Citrus Heights Drive-In
8401 Auburn Boulevard,
Citrus Heights,
CA
95610
8401 Auburn Boulevard,
Citrus Heights,
CA
95610
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Located to the south of Roseville in Citrus Heights. The Citrus Heights Drive-In was opened on August 3, 1950 with Randolph Scott in “The Cariboo Trail” & Arthur Singleton in “Beware of Blondie”. By 1955 it was operated by General Theatrical Co. It was closed in October 1978. The screen was torn down in 1981. Now Auburn Oaks Apartments.
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James Monroe
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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
This opened on August 3rd, 1950. Grand opening ad posted.
It might’ve closed a lot earlier, a 1966 aerial appears to show the concession building destroyed.
kennerado is right about the 1966 aerial, but it must have been a remodeling project because the Citrus Heights was still active in 1977 at least. The Motion Picture Almanac did a fresh survey that year and included the Citrus Heights under Roseville, and the drive-in was still intact in the 1978 aerial I posted here. Topo maps included it through 1984, and the MPA continued to include the Citrus Heights through its last drive-in list in 1988. By a 1993 aerial, it was long gone.
Closed in fall of 1979 according to an article in the Press-Tribune.
The concession stand/projection booth appears intact in the 1966 aerial photo. It’s just that the photo itself is not nearly as sharp as the 1964 one.
Besides, if they had torn down the concession stand, there would be equipment, tracks of large trucks, and the like on the ground. Tearing up a building makes a big mess.
The regional Press-Tribune noted on Aug. 2, 1978 that the owners of the Citrus Heights Drive-In had sold it to developers, and that it would close forever at the end of the 1978 season. The article quoted a local guy as inaccurately saying the drive-in had been built in 1947. (Another reminder that memories aren’t perfect.) Its final owner was the San Francisco-based General Theatrical Corp.
The screen wasn’t torn down until April 1981. The caption for that demolition photo said the Citrus Heights had closed in the fall of 1979, but I couldn’t find any ads for the drive-in after October 1978.