GOOD OLD DAYS:Memories of theater mixed, but will remain

Memories of the Port Theater can bring back all kinds of images: a 900-seat auditorium packed to the max, the day’s biggest celebrities strolling in, and streets overcrowded with cars looking for a space that isn’t there.

When listening to opinions on the Port Theater, the Corona del Mar landmark seems to come into focus.

For former owner Scott Burnham, the Port Theater is the icon of the beach community.

“As a structure, when you think of Corona del Mar, often times you’ll think of the Port Theater,” Burnham said. “I used to go to the theater as a kid. I saw James Bond movies there. It really tugged on my heart strings because I had great memories going there as a kid.”

When Burnham bought the theater in the early 1990s, business was failing and its future was uncertain.

“It was important to me to maintain at least its structure [when owning it],” he said. Following the theater’s closure — except for special events — in 1998, Burnham moved to give the decaying mainstay a considerable makeover.

A 2003 decision by the Newport Beach City Council to designate the building a historic landmark paved the way for Burnham’s vision — cut seating from 900 to 300 and add a restaurant and other entertainment amenities.

His vision was not to be.

Though Burnham is surely not alone in his affection for the Port Theater, it’s safe to say there is a flip side to that coin. Especially for those who don’t have childhood memories there.

“Architecturally, I never considered it that impressive,” said Don Webb, a Newport Beach city councilman. “There was nothing wrong with it, but I was never a real theatergoer,” said Dick Nichols, a former Newport Beach city councilman. As far as positive memories of the theater he’s lived across the street from since 1973, Nichols could only muster, “We got along OK.”

“Times have changed after 50 years. The community has changed. Traffic has changed. People’s needs have changed,” Burham said, accepting the fact that the theater will eventually become an office building.

Expressing the theater’s legacy best with one simple statement, he said: “But if those walls could talk

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