Slide of the Week: June 9th, 2005
Compton Drive-in Theater, Compton 1979
About ten or eleven years ago curiosity got the best of me and I decided that I just had to see the house that my mother grew up in in Compton. My grandparents moved out of it when I was five and I hadn’t seen it since. So I looked up the address in the Thomas Guide and headed over there. I turned the corner and there it was, just as I had pictured only much smaller. As I sat in my idling car staring at it a rush of long forgotten childhood memories reran in my mind. I was spellbound. But not nearly as spellbound as when I looked up and at the end of the street saw a gigantic framed mural of Viking ships sailing on a choppy sea, generously labeled with the handwritten name of the city. It was the Compton Drive-in towering over the entire neighborhood. Shocking though it may seem I didn’t even have the faintest childhood recollection of it. As soon as I got home I did a little research and found out that it was built in 1949 by the largest local drive-in chain, Pacific Drive-in Theaters.
We didn’t invent the drive-in theater here in Southern California but we certainly did perfect it. The first drive-in theater opened in New Jersey in 1934, the second a year later at Pico and Westwood in Los Angeles. During the heyday there were more outdoor screens in Southern California than anywhere else. In the mid-50s just as drive-ins began getting a reputation as teenage passion pits, some started holding Sunday morning drive-in church services to help preserve a moral balance. As the congregations on wheels developed so did the slogans. "Worship as you are in the family car" and "Honk to say amen." The drive-in theater helped Southern Californians find religion
When I asked my mother "why didn’t you tell me you grew up down the street from a drive-in" she replied with the classic "You didn’t ask!" For the next couple of weeks as I blabbed and bragged all over town about my discovery I decided I needed to go back and take a closer look. So once again I turned up the old street and there was the house but no drive-in. My dream turned into a nightmare. It was gone, yes, gone. A closer inspection revealed the screen tower had been bulldozed and left lying there on its side all bruised and broken waiting to be taken to the scrap heap.
Everything is temporary.
Here’s to the COMPTON DRIVE-IN and YOU
Charles Phoenix
Los Angeles
June 2005
Sets this Slide belongs to:
Los Angeles
11 Comments on “Compton Drive-in Theater, Compton 1979”
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January 19th, 2006 at 10:46 pm
I spent many hours at the Compton Drive In - many memories. I moved to the south way back in ‘65. Years later, during one of my visits to Compton, I was shocked to see a vacant lot where the drive in used to be. Just one of many changes in the city.
February 3rd, 2006 at 1:04 pm
I grew up in Compton and graduated from Compton HS in 65. It was a sad day when I went by the site and found it was gone. I don’t think any of the old drive-ins are around anymore, at least not near by. The Compton, The Paramount Twin, The Roadium just to name a few. Too bad, those were the best places to enjoy a movie your way. If you took a date, well, it was what the youth of the day did and many relationships were started and ended, with a date at the drive-in.
March 29th, 2006 at 7:09 pm
I was looking for update info on the new homes built on the Compton Drive-in site… but have’nt found any yet. I will tell you that I was at the open house to show the new models and they were outrageously grand!!! Beautifully built with every amenity one could imagine and huge too…The least expensive of the homes was not less than $280+ such a shame the land could not have been used to provide more affordable housing.
August 2nd, 2006 at 6:29 pm
We moved in before the drive-in was built and as a boy I watched it being put up. Opening night featured Roy Rogers, Dale Evans and the Sons of the Pioneers. I lived three houses away and snuck under the fence regularly. The west side driveway, the exit, was used during the day for custom car photo sessions by Hot Rod Magazine and other So Cal publications.
May 13th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Yes sadly this drive- in theather is gone. We need a theather in Compton. Someone pleased build a theather in Compton. We need new theather in the new shopping center the city is building.
P.S.
A theather in Compton may equal to a great investment(Money)
November 23rd, 2007 at 10:42 am
I grew up at the drive in. My mother was the asst. snack bar manager in the late 50’s. A friend of mine Ronnie (Bounce as we called him) his mother Mae worked there also,We were just a couple of Movie kids. My Dad was worked taking care of the lawn….what memories…
April 14th, 2008 at 12:40 am
Before we could afford TV in the mid 50’s we went from north Bellflower across Rosecrans to the Conpton drive in every Saturday night in our pajamas. How things have changed.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
never mind that!!! where in the heck are the drive in theaters NOW?? I wanna go and thats the only reason I turned my computer on again lol!!
DONT TELL ME there are none to be had at all now that I got this really cool car. Er, I thikn its a Nova.. ugh.
August 23rd, 2008 at 2:30 am
I remember as little kid my mom taking me and my sister to this one and the one in south gate. It was the first drive in i went to, and threw the years i saw it close down and finally be demolish. Now i have to go to South El Monte or Covina
February 10th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
We lived just behind the Compton Theater when we were kids, across the schoolyard. We’d sit on the back steps and watch “silent” movies.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
I lived in Compton between the years 1991-2008 and unfortunately, I never got a chance to see a movie at this drive-in. I wish I could go back in time so that I could give myself the opportunity to watch as many films as possible at C Drive-in and be able to say today: “I remember going to to Compton Drive-In with family and friends and …” I do, however, recall passing by the drive-in numerous times and staring at the humongous mural with viking ships -it always caught my eye! I was bummed to see the drive-in demolished and nothing being built on the empty property. The last time I passed by the empty lot where the drive-in once stood, I saw nothing constructed. This drive-in was demolished for what? So that drivers passing by could enjoy looking at an empty lot? We lost this drive-in for nothing! Today, I currently visit the Vineland Drive-In over in City of Industry. Having recently arrived from Brazil, I decided to take my husband there for his first “American Drive-In experience” and he absolutely loved it. We are going back again this weekend. If any of you live in So Cal, I would advise you to visit this drive in as it is till functioning perfectly!
Let’s keep the drive-in movie theater ALIVE & KICKING!
Nancy (Long Beach, CA)