Rancho Drive-In
1220 Connecticut Avenue,
San Pablo,
CA
94806
1220 Connecticut Avenue,
San Pablo,
CA
94806
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John Rice’s excellent coverage of the Richmond area theater history provides a closing date of November 24, 1978, which lines up with the property sale story that ran two days earlier. “Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride” and “Dark Places”, two minor British horror films from 1973 with Christopher Lee, were the Rancho’s final double feature program.
BTW, I’m working on my next book, “Drive-Ins of Northern California,” due out later this year. If rockyroadz or anyone else would like to help give me the real stories of these ozoners, please drop me a line at mkilgore (at) carload.com.
@MichaelKilgore, I know about the Rancho, and other former theaters in this area because I still live here and remember them all (plus I worked at the Rancho as a teen). I also posted in the Photos a map of its location. The 1220 Connecticut Avenue address is what the city of San Pablo used for the property before housing was built by Oxford Homes in the drive-in’s place in 1979 as part of the Bayview Redevelopment Project for that area.
rockyroadz, who knows a lot about the Rancho, is correct that its address was 1220 Connecticut Ave. That was the address given by the San Pablo News, for example, in June 1978 in a story about a security guard there who accidentally shot his manager.
By the way, the theater was apparently still in operation in June 1978 and possibly a few months later. It was sold in November 1978 to be used for single-family homes and was soon referred to as the old Rancho site.
The Connecticut Avenue address is close, but CT style is to use present-day markers for old theater sites. Connecticut Avenue actually dead-ends today before touching where the Rancho had been. Based on HistoricAerials' comparison tool, the screen tower was just south of a cul-de-sac today. The closest house is at 1314 Madrone Ct, San Pablo, CA 94806.
The Rancho Drive-In opened on August 3, 1950 with a double bill from Twentieth Century Fox, “The Gunfighter” and “The Beautiful Blonde From Bashful Bend. I posted a scan of the newspaper ad for the opening on the Photos page.
Used to go to both the Rancho and the San Pablo a lot in the 50’s-60’s. Newspaper theater pages showed the Rancho as being at 14th & Broadway, San Pablo and the san Pablo as being at San Pablo Ave. & Dam Rd., which I believe was in Richmind.
The Rancho did big business in the early 1950’s, before the arrival of the nicer, more modern San Pablo Auto Movies. Before then it’s closest drive in competition in the Richmond area was the El Cerrito Motor Movies. I liked the Dusk-to-Dawn movie marathons on holiday weekends, 4 or 5 features with free coffee and donuts if you managed to stay awake until closing.
Added aerial from 1959
That was starting to be a pretty dodgy neighborhood in the ‘70s. It was also surrounded by the type of businesses that are only open weekday days, and is otherwise rather deserted at night. I can see why the city council would ask for it be closed down in 1973, as I can imagine some of the type of people and activities a drive-in there could attract. I vaguely recall seeing ads for a weekend flea market at the El Rancho, but don’t remember movies running there. I grew up in the North East bay in the '70s, and people would go to the Hilltop Drive-In by the freeway, but I never heard of anyone going to a movie at the El Rancho.
Is this called the El Rancho or just the Rancho? Boxoffice of October 24, 1953, said that Homer Gray was selling his Rancho Drive-In at San Pablo to Ray Syufy. Then the El Rancho Drive-In at San Pablo was mentioned as a Syufy operation in Boxoffice of October 15, 1955. Boxoffice switches back and forth in various items over the years. Which form was on the screen tower or attraction board (or did they each have a different one?)
To add to the confusion, Boxoffice of July 9, 1973, has an item saying that the San Pablo city council had asked the courts to have the Rancho Drive-In permanently closed as a public nuisance, but this item gave the location of the theater as 14th Street and Broadway.
Whatever the name, the drive-in was in operation by September of 1951, and must have been one of the two drive-ins that were reported in Boxoffice of July 8, 1950, to then be under construction at San Pablo.
Thanks for clearing that up.
The Rancho Drive-in was definitely located at 1220 Connecticut Ave. San Pablo, CA 94806 (I worked there as a teen).
The San Pablo Drive-in theater was near Riverside Ave and Hwy 80 in San Pablo.
No one really paid any real interest till it was to late. You’re right about the info for them. :)
The 1961 IMPA has a car capacity also at 560.
The 1981 IMPA lists this drive-in as being in San Pablo, CA. too, but with a 1004 car capacity. They have Syufy operating it and an address of 1220 Connecticut Ave. San Pablo, CA 94806. If you map it out from the address, some of the houses look like they may have been built in the last decade or so.