Vermont Drive-In
18001 S. Vermont Avenue,
Gardena,
CA
90248
18001 S. Vermont Avenue,
Gardena,
CA
90248
8 people
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Showing 26 - 39 of 39 comments
Here is the site today:
http://tinyurl.com/4suzz7
The small photo on the bottom of the page shows one of the screens and a sign, which is what you would see on the right side of the street driving south on Vermont.
http://tinyurl.com/3me4cz
It was sad to see maybe a half dozen cars parked before the first show. Every time I saw that, I figured the Vermont was not long for this world. I would liked to have seen it in its heyday.
I worked at the Vermont Drive-in in the early 70s. It was owned by Pacific Theatres back then. The manager was Al scriner (not sure how its spelled. It was my first job. Every weekend, I work at night and the Swap meet during the day.
“The Vermont was showing adult films in the early 70s, according to this LA Times ad"
Just for that week,Ken. That double bill played at other mainstream theatres.It continued to show regular movies till it closed.
Nice to be reminded of this theater every once in a while. The property is completely built out, so you would never know that there was a drive-in there.
Capacity in 1963 was 769 cars. Operator was Pacific Drive-In Theaters Corp.
The Vermont was showing adult films in the early 70s, according to this LA Times ad:
http://tinyurl.com/34untd
I’m not sure if this is the drive-in I’m looking for, but I think it is. Does anyone know what the original name was?
From socaldriveins.com:
View link
I moved to Harbor City in 1994, and used to drive past the Vermont almost every day. It was showing second run films towards the end of its life, with not too many patrons as far as I could see.
We used to rotate between this and the nearby Southbay 6 drive-ins back in the 80’s and 90’s. My family and friends were all shocked when it closed.
This was one of the closest drive-ins to our home and one of our favorites. I could even see it from my school’s playground as the school was on a hill about 3 miles away. At that time (early 1960s), I believe that the screen art above had been replaced by a lime green background and a painting of Little Bo Peep and her sheep. This had probably been painted by Foster & Kleiser, the same firm who created the artwork for other local Pacific Theaters, including the San Pedro, the Compton, the Lakewood and the Rosecrans drive-ins. This original sturdy screen was eventually replaced by a flimsy-looking metal screen to which a second of the same was added, probably around 1970. There is tract housing on the property now, built about 5 years ago.
Oh yeah—-one of the funniest memories I have of the Vermont is that it was often a bit difficult to ignore all of the noise coming from the neighboring race track across the street! Gardena Raceways, which I believe belonged to AC Agajanian, was so loud that we could actually hear the cars slamming around the track all the way back to our home 5 miles away on any summer night! Summer has never seemed quite the same since the track closed. (It’s too quiet)!
I have to agree with the “Manwithnoname,” the Vermont drive-in was the FIRST drive-in theatre I went too, and it was very nice. I don’t remember when, but in the 60’s at least they had swings and things for the children, just below that big screen. I watched the movie “Jet Pilot” with Janet Leigh with some buddies in the car about a block west of the theatre, we made up our own words at the movie was shown. Located on the west side of Vermont Avenue, and just south of 174th Street. Many memories. Also the Harbor drive-in some miles south.