El Rancho Drive-In

2000 W. Capitol Avenue,
West Sacramento, CA 95691

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Kenmore
Kenmore on February 7, 2025 at 4:56 am

The old marquee as seen in the photo section is long gone. It was replaced before August of 2007.

MichaelKilgore
MichaelKilgore on February 6, 2025 at 8:03 pm

The last El Rancho ad I could find in the Sacramento Bee was Sept. 6, 1963. The program that night was “The Caretakers” with Robert Stack and “Man From the Diners Club” with Danny Kaye.

MichaelKilgore
MichaelKilgore on February 4, 2020 at 7:31 am

Boxoffice, Sept. 30, 1963: “The El Rancho Drive-In at Sacramento has been dismantled by Blumenfeld Theatres, which is turning it into a trailer court”

Scott Neff
Scott Neff on February 3, 2020 at 3:05 pm

Are we sure that this and the Drive-In on Davis Highway are the same Drive-ins? Not being from the area I’d feel better having somebody confirm this.

rivest266
rivest266 on April 30, 2019 at 2:09 pm

This opened as Drive-In on March 29th, 1946 and closed in February 1950. It reopened as the El Rancho Drive-In on March 17th, 1950. Both grand opening ads in the photo section.

davidcoppock
davidcoppock on October 6, 2018 at 1:03 am

Opened on 29/5/1946 and closed in the fall of 1963.

davidcoppock
davidcoppock on October 6, 2018 at 12:48 am

The mobile home park sign may be the drive-in marquee?

VeteranShield
VeteranShield on March 18, 2015 at 8:25 pm

I was born (1952) and raised in West Sacramento. I have fond memories of the old El Rancho Drive-In, as we only lived 3 blocks away from it. I remember that Dad would regularly load us up in the family wagon (a beautiful bronze/white ‘57 two-door Chevy Nomad) which Mom had already fully stocked with snacks and drinks, of course. I think the last movie we saw there together was Ben-Hur (1959). If you want to understand how truly magnificent this place looked to my young eyes back in those days, pay a visit to Tom Spaulding’s Flickr account at the below link to see a photo taken on October 31st, 1946 (FYI: the theater was built and opened in 1933). LINK: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tspauld/2998750029/in/photostream/

SteveSwanson
SteveSwanson on November 28, 2014 at 5:24 pm

I made a quick stop here in 2005, on the way up to the Marysville Drive-In. I understand that the booth/snack bar building is still there but I did not go that far back into the lot. The screen tower base is still there but the marquee was removed a few years after these pictures were taken.

Silicon Sam
Silicon Sam on March 20, 2011 at 3:04 am

Even by 1964 it was a mobile home park. Didn’t seem to last long as a drive-in.

rivest266
rivest266 on March 19, 2011 at 11:33 am

1957 aerial: View link