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#Post#: 6856--------------------------------------------------
Movie Theaters and Drive-In's
By: Chiprocks1 Date: March 10, 2012, 1:46 am
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[center]Tell us about your favorite Movie Theaters and
Drive-In's that you went to as a kid or are currently attending
now.
#Post#: 6857--------------------------------------------------
Re: Movie Theaters and Drive-In's
By: Chiprocks1 Date: March 10, 2012, 2:00 am
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[center]Fine Arts Theater
Circa 1976-79ish
[IMG]
HTML http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i266/Chiprocks1/San%20Diego/Pacific%20Beach/FineArtsTheater.jpg[/img]
[/center]
I'm actually stunned that I even found this pic online. I'm
always searching for snapshots of my past of when I was a kid.
My story about Fine Arts is that it's use to be right down the
street where I live. Fine Arts Theater has a pretty interesting
history. It started off as a legit Movie House (from what I can
remember) and then somewhere along the way, early 70's it became
and Adult Theater. I was around 6-7 years old when it was still
an active P o r n palace and on the wall outside they had full
One Sheet Posters in Light Frame Boxes of what was playing at
the time and what was coming soon. It was really strange, even
as a kid to see stuff like this. To get from my Grandparents
house to Newberry, we (as in me and my Grandpa) would have to
walk pass it and the theater just looked so cool and larger than
life.
But seeing half naked chicks on the Posters with my Grandpa
along side of me made me feel uncomfortable. A few years later,
they changed it back to an Art House (thus the name Fine Arts)
and one of the last movies they showed there was The Gods Must
Be Crazy, which my Mom went to see. They never really closed the
theater itself, but demolished the entire building. I'm still p
i s s e d off that it's gone....for a lot of reason. I think
the above pic is around 76-79.
I will search for more pics of the other 2 theaters we had back
in the day and post.
#Post#: 6858--------------------------------------------------
Re: Movie Theaters and Drive-In's
By: Chiprocks1 Date: March 10, 2012, 2:13 am
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[center]The Roxy Theater
Circa 1979
[IMG]
HTML http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i266/Chiprocks1/San%20Diego/Pacific%20Beach/ADIC_RoxyTheater8009.jpg[/img]
[/center]
I loved this theater as a kid. It was the only "legit" theater
we had then and believe it or not, the last one we've had in our
town since then. How long ago was this? The last movie I saw at
The Roxy was Jaws. Yup, we haven't had a movie house since then.
It closed a few years later. Currently, our Post Office sits in
the same spot. But yeah, this one was a good one for sure.
Now I have to find a pic of our Drive-In Theater, which probably
isn't anywhere to be found online since I have searched for
years for one. Grrr! You can see by the marquee that it was 1979
with Caligula playing.
#Post#: 6859--------------------------------------------------
Re: Movie Theaters and Drive-In's
By: Chiprocks1 Date: March 10, 2012, 2:17 am
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[center]The Roxy Theater News
[/center]
[quote]The Roxy Theater, where the post office is today, opened
on Dec. 16, 1943 as a proud member of the Fox-West Coast theater
chain. Many of the Pacific Beach kids who remember Saturday
matinees at the Roxy are grandparents today. Scott Shore
purchased the building in 1977 and booked live shows and art
movies. I took this photo in September of 1980, when “Caligula”
was the featured film. It featured Malcolm McDowell, John
Gielgud, Peter O’Toole and Helen Mirren. The post office
announced, on March 2, 1981, that it had spent $1.1 million to
purchase the property. The theater was demolished three months
later.
[/quote]
I was pretty sure that it closed in 1980, my first year playing
Little League Baseball because I wanted to go see a movie there.
But we never did.
#Post#: 6872--------------------------------------------------
Re: Movie Theaters and Drive-In's
By: boyinblack80 Date: March 10, 2012, 4:43 pm
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hahahaha Caligula....that's awesome.
I saw Dire Straights on the Sultan's of Swing tour there with my
dad.
I also saw the original Nosferatu at one of the two
theatres.....the scary black and white one.
very cool Chip....super fun to see that.
and what's crazy is I actually remember when Caligula was
playing there....so you joke about my drug addled
memory....you'd never forget the name Caligula.
;)
#Post#: 9415--------------------------------------------------
First Drive-In Theater
By: Mac Date: June 6, 2012, 6:08 am
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[glow=red,2,300]Jun 6, 1933:
First drive-in movie theater opens
[/glow]
HTML http://blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/google-doodle-drive-in-theaters.jpg
Note Google Doodle today
On this day in 1933, eager motorists park their automobiles on
the grounds of Park-In Theaters, the first-ever drive-in movie
theater, located on Crescent Boulevard in Camden, New Jersey.
Park-In Theaters--the term "drive-in" came to be widely used
only later--was the brainchild of Richard Hollingshead, a movie
fan and a sales manager at his father's company, Whiz Auto
Products, in Camden. Reportedly inspired by his mother's
struggle to sit comfortably in traditional movie theater seats,
Hollingshead came up with the idea of an open-air theater where
patrons watched movies in the comfort of their own automobiles.
He then experimented in the driveway of his own house with
different projection and sound techniques, mounting a 1928 Kodak
projector on the hood of his car, pinning a screen to some
trees, and placing a radio behind the screen for sound. He also
tested ways to guard against rain and other inclement weather,
and devised the ideal spacing arrangement for a number of cars
so that all would have a view of the screen.
The young entrepreneur received a patent for the concept in May
of 1933 and opened Park-In Theaters, Inc. less than a month
later, with an initial investment of $30,000. Advertising it as
entertainment for the whole family, Hollingshead charged 25
cents per car and 25 cents per person, with no group paying more
than one dollar. The idea caught on, and after Hollingshead's
patent was overturned in 1949, drive-in theaters began popping
up all over the country. One of the largest was the All-Weather
Drive-In of Copiague, New York, which featured parking space for
2,500 cars, a kid's playground and a full service restaurant,
all on a 28-acre lot.
Drive-in theaters showed mostly B-movies--that is, not
Hollywood's finest fare--but some theaters featured the same
movies that played in regular theaters. The initially poor sound
quality--Hollingshead had mounted three speakers manufactured by
RCA Victor near the screen--improved, and later technology made
it possible for each car's to play the movie's soundtrack
through its FM radio. The popularity of the drive-in spiked
after World War II and reached its heyday in the late 1950s to
mid-60s, with some 5,000 theaters across the country. Drive-ins
became an icon of American culture, and a typical weekend
destination not just for parents and children but also for
teenage couples seeking some privacy. Since then, however, the
rising price of real estate, especially in suburban areas,
combined with the growing numbers of walk-in theaters and the
rise of video rentals to curb the growth of the drive-in
industry. Today, fewer than 500 drive-in theaters survive in the
United States.
#Post#: 10209--------------------------------------------------
Re: Movie Theaters and Drive-In's
By: Chiprocks1 Date: July 2, 2012, 2:57 pm
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[quote author=Chiprocks1 link=topic=774.msg6857#msg6857
date=1331366438]
[center]Fine Arts Theater
Circa 1976-79ish
[/center]
[/quote]
[center]
Pacific Beach Movie House To Close
HTML http://articles.latimes.com/1986-02-21/entertainment/ca-10487_1_fine-arts-staff
[/center]
Doing a search on Fine Arts Theater, I found this article, dated
February 21, 1986. I miss my old neighborhood and everything it
had to offer. It was unique and had character. Now and for the
past 25 years it's just your typical "been-there-seen-it" town.
Bah!!
#Post#: 10210--------------------------------------------------
Re: Movie Theaters and Drive-In's
By: Chiprocks1 Date: July 2, 2012, 3:08 pm
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[center]Now & Then: June 10, 2010
HTML http://www.sdnews.com/view/full_story/7877815/article-Now---Then--June-10--2010
[/center]
Found another article on Fine Arts. Now I can give credit to the
photographer that took the pic. I think. Anyway, it's John Fry.
Gonna try and get in touch with him. Sent him an email. Want to
see if he has any more pics of not just the movie house, but
some of the other prominent places in town. Hopefully he has a
pic of our Drive-In Theater which I still can't find anywhere
online.
#Post#: 10211--------------------------------------------------
Re: Movie Theaters and Drive-In's
By: Mac Date: July 2, 2012, 3:31 pm
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[glow=red,2,300]The Olympic Drive-In aka: The Big O.[/glow]
Well, I don’t know about my favorite drive-in. It did show p
orn. Yes, that’s right, an outside screen theater showing p orn.
The Olympic Drive-In aka: The Big O.
I only went a time or two and they are forever burned in my
brain. It was so odd. Went with a bunch of high school friends.
The fence enclosing the theater grounds was draped in black
material and most of it was torn. It was only an attempt to hide
the screens from the public and surrounding neighborhood.
[img]
HTML http://photos.cinematreasures.org/production/photos/11259/1310334376/large.jpg?1310334376[/img]
[quote]This drive-in opened as the Rock Road in Pagedale by
Wehrenberg Theatres and had a 400 car capacity. After changing
ownership in the early-1960’s it began running **** movies. They
had to install a large screen around the drive-in and it was
drapped in a black vinyl material so that the screen couldn’t be
seen from the Rock Road. There were constant battles between the
drive-in owners and the city of Pagedale over violations because
of the films that were being run. They would make inspections of
the facility and cite them for the least of irregularities.
It was closed in 1977 and is now a junk yard, but the large
marquee with the giant Olympic torch is still facing the Rock
Road.[/quote]
#Post#: 10213--------------------------------------------------
Re: Movie Theaters and Drive-In's
By: Chiprocks1 Date: July 2, 2012, 3:46 pm
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Just outside of our town in the adjacent town they had a strip
that had at one time 6 Drive-Ins's next to each other. Meaning
it was a Screen, then a parking lot, then another screen,
parking lot......As it became obsolete, it was down to 3 and
then eventually 0. Bah!!!! But it was really cool when my Mom
would drive by at night time and I'd see these huge screens with
movies showing. There was no hiding it, even though it was
enclosed behind walls. Still trying to find pics of those
theaters that don't suck.
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