San Ramon Auto Movie
7500 Dublin Boulevard,
Dublin,
CA
94568
7500 Dublin Boulevard,
Dublin,
CA
94568
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Now BART West Dublin parking garage and a Tesla dealership! Please update.
This opened on August 12th, 1964. Grand opening ad in photo section.
San Ramon Auto Movies opening Tue, Aug 11, 1964 – 10 · Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) · Newspapers.com
Hayward Daily Review, June 16, 1971: San Ramon Auto Movies opens a second screen with “A Gunfight” and “Paint Your Wagon” as attractions.
Updated 12/10/2014 – according to the August 11, 1964 edition of the Oakland Tribune, the San Ramon Auto Movies had its grand opening the following evening (8/12/1964) with a showing of “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” and “The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao.” The newspaper ad notes the drive-in was situated on Dublin Blvd. at Highways 50 and 21, though it was actually ½ mile east of that intersection (Dublin Blvd. and San Ramon Rd.) The San Ramon Auto Movies opened about a year before the adjacent Interstate 580/680 interchange.
The San Ramon Auto Movies started as a single screen; a second screen was added to the southern part of the drive-in around 1972 (along westbound Hwy. 580). A simple, waist-high cyclone fence with wood staves separated the two screening areas. The perimeter of the drive-in was encased in a green and white corrugated fiberglass fence. Cartoon character likenesses (Porky Pig, etc.) dotted the fence occasionally. Some of the speaker holders came equipped with heaters.
R-rated movies seemed a rarity at this drive-in; family movies like “Adventures of the Wilderness Family” and “The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams” were staples. Sometimes R-rated movies like “Walking Tall” and “Linda Lovelace for President” played here, but the San Ramon Auto Movies definitely had a family atmosphere (a playground was located next to the snack bar).
my freinds late father grew up in pleasonton and he used to tell me storys about this theater
The Enea brothers also owned the following drive-ins, now gone: Nimitz Auto Movie (a two-screener in Fremont, CA) and the Fremont (CA) Automovie. They also owned for a number of years the Showcase Theater, an indoor house, in downtown Concord, CA.