Sunday night at Fashion Square

 

Sunday night at Fashion Square



     This was an extremely enjoyable tradition Greg and I had during 1971 and 1972  of easing into the new week by driving out to the new, spectacular multi-plex theaters at Fashion square in La Habra. Since I had lived in the area, I felt comfortable and the crowds were very small on a Sunday night. It was an ideal place to relax and concentrate on the great films of the early 1970's. The theaters were small, maybe 300 to 400 seats and the films shown were mostly American but the offerings were excellent. On the drive we would of  course smoke a fat joint and pull into the parking lot very close to curtain righteously stoned.  Being wise young sophisticates we rejected the corporate-capitalist Bullocks ownership and referred to the place as "Fascist Square" as we handed them our two bucks to get in their theater. We saw among others "The Last Picture Show," "The French Connection," "McCabe and Mrs. Miller," "Bananas," "Klute," and possibly "Deliverance." It was a time we both cherished and cemented our cultural sharing of film. I was trying to keep educating myself since I was then a salesman of Scientific Equipment and Greg was an understimulated student at Loyola University. I believe he took the famous film class at Loyola that was one of the best in the southland. Mostly the rides home were spent in contemplation of the movies that were truly classics. There were some clunkers like "Soldier Blue" or "Mephisto Waltz" but for the most part these films were part of our ongoing education. The history of the BULLOCK'S FASHION SQUARE (La Habra) was the only Bullock's-built shopping hub to include a motion picture theater in its original incarnation. The American Multi-Cinema Fashion Square Theatres At La Habra made its debut August 27, 1969. It was promoted as "the world's first freestanding four theatre complex.  By the mid-1980s, the FASHION SQUARE at La Habra had been eclipsed by its many competitors. The complex was knocked down in stages between 1990 and 1995



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