximately on the site.

Thanks to the San Juan Capistrano Historical Society for finding among their collection a photo of the Mission Theatre, and nearby buildings.

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