Lancaster Drive-In
665 W. Avenue H,
Lancaster,
CA
93534
665 W. Avenue H,
Lancaster,
CA
93534
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The snack bar/bio box building, and a indoor viewing room are still there(and a few speaker boxes(and posts, and the entrance/roads?) are still there. The snack bar/bio box building(seen in the movie Spies us like us) has been remodeled as a as a maintenance building by the City of Lancaster. The interior of the snack bar was used tooin the movie Spies like us.
The might have been an indoor movie theatre(behind the snack bar) according to tne Box Office Magazine articule in the photos section?
1958 cars.
The correct address was 665 W Ave H according to a 1964 booklet on Lancaster.
The Lancaster Drive-In was completed in 1956. There was nothing but bare desert in 1950. The “auditorium” was a nice feature.
The other guard seen at the drive-in ticket box(the speaking one) is director Joel Coen.
The Lancaster Drive-in was closed for the winter season when Spies Like us was filmed there. The drive-in closed after the 1985/86 season. Spies like us was not screened there(pity!!). The concession stand is still there.
I think the drive-in might have been closed before the film Spies like us was filmed there, the ticket booth and the snavk bar look partly covered up in wood sheeting!?
There was four men standing outside the snack bar the car pulled up, i forget about the guy with the rifle(who said, “two Pepsis' to go).
One of the Guards seen at the Lancaster drive-in(in the film “Spies like us”? just after the Lancaster drive-in sign(marquee?) is director Sam Raimi(the non speaking guard, i think?). One of the three men standing outside the snack bar is B.B. King(the one who says “Won’t you gentlemen have a Pepsi”.
I’ve seen Spies Like Us a hundred or so times since it’s release, I had forgotten all about the drive in scene. I’ll have to check out my blu ray tonight lol
There is information about the Lancaster Drive-in and the film Spies like us at the website beyondthemarquee.com/29874
Approx. address for this drive-in was 484 West Avenue H.
thanks Guys, About the info on “SPIES LIKE US”.
This was the “high end” drive in in Lancaster when I lived there in the 70’s. I remember as a 13 year old sneaking in the trunk of my brother’s car to sit through Star Wars twice.
This Drive In also has the distinction of being the last drive in I ever visited. During Christmas holidays in 1982, my brother and I drove to Lancaster from the bay area and a group of buddies from middle school and ourselves saw 48 hours and Jekyl and Hde…Together Again.
It was also the secret laser base in Spies Like Us. That was 1985 and the theater must have been abandoned sometime earlier since shooting was done in 1984.
The actual opening of the Lancaster Drive-In was in 1950. It was one of five drive-ins opened in Southern California by the middle of that year that were designed by Los Angeles architect J. Arthur Drielsma. It opened as a single screen theater with a capacity of 650 cars. The owners were James Anderson and F. Scott. All this information comes from an article in the march 16, 1950, issue of Boxoffice Magazine.
This drive-in appeared in the film “Spies Like Us” (1985).