Editor,
As I’ve been grieving over the loss of the historical Laguna Beach theater and reading all the well intentioned letters about how sad it is that it is closing, I say stop this and let’s get together and help the city to purchase the historical building and make it into our own theater.
A long time ago I had gone through this same grieving process over the loss of the theater that I grew up seeing movies on a big screen and going to the Honk concerts (the “Five Summer Stories” band for those of you that don’t know them) they used to have on the stage that was there before, along with the Art Deco ceiling light that was cut in half when one of the old owners came up with the brilliant idea of putting two smaller screens in to make a bigger profit only resulting in losing the theater. So when will this grieving end? I’m hoping with a group of us that can save this icon!
As a community we’ve come together before to raise money to rebuild the Rocket Ship at Bluebird Park, raised money to help landslide victims, fire victims. We’ve voted to increase our property taxes to “Save the Canyon” (something we keep revisiting).
We should be able to help the city purchase this iconic cinema and refurbish it to view Greg MacGillivray, the filmmaker of IMAX theatre educational documentaries, to view current movies with a digital format, with a great sound system. Not to mention the music events with live music and theatre performances that could happen on that stage, that’s if we come together as a community to raise the money to save it.
There might even be a way to make an arcade or a place for teens to hang out on the upstairs balcony. When I was a teenager growing up here in Laguna, we had the Honk concerts, the main beach arcade, and the beach to keep us busy. Today they only have the beach. Let’s give them something more.
Liza Stewart, Laguna Beach
Laguna Beach
Maybe see about getting the 3 storie screen from the cinedome along with the sound system & rumble seats… Nothing like it.