Simi Valley Drive-In
361 Tierra Rejada Road,
Simi Valley,
CA
93065
361 Tierra Rejada Road,
Simi Valley,
CA
93065
3 people
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I’m not sure when the drive-in was built but it was there since the 1960’s. If you lived in Simi, you went to the drive-in at least once in your life. It was a lot of fun and I have a lot of fond memories especially as a kid. They used to hold swap meets on the weekend and did so for a while after they stopped showing movies in the early 1990’s.
They’ve since torn down the whole theater and now it’s a housing tract, as fas as I know there is no sign of the theater left. (This is info I got from friends on the the land being housing since I haven’t lived in the town since 1999).
Contributed by
Michael Hallack
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Recent comments (view all 14 comments)
Great pictures… too bad the link with the demolition pictures was dead.
I added my memories about the Larwin in its section if anyone is curious: /theaters/21845/
As for Simi Drive in… some memories:
Sitting in line waiting for each car to find a spot and park.
Try to mount the heavy steel monotone speaker on the side of the window glass without breaking it.
The scary rusty playground right below the screen.
The walk between the cars in the dark to the snack bar while watching the movie playing on the other screen.
Spending too many quarters in the junk toy vending machine. Such as a toy guillotine that looked like it would cut off your finger, but didn’t.
Snacks were ready to go, you just grabbed what you wanted and paid.
The walk back to the car, not wanting to miss the movie yet trying not to be distracted by the movie and fall dropping all the snacks you just bought.
Intermission cartoons… don’t see those much any more.
If you enter the address here you will see three aerial photos showing the drive-in. No street number is needed, the drive-in will pop right up. In the 1969 photo, the drive-in is in the middle of nowhere as none of the surrounding property had been developed.
View link
You can’t copy and paste the address to that site. You have to type the entire address in and some of the older photos are not very sharp.
The Simi Drive-In was opened by Metropolitan Theatres in September, 1963. The announcement was published in the September 9 issue of Boxoffice Magazine.
There must have been enough of a population base at that time to justify the construction. Panning around the 1969 photo shows only farmland, and I can’t imagine 1963 being any different.
The address of the Simi Drive-In was 361 Tierra Rejada Road, Simi Valley 93065 and the car capacity was 500.
This ad was in the Van Nuys Valley News in February 1974. Per William’s post immediately above, the address should be corrected in the introduction.
http://tinyurl.com/dlg627
Here is a 1980 aerial view:
http://tinyurl.com/yk4fpt4
Thanks for the info ken mc.
My Dad built the Simi drive-in in 1962-63. He had previously built a drive-in in Lompoc Ca. where we lived at the time. He was a prolific builder in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties at the time. Mostly tract homes and some new commercial buildings. I remember a funny story about the Simi Drive-in. I was only about 14 at the time and Dad had a 55 Corvette that he would let me drive at times. They had just finished the asphalt ‘berms’ that were around the parking area. I got into the vette and began driving around thinking I was Mario Andretti or something. I was driving up on the berms like banks on a race track. Trouble was that the asphalt was still fresh enough to leave tire marks. I got in a lot of trouble. Those were the days……