Monte Vista Drive-In
1101 Grant Road,
Mountain View,
CA
94040
1101 Grant Road,
Mountain View,
CA
94040
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Grand opening ad posted.
Boxoffice, Aug. 5, 1950: “Ronald Kramer received two one-year passes to Sunnymount theatres as a prize for his winning entry in the name contest for the new drive-in theatre. "Monte Vista” Kramer’s entry, was judged the best of more than 500 suggested. B. A. Vecchiarelli, district manager of Sunnymount, made the award."
800 cars.
Here’s an amazing 3D-modeled video tribute to the Monte Vista: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNwuDDbIy2E
Was their a playground at this drive-in?
I saw Psycho there with my parents in 1960, and was ready to crawl under the car seats at the end of it Gawd!
I used to go there when I was a kid in the 1960s. I saw the movie Goldfinger the James Bond movie and Oceans 11 starring Frank Sinatra. I remember the place very well. They had a concession stand in the middle of the place and they had a man riding around on a bike with a big flat carrier on the front that used to throw rowdy kids out of the place.
Approx. address for this drive-in was 1101 Grant Road.
Here is a 1956 aerial photo:
http://tinyurl.com/y89rhrw
Here is an ad circa early 1960s:
http://tinyurl.com/yb9yjnp
This drive-in opened on August 4, 1950 at a cost of $150,000. It closed in 1978 and was replaced by a low-income housing development. Here is a photo circa 1950s:
http://tinyurl.com/mo6rtm
I do recall in the 1970’s for several years before its close, it did run triple bills at the admission price of $1.50 per carload. It was an independent at that time.