Carson Twin
23221 Avalon Boulevard,
Carson,
CA
90745
23221 Avalon Boulevard,
Carson,
CA
90745
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First listed in the LA Times on April 25th, 1973. No grand opening ad found.
I grew up in Torrance and Carson during the 60s and 70s. Went to about a dozen movies at the Carson Twin Cinemas. Mostly B movies. (It was located in Scottsdale Shopping Center, a strip mall of businesses. There was a public library here for awhile. A hardware store who’s owner pestered you the moment you walked in the door. A Try-It Department store, a shoe repair business, and a roasted chicken place.) The movies I can remember seeing there were ‘Bug’, with Bradford Dillman, ‘SSSSSSS’, with Strother Martin, and ‘Return To Macon County’, with Nick Nolte and Don Johnson. I also saw ‘Gone With The Wind’, in it’s 40 year revival run. But the movie that really stands out in my memory is ‘Billy Jack’. 1973 or 1974. Likely the very first ‘art movie’ I saw in any theatre. One other local business near the cinema was a Straw Hat Pizza Parlor. Opened in the mid 70s. Had a PONG machine there! Plus an old timey kinda Trivia Game. What memories from that era .
I loved this theater when I was a kid, right across the place was a Straw Hat Pizza that I remember being really good, so we’d see a movie get pizza and play video games. I remember I saw Ridley Scott’s Legend twice here in 1985 and saw RoboCop here twice as well in 1987. It closed in 1990 because Quick Change the Bill Murray Randy Quaid clown robbery movie was the last movie left on their marquee for years afterward til they tore it down.
Went here 1 time in 1986. It was small, boxy & drenched in mid-1970’s decor.
The shopping complex which replaced an aging housing project opened in late 1966 and was called the Scottsdale Shopping Center. A Foods Co. supermarket anchored the south end and a do it yourself car wash the other end. Some of the tennants included a Rasco store, Sears catalog outlet, a barbershop and a branch of the Los Angeles County Library. The Carson Twin opened sometime in the mid70s. At the time nobody in the neighborhood believed someone was actually building a movie theatre there since the building under construction was so small.
Yo KingB!
Ya know it!!! I went to a “grindhouse” event in Palm Springs last year and it really reminded me of this theatre. They screened 70’s b-movies, westerns,1 kung fu dig and sexploitation flix, the event planners had installed a concession stand with ole skoo treats(tab soda, bon-bons, planters peanuts in da bag)and the attendants wore striped pink blazers w/white mini’s(jus da girlz). Some of the guys working the event had afros, mullets and slic-backed, greazy hair. Awe man, it was awesome! Hope they have another one this year.
Peace!!!
I wish today’s theatres were like that!
Wow, this place rocked. I mean, what’s not ta like about this legendary place? Samoans, kung-fu and horror flicks, rated-R movies.
Loved this place when I was in jr.high(1978-80). You could bring a note signed by your parent that it was okay to see rated-R movies. The manager(older white dude)or the Samoan chick w/afro would let me and my friends in to see such classics(boob flicks) as “Three the Hardway”, “I Spit on your Grave” and other 70’s exploitation flixs. Had a blast man! Hey, if it was good enough for Q.Tarantino, it was good enough for me. Did I say that I love the kung fu flixs???
Peace!!!
There was a crappy sequel to Reanimator, but it came out a couple of years later.
I can’t find any listing for the Carson Twin (or any theatres at all in Carson) in my February 10, 1971, copy of the L.A. Times. In the August 24, 1986 issue, it’s listed in the Independent Theatres section as the Carson #1, which was showing “Friday the 13th pt.6” and “Reanimators” (perhaps 1985’s “Re-Animator”,unless there was a crappy sequel I’ve never heard of) and Carson #2, showing “Back to School” and “Seeking Susan” (or Desperately Seeking a Shorter Title for Our Diminutive Attraction Board.) A small building I presume is the theatre shows up on the aerial photo of 5/31/1994 at TerraServer.
South Bay Six Drive-in also shows up in the August 1986 listings, but not in February 1971. It, too, most likely opened in the early 1970s.
“Black Shampoo” was playing at the Carson Twin in June 1976:
http://tinyurl.com/3ymx67
Is there a listing for the South Bay Six Drive-In in Carson? It was operating when I moved here in 1994 but is now gone.
The Carson Twin began life as a twin and ended it that way. As I remember it was always independent and a terrible place to see a movie. The auditoriums were very small and uncomfortable. The building was simply shaped like a box and never really gave an air of permanence. It should be mentioned that not only the theater but the entire dilapidated shopping center it was in were demolished. Many of the websites I saw say the Carson Twin Tarantino attended was in Scottsdale, AZ but this section of Carson had an area known as Scottsdale Townhomes and even a Scott Park. As Tarantino was known for haunting the South Bay area I believe this was the place.