The Cinedome had been an Orange County cultural icon for nearly 30 years. Films like Star Wars, Superman and Raiders of the Lost Ark all had first-run exhibition at the "Domes," as they were called, two sprawling, spherically shaped auditoriums with unparalleled acoustics and screen size that were as much of an experience as the film itself.
It was the Cinedome that paved the way for multiplexes like Edwards 21 at Irvine Spectrum and AMC 30 at the Block, but somehow they never matched the Cinedome's excitement.
You always remembered seeing a movie at the Cinedome, eating the popcorn, sipping a Coke, playing a game in the arcade. Heck, even the sticky floors made a movie seem better.
I remember seeing Raiders there in the summer of 1981 with my dad when I was 10. I felt like I was right in the Peruvian temple in the beginning and even lifted my feet when the snakes appeared in the Well of the Souls. The Cinedome engulfed you, made you an active participant in your own imagination.
The Cinedome was converted to a bargain theater last November to make room for the more generic Century 25 cinemas across the 57 Freeway. I saw one movie at the Domes after the conversion: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I now regret that is was that film with which I said goodbye to one of the last, great theaters of all time.
Photo courtesy of Bruce D., Cinematreasures.org
