The End of the Last Reel for the Cinedome

The lights have dimmed for good at the Century Cinedome in Orange, a 30-year-old complex of domed movie theaters where several generations of filmgoers viewed everything from “True Grit” to “Halloween: H20.”

Unable to compete with the growing number of multiscreen cinemas in the area, the theater quietly closed its doors in early January.

According to Century Theatres employee Andrew Poulain, the theater complex, on West Chapman near the Santa Ana Freeway, will be demolished in early February.

“They just shut the doors and boarded up the windows, and that was it,” Poulain said last week as he loaded equipment from the theater into a U-Haul truck. Poulain, a projection technician, said the domes had poor acoustic qualities and were “just kind of passe.”

Nancy Klasky, vice president of marketing for San Francisco-based Century Theatres, said the Cinedome had reached the end of its life span, so the company built a state-of-the-art replacement, the Stadium Promenade, nearby at Katella Avenue and Main Street.

“Those [domes] served us beautifully for 30 years,” Klasky said. “Now we’ve moved on to a superb new theater.”

Still, the Cinedome’s closure has saddened some longtime moviegoers.

“I think it’s sad. That’s where I had my first date,” said Sherri Ricker, 45, of Anaheim, who reminisced about seeing the 1959 release of “Ben-Hur” at the Cinedome in 1969. “It was a really special place,” she said. “I had to wear a fancy dress to go there.”

Yet Ricker conceded that maybe the dome’s time had come. “They needed to do something. The place was deteriorating.”

Filmgoers at the new Stadium theater last week were surprised to hear of the Cinedome’s fate, but many agreed that the complex--with 11 screens of various sizes and shapes--had seen better days.

“It was about time they closed it,” said Pete Leis, 37, who was on his way to see “Virus.” “[The Cinedome] was dirty and old.”

Others noted that the Cinedome had become a “budget” movie-house, no longer playing first-run films.

Still others complained that its location, along the Santa Ana Freeway just north of the Orange Crush, was inconvenient. “It’s location, location, location,” Ricker’s daughter Stephene chimed in. The new Century Stadium 25 is a stone’s throw from the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim.

According to Orange Community Development Director Jack McGee, area residents seem unconcerned about the Cinedome’s demise and forthcoming demolition.

Such was not the case last month in Hollywood, where preservationists and film buffs fought successfully to save that area’s Cinerama Dome from major interior and exterior changes.

Betsy Vigus, 69, a board member of the Orange County Historical Society--which has helped save from demolition older theaters such as the Fox in Fullerton and the Balboa Theater in Newport Beach--was unaware of the Cinedome’s fate. Historical societies, she said, rightly or wrongly, focus on saving older landmarks. “The Cinedome just isn’t very old,” she said.

According to historian and preservationist John English, who took part in the fight to save the Cinerama Dome, the theaters are priceless cultural landmarks built in a “Googie” style reflective of the optimistic fervor that swept the nation after World War II.

“It’s a matter of saving a few examples of a specific time and place,” English said, adding that few examples of the architecture remain in Orange County.

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Preservationist Daniel Paul, 26, who frequented the Cinedome as a child and is currently working with Anaheim city officials to document the Googie style there, said the Cinedome’s demise is part of an unfortunate trend.

“It’s too bad to see another one of these structures go down,” he said. “It seems to be happening a lot in Orange County. Any type of building of character is being replaced or eradicated with new architecture which often does not have the same character as the stuff which came before.”

Century’s new Stadium Promenade theater was designed in an Art Deco style. It has the latest audio technology and stadium seating, both of which the aging domes lacked. The complex, which opened in November1997, is a one-stop entertainment center where a customer can grab dinner, see a movie and have a cup of coffee afterward.

“It’s nice in its own way,” Paul said. But he added: “It reeks of sameness. . . . It’s not very memorable in the long run.”

It’s unclear what will become of the Cinedome site.

Orange’s McGee said officials expect the land will not become the site of another movie theater but to be developed as a business or hotel. “There’s lots of possibilities. . . . Like everything, you have to reinvent yourself,” he said.

Century Theatres still owns domed cinemas in Northern California and elsewhere in the West, but the Cinedome was its last such complex in Orange County.

“It’s kind of a loss of film history,” said Celene Paramo, 19. “It’s just time and technology advancing. . . . The Cinedome’s just not the hot spot anymore.”