Curtain closing on city’s old theater

Alex Coolman

COSTA MESA -- It wasn’t the wrecking ball, exactly, but it was close.

At the old Edwards theater on Harbor Boulevard and Adams Avenue, a crew

of workers dismantled the marquee Monday. The M and the A from the CINEMA

sign already lay discarded in a heap in the parking lot.

From the basket of a crane above, a technician reached to slice off the

Theatre sign with an acetylene torch.

For local residents, the loss of the pleasantly garish sign, with its

quirky, early ‘60s-style lettering, will be the first, most visible

indication that the Adams Avenue movie house is officially kaput.

Edward Theaters decided earlier this month to pull the plug on the space,

which it had run for 38 years.

Workers are also gutting the interior of the theater, wrenching out its

seats and tearing up the carpeting.

When the building has been thoroughly cleaned out, said Tom Sparks of

Sparks Enterprise, the company that leased the theater to Edwards, a Paul

Mitchell beauty salon will be opened.

Hair spray and conditioner will take the place of popcorn and Jujubees.

For the workers toiling in the parking lot, dismantling the sign was the

occasion for a certain amount of reminiscing.

“All the signage is coming down here today,” said Mike Bennett, who was

supervising the work crew.

A moment later, he sounded a little less official: “I saw ‘Mary Poppins’

here when I was a kid.”

Sandy Genis, former mayor of Costa Mesa, said she was sorry to see the

theater go.

“That was the premier theater in Orange County when it was built,” Genis

recalled. “They don’t make theaters like that any more, and it’s really a

shame. You go to these multiplexes today, you might as well be in your

living room watching a video screen.”

And though the chance to watch movies on a big screen was always an

attraction -- Genis remembered seeing “Lawrence of Arabia” and “The Sound

of Music” at the Adams Avenue cinema -- the sign itself, with its

cheerful bad taste and rows of shiny white light bulbs, was once a draw

itself.

“People used to drive from other cities,” Genis said. “Just to look at

the sign.”