Victory Drive-In
13037 Victory Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
91606
13037 Victory Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
91606
8 people
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Showing 26 - 38 of 38 comments
FYI, the Victory Drive-In is featured in an episode of the sixties TV series The F.B.I. It is episode 15 from the second season. The episode is titled “Raid”. The Victory Drive-In is featured in the Prologue at the very beginning of the episode. You can view it on AOL’s In2TV site. I think this link will take you there.
Should be fun for those of you with such fond memories of what appears to have been a very cool Drive-In. Enjoy!
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There is a 1950 ad for the Victory at the bottom of the page:
http://tinyurl.com/yz9tof
From socaldriveins.com:
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Aloha Everyone,
The Victory was another of my favorite Drive Ins, loved the western mural. Saw many a movie there.
Sorry, not movieman. Manwithnoname. My apologies.
I paged through movieman’s John Margolies link. There are some great color photos of old theaters on the website. Well worth a look.
Peter Kerasiotis aka Pete Scott who was the artist for the mural on the Victory Theater was also responsible for the beautiful rotunda at the entrance of the now imploded Landmark Hotel in Las Vegas.
It was a series of eight mosaic tile murals depicting famous landmarks of the world such as Acropolis, Leanina Tower of Pisa, the Taj Majal and others.
Francia, email me regarding your
I went to work at the Victory in 1963 and was there for a couple of years. I eventually was the snack bar manager. The theater manager was Ed Topell. He and his brother Harold lived behind the theater in a home owned by the company. The Victory was not a Pacific Theater but advertised with them and accepted their passes. The same company owned the Gilmore and a few other theaters. I would love to hear from anyone who worked with me or was a regular customer.
The Victory Drive in Theater was located on Victory between Ethel and Coldwater. I too would love to find a photo of its beautiful western mural. It was the place to go in the ‘50s…I associate the theater with my many fond childhood memories.
The western mural on the Victory Drive-In in the San Fernando Valley was painted by my father, Peter Kerasiotis (aka Pete Scott). If anyone has a photo of it, I would appreciate hearing from them.
The architect of the Victory Drive-In was William Glenn Balch. The Victory Drive-In is not in Van Nuys, its more North Hollywood area of the Valley. The Victory had a capacity for 650 cars and was operated by Pacific Theatres. Mr. Balch’s firm also designed many other Drive-Ins in the Southern California area. They designed the Century Drive/In (1949-Inglewood), Compton Drive/In (1949-Compton), Gage Drive/In (1949-Bell Gardens), San Pedro Drive/In (1949-San Pedro), Terrace Drive/In (1949-Bakersfield), El Monte Drive/In (1948-El Monte), Gilmore Drive/In (1948-Los Angeles), Lakewood Drive/In (1948-N.Long Beach), Van Nuys Drive/In (1948-Van Nuys). Many of the Drive-Ins that his firm designed had large murals painted on the screen towers. Many of the murals have been turned to dust, when Pacific Theatres added more screens to the Drive-In lots.
This theatre was remarkable and an important part of my childhood in the sixties. If someone can manage to get the image from Westways Magazine or others I would be grateful. My memories are many. My grandfather was a friend of the manager, Ed Topel and I spent time in the projectionist’s room with Al the projectionist. He was a wonderful guy. I have many stories to tell. I do know that it was christened in 1949 by Doris Day. The western mural was classic. I was a young boy and this was my Cinema Paradiso …..
A. Baer