14 minute read
The Best Therapy In The World - A Movie at the Village Theater
By JOE DITLER
What better medicine could there be than a visit to a movie theater? Scientific studies are now confirming multiple benefits from attending a movie at your local theater.
Recent findings show that, “A visit to the movie theater offers a unique blend of sensory engagement, social connection, and focused attention that can have significant benefits for your overall well-being.” Not to mention, just getting you out of the house.
It’s a fast and noisy world out there, but once you step off the Terrazzo and into the Village Theater, led by the smell of freshly buttered popcorn, you leave it all behind.
The Village Theater was built in 1947, post-WWII, with a scarcity of materials to work with. While the town was ecstatic about this new movie house, the builder felt unfulfilled.
Then, half a century later (2000), the Village Theater was shuttered and abandoned, when the owners just walked away. The town was devastated. Adding insult to injury, the owners left the final film’s promotional announcement on the marque – “The Grinch.”
We had to wait, but a decade later, The Village Theater was completely re-designed and re-opened. Today, the Coronado Vintage Village Theater sits as a proud testament and posterchild to Coronado’s Arts & Culture community. It’s no wonder old-timers on the island refer to it as, “our special little church.”
Movie theaters have come a long way since that first silent film (1888), and then, lo, a talkie (1927). Who could have guessed? Now, sitting in a modern theater, watching a newly released movie, we are treated to the most advanced technological sights and sounds available to man. It’s a surreal experience that can literally lift you out of your chair.
Pause a moment, as you read this, and let your mind wander back to those early days, and your first visit to an enormous, darkened movie theater; maybe you were watching a horror movie, maybe a Western. Were there cartoons? We’re your friends all around you – Little League team perhaps, or Cub Scout or Brownie troop?
Today, many of us sit at home, in our favorite recliner chair, a cocktail at our side, and all we have to do is push a button or two, and we have access to a dozen streaming channels, pre-recorded favorites on DVR, and a plethora of channel surfing options.
And yet, it’s that old movie house of our youth that keeps popping up in memories and conversations, a spacious
theater decorated like old Hollywood, where mom would drop you off and then pick you up two hours later. It gave you a thrill; it gave her time to clean the house or just relax without noisy kids around.
Here in Coronado it was different. In safe little Coronado one could ride a bike or walk to the Village Theater and parents didn’t have to worry. Those memories will stick with us forever.
The 9,000-square-foot Village Theater became the unofficial gathering place for young families and has remained so for decades. The magic of the movies continues.
The value of such a precious little movie theater was so much more than just a place to see first-run films. Today, we sometimes take for granted that we have one of the most beautiful movie houses in the country, but it wasn’t always that way.
The history of our little Village Theater is fascinating. It was born March 18, 1947, with a studio preview attended by hundreds. The screening was so large, a second screening had to be arranged.
“...giant spotlights filled the sky over Coronado with bright beams of light that could be seen from Mexico, Alpine, Point Loma, and even the ships at sea.”
The town was ecstatic!
While we had an earlier theater, The Strand Theater, it dated back to silent films and wasn’t nearly the state-of-the art creation that the Village Theater was. Today it houses Lambs Players Theatre, where quality, live theater takes place on stage. Another, the Palm Theater (late ‘40s), was an open-air outdoor theater located where Smart & Final is today.
When the Village Theater opened, Coronadans were treated to a double feature, “Irish Eyes Are Shining,” and “The Well-Groomed Bride.” That same week they experienced “San Antonio” with Errol Flynn, “Rainbow Island,” with Dorothy Lamour, and “The Big Sleep,” with Bogie and Bacall.
The telephone number of the Village Theater that year was Henley 3-6161. That soon changed to 435-6161, which was memorized by every kid on the island. The building closed in 2000, but when it reopened in 2011, the new owners were able to acquire 437-6161, which remains the tradition to this day – “6161.”
That week in 1947, theatergoers lined up around the block to buy their tickets, night after night. The beauty of the marble Terrazzo that so artistically tattooed the sidewalk in front of the new movie house was the talk of the town.
Who doesn’t remember the sensual thrill of walking into a movie theater on a busy night, leaving the crowds and noise outside, and finding yourself helplessly gravitating towards the popcorn machine?
The little Village Theater was indeed a homerun that year. Melody Morgan’s father was the man who built the Village Theater. When asked how exciting it must have been to hold her daddy’s hand at the opening night ceremonies, Melody said, “I was so proud of him. I was thrilled at what he had done, but Daddy thought his creation was ‘stark,’ his word, not mine. He was frustrated throughout the process by a lack of good materials, due to the war effort.”
World War II had only ended two years prior.
While her father had hoped for more, the town was overjoyed with this fresh little movie house in the center of town, and, it had air conditioning!
Melody grew to have children and grandchildren, all raised in Coronado, and she proudly introduced them to the Village Theater. She still had mementos from that opening night – movie fliers, tickets, photos, promotional material, etc. -- which she donated to the Coronado Public Library. While her father hid his own pride in what he had created, his daughter celebrated frequently, until her dying day. She admitted she couldn’t help but smile, all these years later, when walking or driving by her father’s movie house.
When the old owners walked away in 2000, they were exhausted from their efforts to operate the Village Theater in the black. Their solution was simply to shut the doors, and they remained shut for the next decade.
When they did that, food trash was left on the floor. Popcorn was still piled high inside the machine. Reels of film lay scattered throughout the projection room and some of the 600 seats had exposed springs poking up through the faded and torn fabric. The screen itself was old and torn. A giant hole was in the lower right corner from people throwing things at it. Your feet stuck to years of sticky food and drink on the screening room floor.
The hand-lettered marquee was left up for months showing the last movie screened, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” It appeared as though “The Grinch” had indeed stolen Coronado’s movie house. Needless to say, the place became a rat-infested haven.
Slowly, over a 10-year period of neglect, the yellow and blue paint faded out entirely. It flaked from the marquee like snow on passersby in even the slightest breeze. The once magnificent Terrazzo that made up the front sidewalk became cracked and faded. Abandoned shopping carts littered the entryway. The Village Theatre was nothing but a deserted and blighted building on Coronado’s main street. It’s difficult to convey just how sad this was to see, day after day, year after year.
When the old doors were pried open a decade later, Lance Alspaugh and his team, the interested party that would lead the Village Theater into a new era, was greeted by an army of rats, some as large as cats, feeding and defecating on the trashed floors.
It took real imagination, and faith, on the part of Alspaugh to see what this little theater could one day be.
Alspaugh is the CEO of Vintage Cinemas in Los Angeles. He hired legendary theater designer Joseph Musil to design the second coming of the Village Theater. Musil was in charge of restoring the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood, a movie house from the glory days of movies (Roaring Twenties) that is now considered the benchmark for art deco theaters.
Sadly, Musil died before the project could be completed. His understudies, Brian White and Ronald Wright, didn’t miss a beat. They continued on in a way that would have made their mentor proud.
After ten years and a $3 million investment by Vintage Cinemas and the City of Coronado, the Village Theater opened once again, and she has never looked so good. Then-city manager, Mark Ochenduszko, played no small role in bringing the parties together, through difficult negotiations, and acquiring the necessary funding.
The new management kept the exterior intact (something the City of Coronado and Alspaugh readily agreed upon ahead of time), but they totally revamped the inside. Gone was the one, cavernous screening room. In its place were three screening rooms, each bracketed with hand-painted murals by noted Walt Disney muralist Bill Anderson.
The main screening room, Theater #1, is adorned with nighttime imagery of Coronado and San Diego’s skyline, blending history with today, featuring the Hotel del Coronado, the old Chart House restaurant, and the carcarrying Coronado ferryboats, again, in staggering, ultraviolet brilliance from the paintbrush of Bill Anderson. It seats 190 people.
The second small screening room is called the Balboa Room, or Theater #3, and features images of Balboa Park today. It also seats 38 moviegoers.
The second small screening room is called the Balboa Room, or Theater #3, and features images of Balboa Park today. It also seats 38 moviegoers.
All three rooms are painted with U/V neon paint that lights up and appears to leap off the walls under the exotic black lighting that illuminates them before and after each movie (think black lights, from the ‘60s).
The historic Terrazzo in front has been restored. Etched glass doors were mounted, and elegant parting and dropping curtains were installed. If you look closely, subtle light color changes are constantly in motion, not only in the screening rooms, but in the snack bar and walkways – illuminating the filigree and torchiere columns.
The night before the celebrated reopening of the Village Theater, Brian White, understudy to Joe Musil, wanted to leave a tribute to Musil and asked me to accompany him. Joe had died a few months earlier, and Brian (along with Ronald Wright, who played a major role in designing the restored Vista Theatre in Los Angeles -- also part of Vintage Cinemas) had taken over his work. In fact, the lobby carpeting and paintings behind the snack bar were Brian White designs.
“You can’t tell anyone about this,” said Brian, walking through the darkened theater. As we entered the last screening room, Brian grabbed a ladder. He had a small paintbrush, a cup of black light paint, and some of Joe Musil’s ashes.
As I stood there dumbfounded, Brian climbed up the ladder and began to paint a small box-like drawing over one of the Anderson murals. He then added words to a tiny marque atop the structure that said, “The Joe Musil Theatre.” The drawing may have been tiny, but the emotional satisfaction on Brian’s face was huge. If you look to the right from your seats, you can still see that little last-minute tribute to the late, great Joe Musil.
“This was a classic movie theater the likes of which you just don’t see any more,” said CEO Lance Alspaugh. “That’s what attracted me to this project. We loved the character of this structure, things that you don’t see in newer movie houses.
“What we’ve done here in Coronado is to create a vibe at the Village Theater, an experience to go along with the movie.”
“As a kid, theaters in my day were 800 seats or bigger, all had a character to them. They were cavernous. The experience in those days was much more exciting to me. Of course, we didn’t have iPods, cel phones, or DVDs. FM radio was just coming in. So, you had to go to see a movie to get that special experience. What we’ve done here in Coronado is to create a vibe at the Village Theater, an experience to go along with the movie.”
Alspaugh described the first life of the Village Theater as very generic. “The exterior, however, had a lot of charm, which we’ve retained. But we wanted to create a timeless experience of the old and the new combined, to create that old-world sensibility of great classic movie-going, while still offering such things as nice seats with lots of leg room, and state-of-the-art cinema and sound.”
Alspaugh and his team shopped all the digital companies for two years before finally selecting Sony. He admits it was expensive, but Sony was particularly interested in this client, and they were willing to negotiate. A deal was struck. “Sony really wanted to be part of this project,” said Alspaugh, “and they brought in 4K digital, significant in lines of resolution, as opposed to 2K. We’ve got great text and great sound, and have quite the experience to provide.”
Today, in a little loft above the screening rooms, manager Oscar Dominguez operates the entire theater from a Sony computer central command. At night, with the computer screen the only light in the darkened loft, he sits in the glow, seemingly at the bridge of his own Starship Enterprise. Here he can send and receive digital film (as opposed to the old 35 mm boxed reels), and can set into motion all three movies, commercials and previews, including the curtain operations. The standard pre-movie fare includes “Let’s All Go to The Lobby,” “Coming Soon trailers,” and “Keep It Quiet.”
Lance Alspaugh continues to seek out old movie houses, with each subsequent project benefiting from the vast experience he and his design and construction teams have gained along the way.
Whether you’re seeking a little entertainment, or some of that “therapy” being discussed, a visit to the Coronado Vintage Village Theater is just what the doctor ordered. On a personal note, I urge each and every person reading this story to make regular plans to visit the Village Theater at 820 Orange Avenue (www.vintagecinemas. com). Not just once a year, or even once a month, but make it part of your family tradition and lets all do whatever we can to keep this truly unique Coronado asset thriving by sharing the moviegoing experience with those we love. Once inside, you’ll realize why it’s described as, “Vintage Postcard Style,” and “our special little church.”
Happy 77th birthday, Coronado Village Theater!
[Editor’s Note: Joe Ditler has lived in Coronado since 1966. He is a Coronado historian, long-time writer and publicist. All photos, unless otherwise indicated, were shot by the author.]
