The Gem Theatre’s 100 years of entertainment

If you can’t afford a DeLorean or other time machine, you can get a lot of the same effect by visiting the Gem Theatre on Main Street in downtown Garden Grove.

Opened in 1923 for vaudeville shows and silent films, the Gem has had its ups and downs over the century and now is a literal “gem” as a venue for high quality musical theater.

We saw a production of “Oklahoma!” there on Sunday, with performances that would rival that of Broadway. The music, the acting, lighting, singing and choreography, all would stand up to the scrutiny of all but the most elitist theater snobs.

The Gem was, for many years, the only movie theater in town. In fact, there were no other places to see flicks closer than downtown Anaheim

Retorts

Jim Tortolano or Santa Ana until the 1950s.

When my family moved to Garden Grove in 1960, the Gem was best-known by me and other kids as a place for Saturday matinees. The White family, whose home was located directly north of the theater on what was then Euclid Street, programmed the place with slightly stale but nevertheless enjoyable kid-friendly movies.

My brother, sister and

I would walk there and stand in line with about 100 other kids to pay 25 cents each for a seat, buy some certainly nutritional snacks (I favored Jujubes at that time) and watch a series of Biblical movies, westerns and adventure tales.

“Tarzan,” “Ben Hur,” “Wagon Master, “Jason and the Argonauts,” “The Ten Commandments” exploded across the screen in the dark, firing our grammar school imaginations. So what if the venue was less than pristine? (Wags at the old Garden Grove Daily News on Century Boulevard called it “The Germ”). So what if your sneakers stuck to the floor?

The Gem would eventually fall on hard times as competition grew from other larger, more

Anaheim police say that officers responded to reports of screams from a woman and the sound of a fight inside a mobile home.

When they arrived, they found a female victim struggling to breathe and suffering from extensive head trauma. She was taken to a local hospital and placed on life support.

Patrol officers located her son, Seth, who was 18 at the time.They determined he was the suspect in his mother’s assault and placed him under arrest.

He confessed to detectives that he had attacked his mother with a baseball bat after an argument.

On April 1, 2018, she succumbed to her injuries. She had been a corrections officer for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation assigned to the California Institute for Men in Chino.

She had worked for the department since November 1996.

Sgt. Eric Michaelsen led the investigation and was assisted by personnel from patrol, forensic detail and the rest of the homicide detail.

Beautiful homes in GG will be honored

The City of Garden Grove invites homeowners to start sprucing up their home’s front yards for Garden Grove Gems, a home beautification program that recognizes residents for their outstanding curb appeal efforts.

Residents can self-nominate their homes online from Monday, April 10 through Friday, April 28. Online voting will take place from Monday, May 8 to Sunday, May 21.

Winning homes will receive citywide recognition

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