South Bay Drive-In

The South Bay Drive-In, open since 1958 at 2170 Coronado Avenue, is one of only two San Diego drive-ins remaining in operation today. One mile north of the border and with space for up to 1500 cars, it was another William Oldknow/Sero Amusements venture (still run by Oldknow’s company, now called De Anza Land & Leisure Corporation). Originally called the Bayview and sporting a single screen, in the mid-‘70s the South Bay added two more screens. Most of the speaker poles were phased out for AM sound in 1972, and then FM beginning in the early '80s (movies are currently broadcast in stereo, via FM only). The snack bar has been renovated a few times, most recently sporting a nautical theme, with the entire concession building painted blue and white and designed to resemble a ship, portholes and all.

Local legend has it that actor Matthew Modine used to work at the South Bay. “Actually, that was his father, Mark Modine, who worked for us,” laughs De Anza operations manager Teri Oldknow. “That was in the ‘70s, and they had, like, eight kids who all grew up at the drive-in. His sister still works there to this day.”

When I mention to Oldknow my recollection of how run-down this drive-in got in the early ‘80s — with frequent gang activity, drug trade, and other scary goings-on — she says, “I know it was bad. There were plans to sell around that time. I wasn’t with the company then, but the attitude was kind of like 'We’ll just let it go long enough to get a good offer and then sell it.’ I started here in 1996, and that was one of my big pushes, to revive places like that and make them better than ever. If you manage a drive-in properly, you keep it fun, keep it clean, keep it safe, there’ll be so much business you’ll have to turn customers away.” The company also runs the six-screen Redwood in Salt Lake City, the four-screen Mission in Pomona, the four-screen De Anza in Tucson, and the three-screen Van Buren and three-screen Rubidoux in Riverside, California.

The De Anza company really goes all out for the Starlight Drive-In near Atlanta. This well-advertised ozone regularly hosts pop-culture conventions and car shows on its lot during the day, and frequent “Drive-In Madness” theme-athons (often with live band performances) run all night long. “We had [exploitation filmmaker] Dave Friedman there last year for Blood Feast,” Oldknow says. “His offices used to be across the street from ours in L.A., and we’d share the same screening room. We can get away with that at the Starlight because it’s an industrial area with no neighbors but a cemetery and a landfill. We can’t do adventurous stuff like that at the South Bay because we’re surrounded by residential properties. Neighborhood people are going to complain no matter what you do, so we’re reluctant to have that kind of programming there. I’d like to, though, maybe timed around the Comic-Con.”

A swap meet has run on the lot since April 1977, operated by the drive-in’s owners rather than being leased out as at other area ozones. It appears to have been the area’s third drive-in swap meet (Midway began leasing to Monte Kobey’s swap meet the previous summer, and the Valley Drive-In held an Oceanside flea market as far back as 1971). “That’s why the South Bay survived,” says Oldknow. “There was that early recognition of how to turn daytime use into profits on the property. There’s no overhead for a swap meet, whereas we’re paying 50 percent of our box office take to the studio for movies. Swap meets were the only thing enabling most drive-ins to survive the ‘80s. We’re charging money for parking spaces and keeping all the proceeds…this was so profitable that it would be difficult for other businesses to compete for the property.”

The main screen number one at the South Bay blew down during the early 2003 winter storms and had to be replaced that spring, at a cost of around $60,000. In summer 2005, a new Technalight installation was done on the projectors for all three South Bay screens. “That increased the picture brightness from five to nine times brighter,” says Oldknow, “so it’s as bright as any indoor screen now.” Open seven nights a week, 52 weeks a year (admission $6 per person, children nine and under free), it may be the only drive-in in the U.S. to serve menudo.

Anyone know how to get the coming week’s features for the South Bay before Thursday night when they go up online and to the phone-line? The current system is a drag.

Thanks Mike.

This D/I – like its sister locations owned by DeAnza – is now digital projection

Boxoffice, July 4, 1960: “Columbia contractee Jo Morrow appeared at the premiere of the new South Bay Drive-In in San Diego to cut the ribbon prior to the screening of Columbia’s "Once More, With Feeling.”"