Dependent upon your age and your time spent living in Lake Havasu, you may have entirely different fond memories of where you hung out with friends to enjoy watching movies. Most of us, at least in the past decade, have spent time between two multiplexes in town—one located at the mall, and the other on Swanson Ave. In fact, Movies Havasu on Swanson is the oldest active theater in town, dating back to 1994.
What if you lived here before 1994? What did locals do for entertainment during the good ole’ days? Well, there were two options back then, the first being The Cinema, a theater that now houses the Grace Arts Live playhouse. Like many Main Streets across the United States, The Cinema served as the focal point for moviegoers of all ages. The last movie ever shown there was the Day of The Wolves, a bank heist movie filmed in LakeHavasu back in 1971. The low-budget movie has gained a bit of cult status and stars many of the town’s locals. The movie was shown on August 3, 1997 as a fundraiser for the Historical Society.
Longtime residents will also point you in the direct of Desert Hills, near the Golden Horseshoe restaurant, where there once stood a drive-in theater. Many locals recall fond memories from the 1970s when they could get out of town and go see a movie under the stars.
Of course, if you were one of the few several hundred people here in the sixties, you may remember the earliest version of movies in Havasu—the old Site Six location. As early as 1965, movies were flown in to the location and shown on a projector set up in the old mess hall on the hill. Apparently people would come from all around and bring coolers with food and drinks and enjoy a movie.
One of the more novel approaches that Robert McCulloch tried to launch was a boat-in theater—a drive-in movie theater on the shore where boaters could pull up and enjoy a movie. The idea didn’t float, but it sure sounded like fun!
No matter the venue, some things remain the same—a bag of popcorn and a good flick with your favorite person at your side… still makes for a great night out.
[box] Some of the ideas that Robert McCulloch proposed for his soon to be city in the desert. The conceptual drawings ran in the November 22, 1964 Real estate Section of the Los Angeles Times.
Photo Credit: Lake Havasu Museum of History[/box]