Century Drive-In
3560 W. Century Boulevard,
Inglewood,
CA
90303
3560 W. Century Boulevard,
Inglewood,
CA
90303
7 people
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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 46 comments)
Here are some Cinerama ads:
http://tinyurl.com/n42vvw
http://tinyurl.com/mhdotz
http://tinyurl.com/n5vw2u
Thanks for the high quality repros
The Century Drive-in WAS NOT the 1st Drive-In to install 3 strip Cinerama. It had been done 2 years earlier in Drive-Ins in Cinncinnatti, Ohio and Albany, N.Y.
dick… Those drive-ins in Cincinnati and Albany ran WINDJAMMER, so, technically, they showed CineMiracle rather than Cinerama.
Uploaded aerials 1952 and 1980. Other links are broken.
First drive-in theatre in the world to present Cinerama, according to this front cover of The Modern Theatre section in 1964: Boxoffice
Supporting article in the same issue: Boxoffice
Coate. I have just done some research and the twin drive in ine Cinn played Windjammer after a cinemiracle run downtown, The drive in ran it in Cinerama from July-Aug in 1960. I am still trying to find out more info on the Albany Drie in. I still can’t see how Cinerama was any good at any drive in without 7 track stereo.. The picture might be big and great but lousy mono sound.
dickneeds111 – There were speakers installed throughout the field of the Century drive-in during the Cinerama runs. I was there and remember them. Also, William can tell us if they were stereo; they may have been.
On Roland Lataille’s page, there is this note: “Special B prints used with 2X magnetic strips for sound.” This implies that there was some stereo effect possible, but apparently the special Cinerama sound processor was not used.
I think I remember reading somewhere that the three mobile-home like booths were each mounted on a lift mechanism that would elevate them to the appropriate height for head-on projection.