REBELS OF LA JOLLA
HISTORIAN SPOTLIGHTS UNICORN THEATRE, MITHRAS BOOKSTORE AND GREEN TIGER PRESS IN NEW EXHIBIT
With her encyclopedic knowledge of all things La Jolla that extends well beyond the nearly six decades she has lived there, La Jolla Historical Society historian Carol Olten could have chosen anything to highlight in her first exhibition as curator.
But she chose three institutions that provided a place for counterculture in the 1960s until the 1980s, with a common thread of being run by Harold and Sandra Darling in an effort to spread their love of the written word and visual imagery, whether on screen or paper.
The exhibit, dubbed “Tigers, Unicorns & Puppy Dog Tales,” opens Saturday in the Historical Society’s Wisteria Cottage Gallery and will feature three former landmarks of the area: Green Tiger Press, which started as a children’s book publishing company; the Unicorn Theatre, a cinema known for “edgy presentations and eye for the offbeat as well as celebrations of the classics” of film; and the Mithras bookstore, which was “an intellectual gathering place for bohemians from all over the world,” Olten said.
The Unicorn Theatre and Mithras Books operated side by side in the 7400 block of La Jolla Boulevard. Both opened in the mid-1960s, and both closed in 1982.
“You actually had to pass through the bookstore to get into the Unicorn,” Olten said. The cinema “showed all kinds of extremely innovative films in the 1970s and ’80s.”
With the arrival of the University of California San Diego in 1960, there was a burgeoning local interest in arts and “spiritual sabbaticals” that the Unicorn and Mithras
helped provide, Olten said.
“This little place became a mecca for bohemians, and it had worldwide implications. Andy Warhol filmed his surf film in 1968, and he would only trust the Unicorn cinema with running his rushes (looking at the footage that was filmed that day),” she said.
The Unicorn was an art house at a time when no other theaters in San Diego were showing up-andcoming and experimental films. Olten said that the theater showed one of “Star Wars” creator George Lucas’ first films and that a program described him as “an unknown director that
may have possibility.”
When the Unicorn and Mithras closed, loyalists kept some of the furniture and decor, some of which will be showcased in the exhibition. There also will be printed works from the bookstore, programs printed on posters that announced movies being shown, a popcorn machine that was once in the bookstore and more.
The Darlings also operated Green Tiger Press, a San Diego publishing house that focused on children’s literature but later also published works for adults, using Victorian and contemporary illustrations that embraced the world of fantasy.
Olten said she also wanted to showcase fantasy because “the world is not in a pretty place right now … and people have a need for something that will make you smile. It’s important that we take some steps away from AI and just enjoy these things. They have a place in our culture.”