Celebrating 75
Oldest Movie Theater La Paloma Theatre, Encinitas OPENED 1928 Back in the day, movie theaters didn’t come in 12-plexes, 18-plexes, or 24-plexes. Most just had a single screen, like La Paloma (“the dove”), which opened in 1928 with décor described as “Babylonian,” “Moorish," or “a cross between Spanish missionary and Hollywood Art Deco,” per the LA Times . The theater has played host to musicians like Jerry Garcia and Eddie Vedder and silent-film stars Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford. A few years ago, local bands held a benefit concert titled “Love the Dove” to raise money to repair and restore La Paloma.
When La Paloma Theatre opened in 1928, talking motion pictures were still new technology and an in-house pipe organ accompanied silent films.
Oldest Radio Station KLSD-AM (aka KGB-AM) FOUNDED IN 1922
San Diego’s first radio station went on the air in 1922 on the AM dial. While the channel has gone through multiple name changes, longtime locals know it best by its later call letters of KGB, which have nothing to do with the Russian spy service and everything to do with classic rock, the San Diego Chicken, and the stadium sky show. One of KGB’s early disc jockeys was a young Art Linkletter, who later became a celebrity on national TV. He wrote about spinning vinyl in the KGB studios on top of downtown’s Greyhound bus station, where he could spot couples getting cozy through the windows of the Pickwick Hotel next door. Sometimes, he admitted, he’d forget to change a record when he was “enthralled by some rare gymnastics display." Now, the AM station formerly known as KGB is a talk channel called KLSD-AM and faces an uncertain future as electric auto manufacturers try to dump the AM dial from car radios due to signal interference.
SD’s oldest radio station was the flagship channel for San Diego Padres games, offering commentary from sportscaster Ted Leitner and announcer Jerry Coleman.
Lili Kim
108 AUGUST 2023
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