Auction of Movie Memorabilia to Highlight Megaplex Opening

Didn’t get a chance to bag some Jackie O. memorabilia at Sotheby’s in New York? Didn’t get an invite to the Cannes Film Festival in the south of France? Can’t locate a Star Trek uniform for the next convention?

Try Norwalk.

Long known as home to Los Angeles County’s Hall of Records and Sheriff’s Department, Norwalk is thinking bigger these days, and so is AMC Entertainment.

Now playing in the town’s civic center is the county’s largest movie theater--20 screens with seating for, count ‘em, 4,500 moviegoers--the cornerstone, it is hoped, of a shopping and entertainment district along the lines of Universal CityWalk. AMC is launching the megaplex, opening officially May 17, with sneak previews and 20-cent popcorn.

The star of a week of blockbusters at the theater will be a silent auction Wednesday of Star Trek wear and Jackie O. books and china bought at Sotheby’s and donated for the “Night of 1,000 Stars” event.

Faring big should be such Tinseltown tidbits as Forrest Gump’s park bench (the real McCoy), leather pants autographed by Cher and David Hasslehoff’s swim trunks. Signed, too. The auction will benefit the county library in Norwalk.

Roger Clinton will be performing at the three-hour party that also features “A Taste of Norwalk” food festival. Tunes by Clinton and his band, the Politics, will underscore morsels prepared by more than 20 Norwalk restaurants. Actress Linda Blair will preside at the auction.

Blair and her dog, Peanut, also will host Sunday’s Can Film Festival. Bring a can of dog or cat food for a local animal shelter and get into the all-day film fest for $1. Showing will be “Babe: The Gallant Pig,” “Casper” and “Mi Familia.”

“It’s an excellent deal,” said city official Randy Shulman, who called the opening of the theater “the biggest thing to hit Norwalk since--well, I can’t even think of the last biggest thing.”

The theater is creating 477 jobs for the city of 99,000 residents. Most of those positions will be filled by people who live within a three-mile radius of the civic center and half the jobs must go to people with lower to moderate incomes.

AMC Norwalk 20 is the first phase of a downtown redevelopment project still mostly in the planning stages but slated to be upscale, Shulman said.