99 East Drive-In
3999 N. Wilson Way,
Stockton,
CA
95205
3999 N. Wilson Way,
Stockton,
CA
95205
2 people
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The drive-in featured two buildings. One of which was the projector booth/concession stand and another structure was in the back corner of the drive-in on the north side.
The building in the back was gone in a 1982 aerial, but the projection booth/concession stand survived until at least 2010. By 2012, only the foundation remained. Today, you can just barely see an outline of the foundation of the projection booth/concession stand.
This opened as the 99 Theatre on June 1st, 1949. Grand opening ad posted.
The site is now Stockton Flooring and Advanced Trailer Sales and Service.
The concession building appears to still be on-site.
The address above is the racetrack next door. Approx. address would be 3931 N. Wilson Way.
I went to this place all the time as a kid! My mum and her boyfriend (later my stepdad) went about two weekends a month, and almost always took me. That was way back when they still had the old speaker you had to put inside your car window! We’d often get take-out food (often from the Chicken Kitchen!) to go and eat in the car, before digging into delicious snacks we had brought for our ‘dessert/movie treats’. I remember when I was about 7 we saw a double feature of “Footloose” and “Breakin”!!!! I have such fond memories of this place. Even as a teen in the early 90’s I went a few times with my aunt and Uncle. I guess it shut down shortly after that. I know it became pretty ‘ghetto’, as of course all of Stockton did. I left that town just about the same time the drive-in did!
It just breaks my heart that drive-ins don’t exist anymore. They were so fun. So sad that kids of today have no idea what it was like. I’ll never understand why they don’t make a comeback. I guess because there aren’t many people who want to go sit in their car to watch movies when they could sit in an air-conditioned cinema to see all the new technology (like this new 3-D cr*p…remember JAWS 3? Now THAT was 3-D!) and pay WAY too much for concessions. Whatever.
Up until the mid to late 2000’s (I know it was still there in 2005) we still had a drive-in in Sacramento, I used to make my boyfriend at the time go with me. He didn’t seem to enjoy it as much as I did, but then again he was younger than me so he didn’t really go much as as kid like I did. I remember being really sad when I heard that one had shut down, for some reason I’m thinking it was the last one in Northern CA that had still been operating?
Oh, the memories. I wish they didn’t have to just be memories, but at least I have that.