Moffett Drive-In
1500 N. Shoreline Boulevard,
Mountain View,
CA
94043
1500 N. Shoreline Boulevard,
Mountain View,
CA
94043
3 people
favorited this theater
Opened on May 18, 1962 with Elvis Presley in “Blue Hawaii” and Basil Rathbone in “The Magic Sword” plus John Wayne in “North to Alaska”. The Moffett Drive-In was located nearly adjacent to Moffett Field Naval Airbase. The back side of the screen provided an impressive neon display outlining “Moffett” in huge stylized lettering, along with large golden yellow neon-outlined star shapes that dotted the space surrounding the lettering. This was all easily seen from the Bayshore Freeway.
The same design existed on the back sides of the screens for the Redwood Drive-In in Redwood City (demolished) and the Union City Drive-In in Union City. The Union City evolved into a multi-screen venue but and the original screen may still be there. Both the Union City and Redwood were also easily seen from the Nimitz and Bayshore Freeways, respectively.
The Moffett Drive-In became a 3-screen theatre on May 25, 1973. A fourth screen was added later. It was closed in 1985 and was demolished to build the Century Cinema 16(it has its own page on Cinema Treasures).
Contributed by
Ralph P
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
I think both the Moffett Drive-In and the Redwood Drive-In were redeveloped in the mid-1980s. Century Theatres replaced the drive-ins with multiplex theatres: The Century 16 in Mountain View and the Century Park 12 in Redwood City.
The Union-City Drive_in was replaced with the Union Landing Shopping Center which contains the Century 25 in Union City(25 screen indoor house) The drive-in screen is gone.
The Moffitt Drive-in was a three screener operated by Syufy(now Century) theaters. Location was on Middlefield Rd east of Hwy 101(Bayshore Freeway).
My future brother in law worked at the Moffett during High School. He’d never let us in for free.
Here is an ad circa early 1960s:
http://tinyurl.com/ylqg8a7
Cool old ads ken mc.
What was weird was in ‘85 when the 6 bigger Domes in back went up, the drive-in was still operating. I was there when the hardtops open. I managed the now-defunct Century Almaden in San Jose that summer/fall.
Opened in 1964 and closed in 1985. 1299 cars. Site is now Century Cinema 16.
Opened on May 18th, 1962, and added its second screen on May 25th, 1973, and four in 1983. Grand opening ad posted.