Van Nuys Drive-In
15040 Roscoe Boulevard,
Van Nuys,
CA
91343
15040 Roscoe Boulevard,
Van Nuys,
CA
91343
14 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 29 comments
Vintage Los Angeles Facebook link with photos of the miniature replica built for “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood”. Click through for 4 photos total.
https://www.facebook.com/VintageLosAngeles/photos/pcb.2810690812320953/2810689342321100/?type=3&theater
Last day of operation: September 2nd, 1996
Reopened as a triplex drive-in on June 24th, 1983. Grand opening ad posted.
The school that was built on the site, Vista Middle School appears to have a tribute to the drive-in with its logo of a cowboy on a horse.
This theater was featured in the film Once Upon a time in Hollywood
Opened with “Buffalo Bill” and “Wings of the morning”.
Opened July 30th, 1948. Grand opening ad posted
Featured in “Once upon a time in Hollywood” must be a computer model.
Same photo is located on the Cinema Retro Blog.
1963 photo added courtesy of the Y-Block Guy Facebook page.
What dept did your dad work in. I was there from ‘72 to 92. I am going to try to post the program info recording for the Victory I made in 1969. We went later to see the features. http://antiqueradios.com/gallery/d/125766-1/Drive-InVictory.mp3
I am going to try to post the program info recording for Van Nuys I made in 1969.
Van Nuys program information
If you can’t get the recording, try to right click on the link, then save target as.. to your desktop. I have some other photos I made when they turned it into a triplex, screen torn down on the ground. NOt a good sight.
I lived on Branford st., just a block away, from around 66 to just after the earthquake in 70/71. My Dad worked at the GM assembly plant from 65 until it closed in 92. Alot of memories at that drivein.
Great photos of the 1982 screen tower.
It got tri-plexed in 1983.
So it was still a one-screener in December 1982. When did it get tri-plexed?
** According to SEVERAL websites here’s the stats for VAN NUYS DI =
Built 1948 -
Vehicle Capacity 890, Eventually 1400.
Closed August 1996
Demolished in August, 1998.
… a grade school now sits in it’s former location. – 2004
The November 15, 1947, issue of Boxoffice Magazine credits the design of this drive-in to both William Glenn Balch and Clifford Balch, as does the June 13, 1947, issue of Southwest Builder & Contractor. The same issue of SwB&C also credits them as partners in the design of a proposed drive-in at South El Monte, but their plans were not carried out, and that theater, the Starlite, was eventually designed by J. Arthur Drielsma.
The Boxoffice item also credits the brothers with the design of the Lakewood Drive-In. See my comment of today on the Lakewood Drive-In page for a bit more information about the Balch brothers.
Here is a December 1948 ad from the same source:
http://tinyurl.com/ytkn9k
Here is a 1950 ad from the Van Nuys News:
http://tinyurl.com/2cu44z
From socaldriveins.com:
View link
As a kid growing up in the Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks area, my family loaded into our 1954 Olds, and later on our 1961 Pontiac Catalina station wagon (does anyone remember station wagons?) dozens of times and spent Saturday evenings at this wonderful old drive in. I remember well my brother and I always had to ride on that carousel-type-thing that went around in circles, and I usually spent the first feature feeling slightly nautious from riding that thing right after dinner. Kids jumped on and off freely, and if someone got bruised a little they didn’t sue the owners. Of course, we also attended the Victory Drive In and the Sepulveda Drive In, closer to home, but the Van Nuys on Roscoe was the cream of the crop.
This was the first Drive-In I ran as a projectionist, I always worked walk-in theatres to that time.
I discovered this drive-in late, in 1995, and went almost every weekend until it closed. A grand place gone.
My dad was a projectionist at the Van Nuys for a time in the ‘50’s and '60’s. We spent many a Saturday morning fixing speakers, a job the projectionists were given, pushing a wheelbarrow of new speakers around. My mother learned to drive there, weaving in and out of the speaker stands. It was a grand time for drive-ins. Too bad it’s gone.
I remember when I used to come here back in 1984-1988. I slipped out of my house with friends or cousins and got it to the drive in by sneeking in the trunk. You know you all did this once or twice. All kidding aside, It’s too bad these things had to go away because of the “wanna be gangsters” idiots, always stirring things up in there. It’s a little sad that our generation of kids did not have a chance to see these “Magic Kindoms” of the silver screen…this is what I called them. Oh well, hopefully one day a rich person would not mind bringing one back to Van nuys.