An Old Movie House in Peril

The Port Theatre on East Coast Highway in Corona del Mar is 49 years old, built before freeways crisscrossed the terrain and before the boom that transformed Orange County. Why, in terms of pop culture it’s even older than Disneyland--by six years. Unfortunately, the Port’s days appear numbered.

Landmark Theatre Corp. has operated the theater for nearly a decade. There is only one screen, just like movie houses of old, back before the term “multiplex” came into vogue and viewers had a choice of eight, 10 or even more screens in one location. It doesn’t take too much imagination when settling into a seat to get a sense of what Orange County was like when Harry S. Truman was president.

The Port has changed programming strategies several times. Until a year ago it would screen films for weeks at a time. Since then the showings have been limited to a week. But good movies were displayed, usually “art” movies such as “Cinema Paradiso” and “Howard’s End” rather than the special-effects, blow-’em-up blockbusters. But the blockbusters get made because they make money, drawing young adults and older teenagers into the theaters. Attendance at the Port is often slim.

Property on East Coast Highway is worth substantially more these days than a half-century ago. So it’s no surprise that the owners, who leased the building to Landmark, say that while they would like to keep it running as a theater they will “explore other options.” And there are similar developments elsewhere. In Hermosa Beach, film buffs fear that the closed Bijou theaters may never reopen as that coastal city experiences an economic rejuvenation.

Fittingly for Orange County, the movies now showing at the Port are “Big Wednesday” and “The Endless Summer II.” Both deal with surfing, which like the Port itself is part of local pop culture.