El Rancho I & II Drive-In

157 Hickey Boulevard,
South San Francisco, CA 94080

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El Rancho I & II Drive-In

Viewing: Photo | Street View

This drive-in was located on top of a hill near Hickey Boulevard in South San Francisco district of Colma. What was pretty cool was this was one of the first drive-ins that had FM sound transmission. I had friends who lived up the hill, they could see the movies from their windows and listen to the sound on their radios.

Originally a single screen, operating by 1948 by Redwood-Lippert Theatres, it was later twinned. Closed in the early-1980’s and replaced by a condo-complex.

Contributed by Victor

Recent comments (view all 15 comments)

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on November 19, 2008 at 9:12 pm

There is a new collection of Life magazine photos on Google. This 1948 photo may also be on the Getty collection posted in July 2005:
http://tinyurl.com/67rllp

lostmemory
lostmemory on November 19, 2008 at 9:15 pm

misterboo found that link and posted a photo on the Brentwood Theatre listing and now you feel that you should link to all of the other photos without giving misterboo a chance to finish?

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on November 19, 2008 at 9:29 pm

I think there are two million photos linked, according to Google. If misterboo has an extra year or two to post them all, great.

lostmemory
lostmemory on November 19, 2008 at 9:41 pm

It makes no difference how many photos there are. misterboo is a new member, give him a chance to post the photos. If he decides not to post anymore of the photos, that is a different story. When someone posts a link that contains multiple photos, that doesn’t give you the green light to milk it dry.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on November 19, 2008 at 9:43 pm

This is a silly conversation, and I’m not going to waste more time on it. Please feel free to comment on each Life photo that I post.

lostmemory
lostmemory on November 19, 2008 at 9:48 pm

You can count on that.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on November 30, 2008 at 3:25 am

Here is another Life photo from 1948:
http://tinyurl.com/6xr42x

lostmemory
lostmemory on November 30, 2008 at 1:46 pm

Make life simple. Here are some El Rancho related photos from Life magazine.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on July 28, 2009 at 3:02 am

The various Life Magazine photos linked above do not depict the El Rancho Drive-In in South San Francisco, but the Rancho Drive-In in San Diego. The April 24, 1948, issue of Boxoffice Magazine published an article about the new Rancho in San Diego, with photos. It is unmistakably the same screen tower and mural seen in the Life Magazine photos. There are also easily recognized photos of the Rancho on a web page about San Diego drive-ins published by the San Diego Weekly Reader,

Drive-In 1954
Drive-In 1954 on January 25, 2012 at 11:40 pm

New picture… alot of broken links.

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