Comments from kencmcintyre

Here is a photo of the Cine Azteca from the 1975 Herald-Post article:
http://tinyurl.com/yj6x8v5

The drive-in can be seen in this 1952 aerial view, but it was gone by 1970.
http://tinyurl.com/yg46cs3

Here is a better view of the 1945 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/yf4r2ky

It looks like the owner has turned the arcade into a dollar store.

Here is a June 1952 newspaper ad:
http://tinyurl.com/yg8uhn7

The 1963 IMPA shows the Hemacinto as operated by H.R. Martin, which fits with this excerpt of a Press Enterprise article in October 2000:

Inside the doors of the Hemet Theatre, posters for “The Wizard of Oz,” “Casablanca,” “The Maltese Falcon” and the Marx Brothers still decorate the lobby. The concession stand is empty, but looks like it would be ready to go once it was stocked with some Junior Mints and Raisinettes. But it has been five years since downtown Hemet’s last picture show.

The last patrons at the cavernous Florida Avenue theater filed out on Oct. 26, 1995, after a double-feature showing of “A Walk in the Clouds” and “Magic in the Water.” The theater was squeezed out of the movie business after two multiplexes opened in the San Jacinto Valley during 1994 and 1995. Julie Burgard operated the theater for her father, Harold Martin, from 1987 until it closed. He died in 1998 at age 84.

Burgard started helping her father when she was about 10, picking up popcorn and trash at his Hemacinto Drive-In on San Jacinto Avenue. She worked there and at the Hemet Theatre until she went off to college in 1975. After she returned to the valley, the theater became her full-time job in 1987. “In a lot of ways I miss it; in a lot of ways it consumed an awful lot of time,” she said.

My porno filter at work did not like that website. Have to wait until I get home.

Here is a January 1948 photo from the Irvin Glazer theater collection:
http://tinyurl.com/yj56to6

Here is a November 1971 ad for “Werewolves on Wheels” in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. It was a biker horror film, I guess.
http://tinyurl.com/ygtf5cc

Here is a newspaper ad at the opening of the theater:
http://tinyurl.com/ylxknk5

The Classic Chevrolet building takes up most of this block. Unknown if this is a remodel of the original theater building.

Here is a 1984 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/ycyqu3h

He was probably the Al in Al’s Drive-In.