Pickwick Drive-In
1100 W. Alameda Avenue,
Burbank,
CA
91506
1100 W. Alameda Avenue,
Burbank,
CA
91506
12 people
favorited this theater
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RIP Paul Reubens AKA Pee Wee Herman. Finale of “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” took place at this Drive-In.
RIP Dame Olivia Newton John!!!! 😓😓😓😓😓😓😓
Last day showing on Sunday, September 10, 1989 with “Turner & Hooch” and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/101256890/pacifics-pickwick-drive-in/
The Pickwick Seems To Be Its Hotspot During The Time, This Means We Found A Lot Of High Definition Shots Of The Pickwick.
also used in pee wee’s big adventure.
This opened on May 12th, 1949. Grand opening ad posted as well as the Blazing Saddles world premiere ad.
Opened with “The Green promise”. Site is now Rancho Marketplace Shopping Center.
The Pickwick Drive-In was used for scenes in the 1976 movie Kiss of the Tarantula. A brief glimpse of the marquee is shown in the movie.
The two films seen in the drive-in scene in the movie Grease are(“The Blob”(i think?), a film staring Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin(opening credits of a unnamed movie seen briefly).
1989 image added via Rick Watts.
Rip, Gene Wilder!
The Pickwick Drive-In was also used in an episode of “The Rockford Files” where federal agents chase Rockford and Angel in his vehicle into the drive-in during the daytime.
Was the Pickwick Drive-in the first drive-in in the world to had a world premiere(Blazing saddles)?
Does anyone know why the drive-in was called Pickwick?
The Pickwick Drive-in was used in the movie Grease(for the Drive-in scene?).
I recall many pleasant movie dates at the Pickwick drive-in, 1959 -1960
Goggle Earth 1989
Info I’ve found says the Pickwick was open May 12, 1949 to September 15, 1989. It was operated by: Cal-Pac Drive-In Theatres, Inc., and then by Pacific Theatres. Vehicle capacity was around 750. Unfortunately I never saw a movie here but I remember driving by there just before it was closed in 1989. It was demolished around late-1989 and replaced by the “Rancho Marketplace” shopping center (Vons Pavillion, Denny’s). The Pickwick Gardens entertainment complex (banquet rooms, bowling, ice skating, etc.) is still in operation just to the south (behind the shopping center) on Riverside Drive.
Now a large development with a Pavilions and a Staples. You can see on Google Maps where the screen was – at the bottom right corner of the lot.
The Pickwick plays in role in 1976’s ST IVES starring Charles Bronson.
Pickwick Drive-In Theatre is featured in Columbia’s 1950 film “He’s a Cockeyed Wonder” with Mickey Rooney. On the marquee is the Columbia feature “Fuller Brush Girl” with Lucille Ball and Eddie Albert, and “A Girl’s Best Friend,” a non-existent film, which is apparently the second feature, and the one in progress. A uniformed female usher greets the driver, takes his money, and gets his ticket from the nearby cashier, in a glass-enclosed booth; then a uniformed male usher, with flashlight, directs the car to an available parking spot, and places the speaker on the car window. We get to see a bit of “A Girl’s Best Friend” with Richard Quine and Lola Albright as the uncredited couple, in the usual situation, in the front seat of a convertible, before trouble in the theatre breaks out.
Was mentioned in the documentary “Drive-In Movie Memories” in 2001.
Here is a February 1980 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/28ndwg
I went on horseback to see Blazing Saddles at the Pickwick Drive-In! I remember lining up to enter the theater on my pony, along with 30 other riders, behind a stream of cars. I was in elemenatary school at the time. A friend of mine, used to live in the apartments next door on Shelton St. We would sneak out and climb into the trees that lined the theater to watch rated R films, like Saturday Night Fever. Good memories = ]
I believe this theater was also used in a car chase scene from the second season Rockford Files episode “The No-Cut Contract”. A little over 9 minutes into the episode, Rockford’s Firebird turns into the entrance to the theater and you can see the marquee advertising “The Gambler” with James Caan and “Once Is Not Enough” with Kirk Douglas. Since James Garner did most of his own stunt driving, you could see a smile on his face while he was “hill jumping” between the speaker poles in the drive in parking lot.