Edwards Movie Theater

No, Bieber Won't Show Up at Your Movie Theater, Despite What His Ad Says

While Bieber’s tween fans may adore his every move, it’s a depressing reminder that grizzled, cynical adults are in charge of his marketing, and they don’t often act with the same level of innocence as teenagers.

In the commercial, Bieber pays a surprise visit to a cinema full of screaming fans and says “This could happen in your theater!” That was never going to happen, CARU said, chastising the adults who, presumably, are in charge of Bieber’s marketing.

The Jonas Brothers were similarly cited by CARU , a unit of the American Council of Better Business Bureaus, in 2009 for wrongly collecting private information from underage kids in 2009.

Bieber’s recent marketing has revolved around the idea that he will randomly show up in the lives of his ordinary fans. In his commercial for his fragrance Someday , he magically appears in a girl’s bedroom after she sprays herself with the scent.

Needless to say, the odds of Bieber actually paying a fan a surprise visit either in a movie theater or in a bedroom are vanishingly small. CARU was concerned that the Paramount ad was preying on young minds whose level of maturity, sophistication and experience are lower. (Plus, the laws of probability are, like, hard!)

Bieber did in fact surprise a movie theater back in February:

if(document.location.protocol=='http:'){ var Tynt=Tynt||[]; Tynt.push('b6JVZUKuir4lauadbi-bnq'); Tynt.i={"ap":"Read more:"}; (function(){ var s=document.createElement('script'); s.async="async"; s.type="text/javascript"; s.src='http://tcr.tynt.com/ti.js'; var h=document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; h.parentNode.

The Edwards Atlantic: Alhambra's oldest movie theater now history ...

*UPDATED 6.23.11

The Edwards Atlantic Palace has officially closed its doors, with demolition slated for sometime in mid July. The marquee reads "Thank You Alhambra" after 72 years at its place on Atlantic and Main. What was the last movie you saw here? Please share your memories by posting a comment below.

2.28.11

Soon the parking structure will be the only remnant of Alhambra’s oldest movie theater. The Edwards Palace on Atlantic is scheduled to be demolished July 1 to make way for a new Los Angeles County building. With it will go one of Los Angeles’ most historic movie theater sites which arrived in the city at a time when an organist accompanied silent movies, and later reinvented itself as one of the first multiplexes.

James Edwards III, at the tender age of 23, bought the theater on Atlantic Boulevard in 1939 for just $400, according to a 1991 San Gabriel Valley Tribune article. Despite his young age, he already owned several other theaters in the Monterey Park area that he operated with his wife Bernice. The Great Depression did not stop the theaters from thriving: It was Hollywood’s Golden Age, when movies with sound were first becoming popular. Edwards eventually purchased the property next door to the Alhambra theater and converted it to a second auditorium — one of the first multiplexes in the area.

"Everyone since who says they invented (the multiplex) is wrong," Edwards told the Los Angeles Times in a 1988 article.

The second screen was initially referred to as the annex — with an unassuming entrance opposite the concession stand — until in the 1960s the annex was renamed the Gold Cinema. In the 1970s the two theaters were combined and known as The Alhambra Twin Cinemas, until the Whittier Narrows earthquake damaged the building beyond repair on October 1, 1987.

Three years later at the same place where the Twin first stood, Edwards built the Atlantic Palace, making it the flagship of his more than 425 screens in Southern California at the time. Neon lights, gold columns and large red curtains in the cinemas were the hallmarks of the movie watching experience at Edwards.

But when Edwards died in 1997 at the age of 90, the success of his theaters went with him. Three years later Edwards Cinemas filed for bankruptcy, after his sons rapidly expanded the chain, according to a 2000 Daily News article. The Regal Entertainment Group headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, acquired Edwards Cinemas, including the Atlantic Palace. While most changed their names, Edwards’ old flagship theater on Atlantic was allowed to retain its name.

Cinema treasures, a new look at classic movie theaters

The Lists

Orange Coast Magazine

International directory of company histories

As I Remember, Collection Of Newspaper Columns, 8/19/98-10/17/01