Burlingame Drive-In

378 Beach Road,
Burlingame, CA 94010

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taylordiving
taylordiving on January 2, 2023 at 4:51 pm

There was an original Burlingame Drive-in that pre-dated this one and it was located just off Peninsula Ave (there’s a road called Studio Circle which is located right about where the old fence would have been).

jwmovies
jwmovies on October 27, 2022 at 10:27 pm

Th adress for this theater is 378 Beach Rd, Burlingame, CA 94010. Please update. This would closer to the parking garage which was Field #2 of the drive-in.

1966gt350h
1966gt350h on January 11, 2022 at 1:51 am

There are now 4 buildings and a good size parking structure owned by Facebook.

dansdriveintheater
dansdriveintheater on April 26, 2021 at 9:08 am

all traces of this theatre are gone sadly!

davidcoppock
davidcoppock on October 18, 2018 at 7:18 am

Opened wuth on screen 1(Penisula) with “In harms way” and “Hush…hush, sweet Charlotte” and screen 2(Burlingame) with “The family way” and “Robin and the 7 hoods”. One of the screens discontinued in 2000. Closed in 2001. Demolished in 2002. Site is now an empty field with trees.

TomMc11
TomMc11 on May 22, 2018 at 8:28 pm

Current Google Aerial view shows visible ramps. The current street view, however, is from January 2018, and it appears there is rampant construction on all parts of the site which would lead me to believe the last traces of this DI are now gone.

brianashe
brianashe on May 20, 2018 at 7:17 pm

@KenLayton I was working there in summer 1993 and that was when they started broadcasting. I forget if it was AM or FM, but I think it was AM. But they kept the speakers available, at least at first.

davidcoppock
davidcoppock on March 9, 2017 at 5:11 am

Is it unusual for a drive-in to have two different names at the same time? Has it happened at any other drive-ins'?

KenLayton
KenLayton on March 8, 2017 at 8:30 pm

When did they stop using speakrs and make the switch to radio sound? Once they got radio sound, did they start with AM then later switch to FM? Or were they always AM?

jwmovies
jwmovies on January 9, 2017 at 1:47 am

AKA Burlingame Drive-in Theater. There is a Burlingame Drive-in. Check my entry. It was in on Burlingame avenue and was opened before the second Drive-in opened.

KenLayton
KenLayton on July 6, 2013 at 12:09 pm

I used to go there in the late 1960’s.

pbignardi
pbignardi on July 6, 2013 at 11:06 am

Hard to believe it has been over 10 years since the Burlingame was torn down. This was one of my hangouts when I was in high school and at CSM in the early-mid 80’s. We used to see a movie on a Friday or Saturday and then go cruise El Camino Real in San Mateo in the various cars I owned or my friends owned: ‘70 Nova, '67 Camaro, '57 Chevy pickup, '66 Mustang and so on. The weeks leading up to July 4 were always fun as fireworks were always going off in the lot, and most of us shot bottle rockets and larger rockets at the screen. Mostly harmless fun – no one got hurt and we didn’t cause any real trouble.

Benl
Benl on July 19, 2008 at 1:15 am

Seen a lot of movies in the Burlingame Drive in over the years.

Cannonball Run
Indiana Jones
Superman II
Demolition Man
Cable Guy
The Rock
Etc…

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on March 14, 2008 at 10:21 am

There is a photo of the concourse and screen on this site:
http://www.lostamerica.com/roadside.html

tarantex
tarantex on June 16, 2007 at 5:24 pm

I remember when it was called the Peninsula and Burlingame Drive in, it was a twin from the start, I use to manage that drive along with the Redwood and the last one was the Moffet in mt. View, running a drive in was fun, I took a short time away from the Syufy’s and worked for United Artists ran the drive in in Belmont called the Starlight it was torn down for Coca Cola built a plant there since then they torn that down now it an office park and Public storage

Lavarus
Lavarus on March 28, 2007 at 1:07 pm

Just found some pictures from 2001 on-line at a photographer’s web site: http://www.troypaiva.com

EricB
EricB on December 16, 2005 at 6:38 pm

As one of my first teenage jobs about 1978-79, I worked at the Burlingame Drive-In Concession stand, which was a huge high-ceilinged “bubble” in the middle of the property, with large windows. It was pretty rough and tumble, even then. The teens would invade the place on the weekends and there would always be drunken kids starting fights. The security guard (intimidating but a sweetheart)would confiscate the booze and weed from the patrons and split it with the employees! We didn’t feel bad about it, since the spoiled suburban customers were generally stupid and abusive to the employees. One night, some obnoxious drunk kid thought we’d shorted him on change, so after much yelling, and with a horribly loud crash, put his arm through one of the thick pane windows. He’d wrapped his arm in A DOWN JACKET, which of course offers NO protection, so he messed his arm up bad. No one was arrested, though—I was told the kid was the local Sherriff’s son!

joliecpa
joliecpa on April 10, 2005 at 12:56 pm

As to the Syufy chain, I worked for them for years (and at the Bulingame for about 5 years of my 15 with the company) – they renamed themselves as Century Theatres in the late 80’s (a lot easier to pronounce, but I still always thought of myself as a Syufy employee). I left in 94, but the company was still familyowned then, and I believe still is.

sootmann
sootmann on November 29, 2004 at 8:55 am

Hi there,

Amazing what you can find on the Internet. I was feeling nostalgic and google’d for ‘burlingame drive-in’ and here it is. I worked there in the summer of 1993 as a projectionist. I also did whatever other odd stuff was needed, like hanging my ass 50 feet above highway 101 on cold, windy nights to change the letters on the marquee. Fun times. We showed a main feature (new movie), “co-feature” (2-3-month-old movie), and main feature again. Sunset in the summer is at 9pm and I stayed until the last movie ended. If both movies were long, that might be 4am, and if it was the last night a movie was playing, I’d have to stay another hour or so to pack it up so it could be shipped out. The ticket booth and concession stands closed by 12 so I was there all alone for hours. Got a lot of reading done that summer—I remember I started “Firestarter” one night at midnight and finished it exactly 24 hours later.

JasonBalch
JasonBalch on September 26, 2004 at 11:15 am

In regards to Brett’s question, the Burlingame 4 was part of the Syufy/Century chain, but unlike most of its other SF Bay Area locations, Syufy didn’t own the land that the theatre occupied.

JasonBalch
JasonBalch on October 9, 2003 at 6:32 am

The Burlingame Drive-in has been completeley demolished, and the land has been regraded for construction. Nothing remains except the signature Century Theatres palm trees and a former marquee facing the 101 freeway which invites you to live, eat, and shop in Burlingame.

Donald John Long
Donald John Long on November 18, 2002 at 5:58 pm

I must confess I once went to this cold and drafty drive-in by the Bay in 1978 to see “The Incredible Melting Man”. I just couldn’t resist the urge to relive the nifty-Fifties & Sixties experience, and kept going to drive-in theaters until they closed. I also saw “Escape From New York” here in 1981.

Brett
Brett on August 4, 2002 at 8:11 am

I believe this theater was part of the Syufy chain. Does anyone know what happened to them?

JasonBalch
JasonBalch on May 30, 2002 at 5:01 pm

Sadly, the Burlingame has been demolished.