Century Drive-In
3560 W. Century Boulevard,
Inglewood,
CA
90303
3560 W. Century Boulevard,
Inglewood,
CA
90303
6 people
favorited this theater
Opened on July 2, 1949, the Century Drive-In was a single screen theatre, operated by Pacific Theatres with a capacity for 918 cars. The rear of the screen tower had a mural with a nautical theme. There was a childrens playground which was equipped with gymnastic equipment.
It was used in the mid-1950’s to test and show the public the new form of entertainment called "CINERAMA". They used three trailers as the three diffrent projection booths (Abel,Baker,Charlie). In the mid-1960’s, it began screening Cinerama films.
The Century Drive-In was twinned in the 1970’s. Like so many of Los Angeles' drive-ins, it has been destroyed and replaced by an industrial park.
Contributed by
William Gabel
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Recent comments (view all 38 comments)
The entire stretch of Century between Prairie and Crenshaw has been built out for retail. I remember only about ten years ago most of this land was vacant. Hollywood Park itself will be gone in five years, for a mixed retail/residential project.
My family moved to Inglewood in 1953 and I remember a small Army anti-aircraft installation just south of the Century Drive-in at the corner of 104th street and Yukon ave. There were several gun emplacements and bunkers. Being 7 years old at the time I was impressed by all the hardware. This facility was de-activated soon after and the land remained vacant for some time. I believe Morningside High School had already been built across 104th street. Needless to say the family took advantage of this great drive-in on many occasions.
More information and photos are here.
In September 1954, the LA Times reported on the construction of a new drive-in theater to be called the Hollypark, east of Crenshaw near Imperial Highway. This was to be in conjunction with a 300 million dollar city, also called Hollypark. The drive-in was to be operated by Pacific Theaters. Perhaps because of the proximity of the Century, the Holypark was never built, nor was the city.
Hmmmm, interesting. I grew up in a housing tract in Gardena called Hollypark, which is close to where Century Drive-in was. Hollypark is between Crenshaw and Van Ness, and El Segundo and Rosecrans. My parents bought their house there new in 1955. We lived there until 1965, at which time we moved to Torrance. We used to go to three or four different Drive-ins when we lived in Hollypark – Century, Vermont, Roadium, and sometimes Centinela. We didn’t go to Century as often as the others because of the airplane noise. I saw “101 Dalmations” there – I was pretty young, but I remember it pretty well. It started to rain during the opening credits – we thought we were going to have to leave. It died down and we were able to watch the whole movie. I do remember the airplane noise, but I was so thrilled to be there that I didn’t care.
Enter the address on this site for some aerial views in the 50s, 70s and 80s:
View link
Here is an August 1974 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/rd29p4
Here is an undated photo of the Century:
http://tinyurl.com/ltaxxa
Here are some Cinerama ads:
http://tinyurl.com/n42vvw
http://tinyurl.com/mhdotz
http://tinyurl.com/n5vw2u
Thanks for the high quality repros