Century Drive-In
3560 W. Century Boulevard,
Inglewood,
CA
90303
3560 W. Century Boulevard,
Inglewood,
CA
90303
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People have commented on the various murals used by Pacific for its drive-ins. Here is a picture of the Rosecrans Drive-In in Paramount with an interesting sci-fi mural. The theater is not listed here, unless it’s under another name. I copied the photo from socaldriveins.com:
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From socaldriveins.com:
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Here is a picture, courtesy of the LA Library:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics17/00028237.jpg
The first time I ever went to a movie theatre in California, it was here. It was 1982 and I was 10 years old. It was a double feature of “The Beastmaster” and “Swamp Thing”. I don’t remember much of anything else except the fact that I thought it was cool seeing a movie in California!
I grew up on 108th. st. and Wilton pl. in the 60’s. Our parents would take us to Century Drive-in once a month. We saw “Night of the living Dead”, along with other great movies. My mom would make us hot dogs and popcorn to bring with us. Me and my brothers would go in our pj’s because we would always end up falling asleep! On the days the theater was closed, my dad would take us to ride our go kart and mini bikes in the parking lot! Those were the days when you didn’t have to worry about being robbed! Such memories!!
What I would have given to see a movie in cinerama at this great Drive-In. God I wish Drive-Ins would make a comeback.
Dave Grau (Mungo)
Norelco
What I would have given to see a movie in cinerama at this great Drive-In. God I wish Drive-Ins would make a comeback.
Dave Grau (Mungo)
Norelco
Here are pictures of this drive-in including it’s legendary screen
www.capital.net/com/jaytp/CINEDRIV.HTM
The Century DI with its Cinerama screen can be seen in The Brady Bunch Episode #100 titled “Peter and the Wolf” when Peter and Greg take two girls to the drive in.
WOW! the Century Drive-in when people talk about the Drive-in’s I always remmenber it…as a child at the age of 9 I lived in near by England Ave. and I use to park my bike at the rear of the Drive in wich it’s rear was to Mornigsise High front entrance and watch the movies free with no sound and still have fun and some times people would leave the speakers with the sound high and we could hear the movies….I did this many times with my friends from the area in the 1960’s man those were the days!!!
I grew up in the neighborhood of the Century Drive-In on Darby Ave. My friends and I would always go watch movies over the fence (especially the “mature” ones). It’s funny, you could watch most movies without sound and still know what was going on. My dad and I went there at least once a month. I remember seeing all the 60’s beach movies there but my most memorable time with my dad was a Muhammad Ali/Joe Frazier Closed Circuit fight. My friends watched it over the fence but my Dad and I were watching it in our Pontiac LeMans.
Wasn’t that the one that had the huge painting of the Mayflower and sister ships on it? In the middle of a really rough looking sea? That picture used to scare me when I was a kid.
I saw 101 Dalmations there when I was a squirt. I do remember my parents complaining about the noise.
Great screen indeed, but we really hated the noise from the flights coming in to LAX and rarely visited this drive-in. By the way, there’s also a great shot of the theater in Randy Newman’s video for “I Love L.A.”
The Century Drive-In opened on July 5th, 1949.
The architect of the Century Drive-In was William Glenn Balch.
Ahh – the Century Drive-In Theater, on Century Blvd. was the supreme drive-in movie experience for Los Angeles people on the go in the 1950s and ‘60s. My family often went there many times, in spite of the noise from the airliners passing overhead on their way into LAX.
We went to see the CINERAMA movie there and were really impressed with that super-wide-wide screen!
It was huge! Even though the movie was presented in Stereo sound – at a drive-in no less – the theater owners made up for those tinny speakers you hooked onto your car window by installing some huge stadium speakers in several places in the complex so you really got a “wall of sound” reverberating back and forth around the open space. I loved the Art Deco style snack bar – it was the best snack bar I’ve ever seen in a drive-in.
On the outside it looked like a diner, with glass windows facing the screen so when people were standing in line they could keep watching the movie! I thought it would last forever, but home video killed the Drive-In Theaters across America as a cinema experience. Like “Cinema Paradiso”,
I’ll never forget seeing Kirk Douglas in “ULYSSES” here in 1956.