‘Tigers, Unicorns & Puppy Dog Tales’: New Historical Society exhibit looks at hubs of La Jolla counterculture
Historian Carol Olten gives Unicorn Theatre, Mithras Books and Green Tiger Press a new time in the spotlight beginning Sept. 23 at the Wisteria Cottage Gallery.
With her encyclopedic knowledge of all things La Jolla that extends well beyond the nearly six decades she has lived here, 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, Sept. 23, 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 in La Jolla. 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 UC 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.
“It’s important that we take some steps away from AI and just enjoy these things. They have a place in our culture.”
— Carol Olten, exhibit curator
The Unicorn was an art house at a time when no other theaters in San Diego were showing up-and-coming and experimental films. Olten said 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, quotes about imagination and creativity that will be written on the beams of the main gallery, hanging fabric on which images from the sites will be printed, a popcorn machine that was once in the bookstore and more.
In addition to running the theater and bookstore, the Darlings 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.”
Thus, the show includes books published by Green Tiger Press, including “a fabulous series of calendars … that featured Victorian images” and a green tiger “mascot” that was once a carousel seat, courtesy of Sandra Darling, who continues to run the business from Seattle (Harold is deceased) under Laughing Elephant Books.
Olten assisted with exhibitions in the early days of the Wisteria Cottage Gallery, but this is the first show that is entirely hers.
She said she chose these three institutions as the focus of her exhibit because “I was there.”
When Olten moved to La Jolla in 1965 from the Midwest, “I had the opportunity to rent a small apartment down the street from the Unicorn cinema. I was new in town and didn’t know anyone … but I always loved movies, so I would wander down there on a nightly basis practically. It was easy to become absorbed in this kind of world. I had seen things like ‘Bambi’ and other mainstream movies, but this was a whole new world up on the screen. That, combined with the ideas that were spreading around the Mithras bookstore and the university crowd hanging around … it was a place to be and I couldn’t resist it.”
La Jolla Historical Society Executive Director Lauren Lockhart said Olten isn’t the only one with “deep emotional ties” to these places. “We knew the audience for this exhibition would be really enthusiastic and excited to learn more about this history.”
She credited Olten with “a tremendous amount of research and outreach” to put the exhibition together.
‘Tigers, Unicorns & Puppy Dog Tales’
When: Saturday, Sept. 23, through Sunday, Jan. 21
Hours: Noon to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays
Where: La Jolla Historical Society Wisteria Cottage Gallery, 780 Prospect St.
Cost: Free
Information: lajollahistory.org
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