
When the Janss family decided to build the mall down at Moorpark Road and redefine where Thousand Oaks was in the early 1960s they put in the Fox Conejo Theater and the wonderful little Acorn Theater suffered. Prior to that we were a mostly ignored tiny town in Eastern Ventura County with potholes in Ventura Blvd that you had to drive around because the county did not feel it was worthwhile to spend money on a dead road in a dead area so far away from the government center. They revise it to pump up the reality they want it to be. Many came after it became a city and none report history as it happened. The newer official press people came to the area after the push was on to try for cityhood in Thousand Oaks. Pronounced Go shay) had all day matinees in the and when the heat was so high that children could not stay inside houses we were sometimes invited to spend the entire afternoon watching various cartoons and cliff hanger to-be-continued shorts so that we could stay cool and be safe. In the summer Mr Goshet (I believe it was spelled that way. Home air conditioning did not exist for most if any people. The market had a swamp cooler that was not real effective in the moist coastal air. Angelo’s Texaco station was located across the street and a maybe 150' west at 3050 Ventura Blvd.Īcorn Theater was the only place in town with air conditioning. Ventura Blvd had small food stands and other businesses that eventually failed because of the change created by the 101 Hwy and later freeway. I believe it is possible to find a picture of that sign at the corner of Moorpark Road and Ventura Blvd with the road sign beside it. The turn off at Moorpark Rd had a sign pointing up Ventura Blvd pointing to Thousand Oaks which was centered in the area where the Acorn Theater and Oakdale Market were located. It did not transition to a freeway until the 1960s. Highway 101 was built several years before I was born. It was on Ventura Blvd which was later renamed Thousand Oaks Blvd. The Acorn Theater belonged to our next door neighbor. It is amazing anyone had a photo of the little theater to post on the Internet. The name change happened sometimes in the 1960s.Īnd yes, the Melody Theater was indeed on Moorpark Road, next to Thriftymart supermarket in the Park Oaks Shopping Center. Yes, Thousand Oaks Boulevard was originally called Ventura Boulevard. I recall going to the Acorn Bowl as a teenager but don’t remember attending the Acorn Theater. I was a Thousand Oaks resident from 1961 to 1994. Refreshments were provided by the mothers of Conejo School youngsters who sold home-popped popsorn to raise money for school projects and activities.” (p. Moviegoers sat on folding chairs and watched whatever movies Goshey could find to rent. Don Goshey showed movies in a left-over World War II quonset hut, moved to a lot on Thousand Oaks Boulevard at the northern end of Hampshire Road, in front of the short-lived Acorn Bowl.


ACORN THEATER MOVIE
“The Fox Conejo was the first real movie theater in town, but local residents had had a place to watch movies since the late 1950s. Bidwell’s 1989 book “The Conejo Valley: Old and New Frontiers”…
