Motor-In Theatre
4125 S. Golden State Frontage Road,
Fresno,
CA
93725
4125 S. Golden State Frontage Road,
Fresno,
CA
93725
2 people
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Harvey Entertainment, Redwood Theatres Inc., Robert L. Lippert Theatres Inc.
Nearby Theaters
Located in the Malaga district to the south of Fresno. The Motor-In Theatre was opened on June 5, 1946 with Cornel Wilde in “The Bandit of Sherwood Forest” & Gerald Mohr in “The Notorious Lone Wolf”. Capacity in the 1940’s was about 916 cars. In 1955, the Motor-In Theatre was operated by Redwood-Lippert Theatres. By June 1975 it was screening X-Rated adult movies. It was closed in 1979.
Contributed by
Ken McIntyre
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Recent comments (view all 14 comments)
i believe it was closed in 1966.
YouTube video..Here
Motor-In Theater is spelled wrong…It should be “Motor-In Theatre"
never mind- it closed in the early 1980’s
1962 aerial uploaded here. notice the weird placement of the concession stand.
Opened In The Mid-1940’s Earliest I Believe Is 1946.
A 1972 aerial photo showed the Motor-In still intact and in good shape. It stayed on topo maps through at least 1981. The Motion Picture Almanac included it on its drive-in lists through the 1976 edition, but the MPA rarely noticed changes during 1967-76. The Motor-In fell off the list for good when the list rebooted in 1977.
Then again, that might have been because of the Motor-In’s content. I found a June 25, 1975 ad in the Fresno Bee for an X-rated triple feature there.
BTW, Google Maps prefers 3115 E Cartwright Ave for the current address. And the screen was still up as of a July 2015 Google Street View.
Same Motor-In? Boxoffice, Oct. 8, 1955: “TULARE, CALIF. – The Harvey Amusement Co., San Francisco, has bought the 576-car Tulare Motor-In from the Robert L. Lippert theatre chain, also of San Francisco.”
This opened on June 5th, 1946. Grand opening ad posted.
Closed 1979
Boxoffice, Aug. 18, 1951: “The county sheriff’s office got a strange telephone call the other evening, asking, “I know it’s against the law to break INTO a place, but is it against the law to break OUT?” The law officers then learned that H. A. Robinson, his wife and two children had gone to the Motor-In Drive-In, had a flat tire about the time the last show broke. By the time theatre patron Robinson got the tire changed, the ozoner had locked all the gates for the night. So he climbed the airer’s high board fence and walked to a phone to call the sheriff. Deputies located the theatre manager, who came with a key and let the long-suffering movie fan, his wife and two sleeping kids out of the place. That was some two hours after the last show.”