In the 60's, wasn't there a theater on the NE corner of 39th and McArthur called the Coronado? And wasn't it part of a funny little shopping center... I seem to recall Spanish architecture and courtyards?


Also, does anyone know why there are/were so many in things in town called Coronado? An elementary school, the old shopping center at 63rd & Portland, a neighborhood and this theater, too. Strange!

In the 60's, wasn't there a theater on the NE corner of 39th and McArthur called the Coronado? And wasn't it part of a funny little shopping center... I seem to recall Spanish architecture and courtyards?


Also, does anyone know why there are/were so many in things in town called Coronado? An elementary school, the old shopping center at 63rd & Portland, a neighborhood and this theater, too. Strange!

http://roadsideok.com/node/556

Further research shows there was a little center there owned by A.B. McFarland and it was called Coronado Plaza and contained some offices as well as a restaurant.

Does anyone else remember this? I only have a vague recollection but remember going to the movies there as a kid. And I think later there was a Keller's book store and sporting goods store. I know there is now a CVS and Midfirst Bank on the site.

Coronado was the first European to travel through what is now Oklahoma. I think he was looking for the seven cities of Cibola ......or something like that.

In the 60's, wasn't there a theater on the NE corner of 39th and McArthur called the Coronado? And wasn't it part of a funny little shopping center... I seem to recall Spanish architecture and courtyards?


Also, does anyone know why there are/were so many in things in town called Coronado? An elementary school, the old shopping center at 63rd & Portland, a neighborhood and this theater, too. Strange!


Yes, there was a theater there. We always called it the Warr Acres Theatre. Went there many times as a kid. Sorry to hear it was demolished.

A few blocks north of the theater on MacArthur was Kelly's electronics store. Went there to get parts for all my projects and to test the vacuum tubes we used to have before things became "transistorized"!

I well remember the Coronado Square shopping center. I used to go to the Barber Shop there. Always waited on Bub or Jerry. Of course, that was right around the corner from the bowling alley; "Coronado Lanes" I think it was called!


We may have a 80 deg day in Oregon this week!

Mike

Looks like Coronado only made it through the panhandle:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Coronado_expedition.jpg/600px-Coronado_expedition.jpg

Does anyone else remember this? I only have a vague recollection but remember going to the movies there as a kid. And I think later there was a Keller's book store and sporting goods store. I know there is now a CVS and Midfirst Bank on the site.Yes, I remember it, although I don't think I ever attended that theater. My neighborhood theaters were the May, at NW 15 and May (now an antique mall), and the Villa, on NW 23 just west of Villa (later razed).

I do remember having to go to the sporting goods store to find some item that was required for my highschool gym class but don't remember what the item was. In the mid-60s there was a fabric shop in that center, as I recall in the same spot formerly occupied by the sporting goods establishment.

My wife and I used to bowl at Coronado Lanes; so did Jerry Park, who was the sports director for KOCO Channel 5 when its studios were on the NW corner of 63 and Portland where the surgery center now stands. The center was noted for the lack of oil on its lanes, making the ball hook much more than normal...

The residential development south of NW Expressway and west of Portland was called "Coronado Heights" and that may have had something to do with the popularity of the name...

I remember going to the movies there just once: an odd double bill of The Beatles' "Let It Be" and the World War II action flick "Mosquito."

For a number of years in the 1980s there was a hot pink '59 Cadillac convertible for sale in the parking lot north of the theater, at 40th and MacArthur. Always wished I could buy it.

Keller's Sporting Goods was in the south end of that center, and I remember having my taxes done at an H&R Block in there during the 80s.

My dad owned the Kelly's Electronics store at 42nd and MacArthur....surprised to see it mentioned on here. Used to always get my hair cut at the barber shop at Coronado Square....the guy's name was Jack...I think...kind of an older bent-over guy with big white hair....this was in the 70's...I wanted my hair to be longer...my dad would always go in there and pay him for my hair cut and tell him how HE wanted it cut. The theater there was a real dump even back then...they would give us discount passes at school (PC Central) to use there. There was a drug store just north of there where the piano store is (was?)......and on the north west corner of 39th and MacArthur was where my dad's original store was in the 60's..in an old Glidden paint store...there was a Powell Rexall Drug next to us..and Sam's Donut Shop just to the west....good but really greasy donuts. Of course on down at 42nd and MacArthur, across from my dad's business in the 70's was Gibsons.

I have many memories of your dad's store( Kelly's Electronics ). I was a customer in the 60's to mid 70's. I was always making something electronic from a project shown in a radio or electronics magazine. I was involved in amateur radio even way back then and Kellys was a good source for parts and, of course, testing vacuum tubes. I would ride my bike over there. I lived off NW 63rd between MacArthur and Meridian and would work my way back there via the side streets through Warr Acres.

Good times.

Many memories of the Coronado Square barbershop at NW 63 & Portland. My dad was a customer there also, which meant the barbers knew how HE wanted it cut. As I said in an earlier post Bub Bailey and Jerry were my two favorite barbers. In the late 60's, very early 70's, the vice principal at Hefner Jr High School, Norman Dillard, had a "two fingers above the eyebrow" haircut policy and he had fat fingers! The only good memory of that school was getting out of there. An awful place.

The 60's and early 70's were a period of great social change and I'm afraid the school system tried to hold it off. Foolish rules enforced by the paddle seemed to be their tools of choice. They failed and did a lot of damage. There were some good teachers there and I try not to be too critical, but it was a difficult time.

A bit of snow and unsettled weather in Portland, Or.

Mike

I think the paddle could correct a lot of today's problems. That's coming from a teacher. Anyone have pictures of the Coronado Theatre?

Guess not. I tried cinematour.com and cinema treasures, but no pictures. :(

I grew up going to the Coronado Theater. Yes, it was part of a little shopping area with courtyard on side. Don't know if it's still there. My little brother and I used to ride our bikes around to collect bottle caps to get into the show. I saw Creature From the Black Lagoon there and I Was A Teenage Werewolf with Michael Landon. My grandmother and I used to take the bus to the Coronado Theater.
Janey

I worked at Kelly's on Saturdays in the early 70's when I was in college. I ran the tube tester for people who didn't understand how to use it. I remember customers from Bethany Nazarene College and Wiley Post Airport always coming in to buy parts. Saturdays were pretty busy, and Kelly would hand me a check for $16 at the end of the day ($2 and hour back then).

I used to go the movies at the Warr Acres Theater on Saturdays in the early 60's

I'm glad you started this thread, I have been racking my mind trying to remember the name of this theater. I grew up in the Village and usually went to the Lakeside or the theater in Britton and occasionally the May, but a couple of times we went to the Coronado. It seems it was always kind of dirty and smelly, but when you're a kid that didn't matter.

I worked at Kelly's on Saturdays in the early 70's when I was in college. I ran the tube tester for people who didn't understand how to use it. I remember customers from Bethany Nazarene College and Wiley Post Airport always coming in to buy parts. Saturdays were pretty busy, and Kelly would hand me a check for $16 at the end of the day ($2 and hour back then).

I used to go the movies at the Warr Acres Theater on Saturdays in the early 60's

Hi Toad...know this is a while since you responded...just curious...what is your first name? Kelly was my father.