Google Maps doesn’t like CT’s current address for the Hemacinto site, which still has the faint outline of ramps visible from the air. 1940 S San Jacinto Ave puts the arrow in the middle of the viewing field. Or you can point at the Sonic immediately north of it (1810) or the Wendy’s directly across the street (1841).
This site has a Gardena post office address, so the 90248 plant handles any mail there. But it’s not in Gardena, or even all that close.
A 1939 topo map shows the future Twin-Vue completely within the half-mile wide arm of Los Angeles that reaches south to San Pedro. It’s on the eastern edge of the arm, making it about a half-mile away from Gardena. Ditto for the 1952 & 1957 topo maps. The 1965 map (the first to indicate the drive-in) carves out the Twin-Vue to Los Angeles County, albeit surrounded on three sides by the city of LA’s peninsula. Ditto 1975 & 1982.
The current City of Gardena’s presumably official City Boundaries Map concurs for the most part. It shows the old drive-in site completely within the LA peninsula at its eastern edge.
Either the Twin-Vue was in Los Angeles, or it was on county land bordering Los Angeles. When I write about the drive-in, LA is the city I’ll be using for its location.
Motion Picture Herald, Oct. 18, 1952: “Gale Santocono has been commissioned to design a 500-car drive-in about a mile north of Garberville for A. E. Vann and B. B. Byard.” (At the time, the two also owned the indoor Garberville in Garberville.)
Independent Film Journal, May 2, 1953: “Shearer installed 3-D equipment for May openings at the following drive-ins: … A. E. Van & B. B. Byard’s 101 at Garberville”
Motion Picture Herald, July 25, 1953: “B. B. Baird opened his new drive-in at Garberville, July 17.”
Like Kenmore, I can’t find any good candidates in Historic Aerials' grainy 1968 aerial photos. But the drive-in was north of town on Highway 101, which in 1952 followed today’s Redwood Drive toward Redway. How about today’s Caltrans Garberville Maintenance Station on the west side of the road? That location, roughly 1330 Redwood Dr, Garberville, CA 95542, is a large enough cleared area in 1968 to have been a 450-car drive-in. Maybe.
Boxoffice, March 11, 1950: “DELANO, CALIF. – Frank and August Panero, owners of the new drive-in slated to open here March 15, plan to erect other ozoners in Selma and Shafter, Calif. The Paneros head the Valley Drive-In Theatre Co., Delano. Capacity of the local drive-in is 520 cars, while the Selma and Shafter open-airers will have capacities of 320. Total building cost is estimated at $160,000. Shafter and Delano are in Kern county, while Selma is in Fresno county.”
Boxoffice, June 17, 1950: (scheduled to open in June) “Delano – Del Mac, 520 cars, Valley Drive-In Theatre Co.”
Boxoffice, July 15, 1950: (opened 1950 list) “Del-Mac, 520, Valley Drive-In Co.”
Boxoffice, Aug. 5, 1950: “DELANO, CALIF. – The new Del-Mac Drive-In about one mile south of here on Route 99, has been opened by Frank Panero and his two sons August and Ernest. Located on a 20-acre tract between Delano and McFarland, the Del-Mac has accommodations for 440 cars. The screen tower is 78 feet high, and it supports 44x60-feet scree. The Paneros will open another new drive-in near Shafter before the end of August. Jim Stephenson of Delano is manager of the Del-Mac ozoner.”
Boxoffice, March 10, 1951: “Kirby H. Bezzo has been appointed manager of the McFarland Theatre, to succeed Cal Boggus who has taken over the management of the Del-Ma Drive-In, between (McFarland) and Delano.”
Theatre Catalog, 1952: “Del-Mac D. I., Box 905. Exec: Panero Th. Co., Room 700-A, 25 Taylor St., San Francisco. (400)”
According to Google Maps' city limits drawings, the Harbor site is actually in Chula Vista. Between 4th Avenue and San Diego Bay on the north side of the Sweetwater River, the Harbor’s outline is uniquely carved away from National City and retained by its neighbor to the south. Somebody did that on purpose.
Google Maps also uses National City as the site’s current mailing address, which means only that the 91950 post office services the site.
As william lewis pointed out, the South Chester was at the other intersection of South Chester Blvd/Ave and US 99, the one on “the opposite side of town”, as Boxoffice put it. And mostly confirming jwmovies' note, I’d place the drive-in at the current feed and pet supply store there, at 3909 S Chester Ave, Bakersfield, CA 93307.
The Dispatch (Moline IL), March 28, 1970: “Davenport’s Bel Air Drive-in movie theater, first in the Quad-City region when it was built, was sold yesterday. National Amusements, Inc., owner of the Memri, Semri and Oasis drive-in theaters in the Quad-Cities, bought the Bel Air from Allen-Franklin Theater Corp. The Bel-Air opened in 1945 at the location in the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds complex.”
Photo by Werner Weiss, from the Werner Weiss Collection, available on Flickr. There are no known copyright restrictions on this image. All future uses of this photo should include the courtesy line, ‘Photo courtesy Orange County Archives.’"
From the Werner Weiss Collection, available on Flickr. “There are no known copyright restrictions on this image. All future uses of this photo should include the courtesy line, ‘Photo courtesy Orange County Archives.’”
Available on Flickr. “There are no known copyright restrictions on this image. All future uses of this photo should include the courtesy line, ‘Photo courtesy Orange County Archives.’”
Photo from the Werner Weiss Collection, available on Flickr. “There are no known copyright restrictions on this image. All future uses of this photo should include the courtesy line, ‘Photo courtesy Orange County Archives.’”
The Exhibitor, Dec. 3, 1952: “The new Lariat Drive-In has been opened at Kermit, Tex., by Kermit Theatres, owned by Video Theatres, Inc. The drive-in has a 466-car capacity, and will be managed by Jack Peercy. Frank Love, manager, Kermit Theatres, handled the opening ceremonies.”
Vinita Daily Journal: Jan. 19, 1957: “The Aztec is no more. David Karr, Vinita theatre manager, announced Friday (18) that his company has closed down the Aztec theatre "for good” and that the movie and sound equipment have been shipped to Video Independent Theatres' headquarters in Oklahoma City. Karr has sold about 290 of the theatre seats and about 200 still remain unsold. The Aztec, which showed principally westerns since it first opened in about 1935, was regarded as a secondary movie house to the first-run Center theatre here. The Aztec operated continuously until about six years ago when the Lariat drive-in theatre was opened west of Vinita. Since then, the Aztec had been operated on a part-time basis. The theatre building, located in the 100 block of South Wilson street, is the property of Ed Klingel."
Boxoffice, April 7, 1969: “Woodie and Mattie Sylvester hosted a grand opening of their beautiful Vesta Theatre Wednesday and Thursday, March 26 and 27 … "The Wrecking Crew” was the screen attraction at both affairs … The building, at the southwest corner of Main and Broadway and just across the street west from the Tech Theatre, is owned by Mr. and Mrs. F. L. Kelley. The Sylvesters also own and operate the Tech and the forty-WEST Drive-In."
The July 17, 1967 issue of Boxoffice reported, “W. B. Sylvester, who owns and operates the downtown Tech Theatre and the forty-WEST Drive-In at Weatherford is taking over operation of the Bulldog Theatre, also in Weatherford, as of August 1. For several years the Bulldog has been operated by Dennis Collier, who also operated the 89er in Kingfisher.”
The following week, Boxoffice noted that one of the Oklahoma City Filmrow visitors was Woodie Sylvester “who is taking over the Bulldog … August 1 and will close it”.
The Sept. 18 issue said that Sylvester was “remodeling the Bulldog Theatre which he recently took over from Dennis Collier”, but the Sept. 25 issue clarified that the Bulldog was “being remodeled for another type of business than a theatre.”
In the Oklahoma City notes from the March 7, 1966 issue of Boxoffice: “Frank Henry, Caddo Drive-In in Anadarko, who was here to meet with Athel Boyter on the buying and booking. The drive-in is expected to reopen in the next few weeks”
The Kigalia (note the single L) was at 200 North Grayson Parkway according to an excellent summary at UtahTheatres.info. That site says that the drive-in was built by Floyd Nielson and Sons, who opened it on June 18, 1955, and that it closed in 1964.
The Daily Oklahoman, in a drive-in roundup published Aug. 21, 2005, wrote, “You can spend some time weeping because you missed seeing a movie at the Tahlequah Drive-In, opened in 1949 and closed by a tornado two years ago”
Lately I’ve been digging into the newspaper records for the Sundown. Jack and Jimmie Hull opened it on July 3, 1951. By September 1952, M. A. Harris was running the drive-in.
On Aug. 28, 1955, the screen suffered “extensive storm damage” and workers were hurriedly making repairs. Just a few weeks later, on Sept. 29, “hurricane-force winds” finished the job, destroying the screen and the concession stand.
And that’s it. I can’t find any evidence of the Sundown ever reopening except for the Motion Picture Almanac, which has been known to overlook closed drive-ins, and a similar item in a Film Daily Year Book list. Does anyone else here have a solid reference proving that the Sundown rebuilt?
The Olympic was remodeled in spring 1950, adding a playground, enlarging the rest rooms, and swapping in better in-car speakers. Maybe that was when its screen tower switched from the plain one shown in its grand opening ad to its famous Pacific mural? The surfers were definitely there by August 1951, when they appeared in a (Venice CA) Evening Vanguard newspaper ad.
There were a lot of conflicting references to the Olympic’s capacity. A month before it opened, the Citizen News said the drive-in would be able to hold 800 cars. In September 1945, the Evening Vanguard ran a press-release type of article that said 1200 cars. Then in March 1950, in a story about upcoming Easter services there, the Evening Vanguard mentioned “the 820 cars which can be accommodated on the large parking lot”.
I visited the Sky View last Saturday and noticed a couple of things.
First, the drive-in is for sale. Despite the Pastrovich families' five-year-old quote (see above) that they “plan to run it as a drive-in indefinitely,” they are now looking to sell it to “new caretakers”. If you’ve got a spare $420,000, that could be you. Route66News noted the listing on May 2. The families' press release is on the Illinois Route 66 site. Note that the press release calls it the “Skyview” as one word, though the historic marker in front is unchanged.
Second, I drove the post-1940 alignment of Route 66 and missed the Sky View. It turns out that this drive-in was never on the Mother Road when it was active; it’s on a road that was Route 66 only until 1940. For all of the Sky View’s life, it has been one block east of 66.
Google Maps doesn’t like CT’s current address for the Hemacinto site, which still has the faint outline of ramps visible from the air. 1940 S San Jacinto Ave puts the arrow in the middle of the viewing field. Or you can point at the Sonic immediately north of it (1810) or the Wendy’s directly across the street (1841).
This site has a Gardena post office address, so the 90248 plant handles any mail there. But it’s not in Gardena, or even all that close.
A 1939 topo map shows the future Twin-Vue completely within the half-mile wide arm of Los Angeles that reaches south to San Pedro. It’s on the eastern edge of the arm, making it about a half-mile away from Gardena. Ditto for the 1952 & 1957 topo maps. The 1965 map (the first to indicate the drive-in) carves out the Twin-Vue to Los Angeles County, albeit surrounded on three sides by the city of LA’s peninsula. Ditto 1975 & 1982.
The current City of Gardena’s presumably official City Boundaries Map concurs for the most part. It shows the old drive-in site completely within the LA peninsula at its eastern edge.
Either the Twin-Vue was in Los Angeles, or it was on county land bordering Los Angeles. When I write about the drive-in, LA is the city I’ll be using for its location.
Motion Picture Herald, Oct. 18, 1952: “Gale Santocono has been commissioned to design a 500-car drive-in about a mile north of Garberville for A. E. Vann and B. B. Byard.” (At the time, the two also owned the indoor Garberville in Garberville.)
Independent Film Journal, May 2, 1953: “Shearer installed 3-D equipment for May openings at the following drive-ins: … A. E. Van & B. B. Byard’s 101 at Garberville”
Motion Picture Herald, July 25, 1953: “B. B. Baird opened his new drive-in at Garberville, July 17.”
Like Kenmore, I can’t find any good candidates in Historic Aerials' grainy 1968 aerial photos. But the drive-in was north of town on Highway 101, which in 1952 followed today’s Redwood Drive toward Redway. How about today’s Caltrans Garberville Maintenance Station on the west side of the road? That location, roughly 1330 Redwood Dr, Garberville, CA 95542, is a large enough cleared area in 1968 to have been a 450-car drive-in. Maybe.
Boxoffice, March 11, 1950: “DELANO, CALIF. – Frank and August Panero, owners of the new drive-in slated to open here March 15, plan to erect other ozoners in Selma and Shafter, Calif. The Paneros head the Valley Drive-In Theatre Co., Delano. Capacity of the local drive-in is 520 cars, while the Selma and Shafter open-airers will have capacities of 320. Total building cost is estimated at $160,000. Shafter and Delano are in Kern county, while Selma is in Fresno county.”
Boxoffice, June 17, 1950: (scheduled to open in June) “Delano – Del Mac, 520 cars, Valley Drive-In Theatre Co.”
Boxoffice, July 15, 1950: (opened 1950 list) “Del-Mac, 520, Valley Drive-In Co.”
Boxoffice, Aug. 5, 1950: “DELANO, CALIF. – The new Del-Mac Drive-In about one mile south of here on Route 99, has been opened by Frank Panero and his two sons August and Ernest. Located on a 20-acre tract between Delano and McFarland, the Del-Mac has accommodations for 440 cars. The screen tower is 78 feet high, and it supports 44x60-feet scree. The Paneros will open another new drive-in near Shafter before the end of August. Jim Stephenson of Delano is manager of the Del-Mac ozoner.”
Boxoffice, Feb. 17, 1951: (opened 1950 list) “Del-Mac, Valley Drive-In Co., 520”
Boxoffice, March 10, 1951: “Kirby H. Bezzo has been appointed manager of the McFarland Theatre, to succeed Cal Boggus who has taken over the management of the Del-Ma Drive-In, between (McFarland) and Delano.”
Theatre Catalog, 1952: “Del-Mac D. I., Box 905. Exec: Panero Th. Co., Room 700-A, 25 Taylor St., San Francisco. (400)”
According to Google Maps' city limits drawings, the Harbor site is actually in Chula Vista. Between 4th Avenue and San Diego Bay on the north side of the Sweetwater River, the Harbor’s outline is uniquely carved away from National City and retained by its neighbor to the south. Somebody did that on purpose.
Google Maps also uses National City as the site’s current mailing address, which means only that the 91950 post office services the site.
1952 Theatre Catalog: (under Bostonia) “Aero D. I. Exec: Theatre Service Corp. (570)”
1955-56 Theatre Catalog: (under Bostonia) “Aero D. I. Exec: D. L. Johnson, and Roy Dickson, Theatre Serv. Corp. (570)”
As william lewis pointed out, the South Chester was at the other intersection of South Chester Blvd/Ave and US 99, the one on “the opposite side of town”, as Boxoffice put it. And mostly confirming jwmovies' note, I’d place the drive-in at the current feed and pet supply store there, at 3909 S Chester Ave, Bakersfield, CA 93307.
The Dispatch (Moline IL), March 28, 1970: “Davenport’s Bel Air Drive-in movie theater, first in the Quad-City region when it was built, was sold yesterday. National Amusements, Inc., owner of the Memri, Semri and Oasis drive-in theaters in the Quad-Cities, bought the Bel Air from Allen-Franklin Theater Corp. The Bel-Air opened in 1945 at the location in the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds complex.”
Photo by Werner Weiss, from the Werner Weiss Collection, available on Flickr. There are no known copyright restrictions on this image. All future uses of this photo should include the courtesy line, ‘Photo courtesy Orange County Archives.’"
From the Werner Weiss Collection, available on Flickr. “There are no known copyright restrictions on this image. All future uses of this photo should include the courtesy line, ‘Photo courtesy Orange County Archives.’”
Also available for download on Flickr.
Available on Flickr. “There are no known copyright restrictions on this image. All future uses of this photo should include the courtesy line, ‘Photo courtesy Orange County Archives.’”
Photo from the Werner Weiss Collection, available on Flickr. “There are no known copyright restrictions on this image. All future uses of this photo should include the courtesy line, ‘Photo courtesy Orange County Archives.’”
The Exhibitor, Dec. 3, 1952: “The new Lariat Drive-In has been opened at Kermit, Tex., by Kermit Theatres, owned by Video Theatres, Inc. The drive-in has a 466-car capacity, and will be managed by Jack Peercy. Frank Love, manager, Kermit Theatres, handled the opening ceremonies.”
Vinita Daily Journal: Jan. 19, 1957: “The Aztec is no more. David Karr, Vinita theatre manager, announced Friday (18) that his company has closed down the Aztec theatre "for good” and that the movie and sound equipment have been shipped to Video Independent Theatres' headquarters in Oklahoma City. Karr has sold about 290 of the theatre seats and about 200 still remain unsold. The Aztec, which showed principally westerns since it first opened in about 1935, was regarded as a secondary movie house to the first-run Center theatre here. The Aztec operated continuously until about six years ago when the Lariat drive-in theatre was opened west of Vinita. Since then, the Aztec had been operated on a part-time basis. The theatre building, located in the 100 block of South Wilson street, is the property of Ed Klingel."
Boxoffice, April 7, 1969: “Woodie and Mattie Sylvester hosted a grand opening of their beautiful Vesta Theatre Wednesday and Thursday, March 26 and 27 … "The Wrecking Crew” was the screen attraction at both affairs … The building, at the southwest corner of Main and Broadway and just across the street west from the Tech Theatre, is owned by Mr. and Mrs. F. L. Kelley. The Sylvesters also own and operate the Tech and the forty-WEST Drive-In."
The July 17, 1967 issue of Boxoffice reported, “W. B. Sylvester, who owns and operates the downtown Tech Theatre and the forty-WEST Drive-In at Weatherford is taking over operation of the Bulldog Theatre, also in Weatherford, as of August 1. For several years the Bulldog has been operated by Dennis Collier, who also operated the 89er in Kingfisher.”
The following week, Boxoffice noted that one of the Oklahoma City Filmrow visitors was Woodie Sylvester “who is taking over the Bulldog … August 1 and will close it”.
The Sept. 18 issue said that Sylvester was “remodeling the Bulldog Theatre which he recently took over from Dennis Collier”, but the Sept. 25 issue clarified that the Bulldog was “being remodeled for another type of business than a theatre.”
In the Oklahoma City notes from the March 7, 1966 issue of Boxoffice: “Frank Henry, Caddo Drive-In in Anadarko, who was here to meet with Athel Boyter on the buying and booking. The drive-in is expected to reopen in the next few weeks”
The Kigalia (note the single L) was at 200 North Grayson Parkway according to an excellent summary at UtahTheatres.info. That site says that the drive-in was built by Floyd Nielson and Sons, who opened it on June 18, 1955, and that it closed in 1964.
This ad gives us a couple of opening dates. For the Westland, it was May 18, 1950. And now we know that the 66 Drive-In opened on April 5, 1949.
The Daily Oklahoman, in a drive-in roundup published Aug. 21, 2005, wrote, “You can spend some time weeping because you missed seeing a movie at the Tahlequah Drive-In, opened in 1949 and closed by a tornado two years ago”
Lately I’ve been digging into the newspaper records for the Sundown. Jack and Jimmie Hull opened it on July 3, 1951. By September 1952, M. A. Harris was running the drive-in.
On Aug. 28, 1955, the screen suffered “extensive storm damage” and workers were hurriedly making repairs. Just a few weeks later, on Sept. 29, “hurricane-force winds” finished the job, destroying the screen and the concession stand.
And that’s it. I can’t find any evidence of the Sundown ever reopening except for the Motion Picture Almanac, which has been known to overlook closed drive-ins, and a similar item in a Film Daily Year Book list. Does anyone else here have a solid reference proving that the Sundown rebuilt?
Here’s a pre-opening drawing of the drive-in. It looks a lot like one of Hollinghead’s patent drawings, but the ramp height is more pronounced.
The Olympic was remodeled in spring 1950, adding a playground, enlarging the rest rooms, and swapping in better in-car speakers. Maybe that was when its screen tower switched from the plain one shown in its grand opening ad to its famous Pacific mural? The surfers were definitely there by August 1951, when they appeared in a (Venice CA) Evening Vanguard newspaper ad.
There were a lot of conflicting references to the Olympic’s capacity. A month before it opened, the Citizen News said the drive-in would be able to hold 800 cars. In September 1945, the Evening Vanguard ran a press-release type of article that said 1200 cars. Then in March 1950, in a story about upcoming Easter services there, the Evening Vanguard mentioned “the 820 cars which can be accommodated on the large parking lot”.
I visited the Sky View last Saturday and noticed a couple of things.
First, the drive-in is for sale. Despite the Pastrovich families' five-year-old quote (see above) that they “plan to run it as a drive-in indefinitely,” they are now looking to sell it to “new caretakers”. If you’ve got a spare $420,000, that could be you. Route66News noted the listing on May 2. The families' press release is on the Illinois Route 66 site. Note that the press release calls it the “Skyview” as one word, though the historic marker in front is unchanged.
Second, I drove the post-1940 alignment of Route 66 and missed the Sky View. It turns out that this drive-in was never on the Mother Road when it was active; it’s on a road that was Route 66 only until 1940. For all of the Sky View’s life, it has been one block east of 66.