Skyview Drive-In
3100 47th Avenue,
Parkway,
CA
95824
3100 47th Avenue,
Parkway,
CA
95824
1 person
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Blumenfeld Theater Circuit
Previous Names: Drive-In
Nearby Theaters
Was a drive-in on 44th Street west of Franklin Boulevard directly across from the Campbells Soup plant in Parkway, just to the South of Sacramento. The Drive-In opened on September 14, 1950 with Hedy Lamarr in “Samson and Delilah”. On September 21, 1962 a second screen was added with Angie Dickinson in “Jessica” & Burt Lancaster in “Birdman of Alcatraz” playing on both screens alternately. In 1973 a third screen was added. Saw a handful of movies in the 1970’s and early-1980’s. It was closed in December 1988.
Contributed by
William J Monahan
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Recent comments (view all 14 comments)
I would like to see some pics of this place as well. Its cool that even after being closed for 20 years you can still tell it was a drive-in.
I was raised in Sacto beteen 1970 and 1980. When we’d drive on I-80 at night and go by the Skyview, I always liked the neon sign, showing a small star growing larger, then diminishing. I made up a stupid saying to go along with the visual: “ho, ho it, star!. Ho ho ho it.”
I had problems as a kid.
The site is possibly now Trench Plate Rental?
This opened on September 14th, 1950. Grand opening ad posted.
Opened with “Samson and Delilah” and other added attactions(not named).
2 screens on September 21st, 1962
The 2 screens both opened with “Jessica” and “Birdman of Alcatraz”(in different orders).
Update on the former site…most of the property is now being used, assuring that it will never again be a multi-screen drive in theatre. The area where Screen 2 (the South Screen) was has now been graded. I assume the Strawn family, the Skyview’s owners, still holds what is left of the property. A very small trace of the drive in (a bit of Screens 1 and 3) remain but have not yet been graded, and obviously the screens have been brought down. A very tiny remnant, considering it has been nearly 70 years since it was built, and over 30 since its demise.
As of this writing, Gladys Strawn is still alive in her 90s, while her husband Glenn has passed away.
If there is anyone who has any film snipes that was used at the Skyview, please come forward.
According to Google Maps, the old Skyview site is in the unincorporated, census-designated place called Parkway. Even Sacramento Bee ombudsman Art Nauman concurred in 1990: “Last week I blithely wrote that the Skyview drive-in theater was built outside Sacramento’s city limits in 1950 and later was annexed to the county. Three readers - including county Supervisor Illa Collin, who ought to know - emphatically pointed out the Skyview still is in the county, not the city. I should have double-checked.”
When was the exact closing date of the Skyview? (One-word name) The short answer is I’m not sure, it’s a little weird. Here’s what I found in the Sacramento Bee.
On Dec. 10, 1988, the Skyview ran an ad showing “Nightmare on Elm Street 4” + “Halloween 4” / “Iron Eagle II + They Live” / Closed for Repairs on screens 1, 2, and 3 respectively.
On Dec. 18, 1988, the Skyview ad changed the second screen to “Young Guns” + “Alien Nation,” but everything else stayed the same. The Bee’s editorial listing showed the same movies as Dec. 10.
On Dec. 22, 1988, there was no Skyview ad, and the listing again showed the same movies as Dec. 10.
I would have chalked it all up to a passive editorial crew that didn’t update listings for a freshly dead drive-in, that the final Screen 2 show was “Alien Nation.” Except that two weeks later a bad crash resulted in a Jan. 2, 1989 Sacramento Union photo (uploaded here) of the (already “old”) Skyview sign showing the same program as Dec. 10.
Did the Skyview really change back for shows on Christmas week? Was its Dec. 18 ad wrong because it had quietly closed earlier? And how did the Union writers discern that the freshly closed Skyview would never open again?