Harbor Boulevard Drive-In
3700 McFadden Avenue,
Santa Ana,
CA
92704
3700 McFadden Avenue,
Santa Ana,
CA
92704
6 people
favorited this theater
When it opened on June 29, 1960 this reflected the growing popularity of drive-ins as it was Pacific Theatre’s 41st location and Orange County’s sixth drive-in. At the time, all of the county drive-ins were under the Pacific banner except the Lincoln D.I., which would join Pacific in 1962. An article in the Santa Ana Register told that among its amenities were a 90x120 ft. screen and a 1,500-car capacity. Its opening double bill was Lana Turner in “Portrait in Black” and Richard Attenborough in “S.O.S. Pacific”.
Despite its mammoth size, no more screens were ever added. In its remaining years it showed Spanish-language films but after July 1, 1984 no mention of films showed up in theater listings, only the swap meet which was to carry on until December 24, 1986.
After its demolition, which began on February 11, 1987, a Wal-Mart store was built on the site.
Contributed by
Ron Pierce
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Recent comments (view all 5 comments)
One of my best memories is going to see “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner†here. I was dating my future wife (now ex) Janice Jacobs and we were with friends Steve King (no..not that one!) and Donna DeCubellis and we got into a great discussion on race with the car next to us with two African American couples. We went on talking about it the rest of the night over at Bob’s Big Boy. I saw many more films there but that one stands out.
From socaldriveins.com:
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Great pictures OCRon!!!
Now Riverview West Marketplace. Please update.
If today’s Google Maps is accurate, a Walmart Supercenter still occupies part of the old Harbor Boulevard’s viewing field. If you want to be thorough, a small strip-mall-type building with a UPS Store and other tenants sits about where its screen used to be. Everything west of that was a vacant lot next to the drive-in, at least in 1972.