Today, besides the Vineland Drive-In in the City of Industry and now the Paramount one, there are three other drive-ins in the area. They went from a place where families would go for an evening out, to places known as passion pits - the place where the bad teen set would go hang out,” Phoenix said. “They got a bad name, their reputation was tarnished. The decline began in the 1970s, Phoenix said, due in large part to land value increases which made it more profitable to build housing or department stores on large sites and because of the reputation drive-ins had developed in their later years. As of March 2013, the association counted only 357 drive-ins left in the country. “No matter where you lived, all over the vast metropolitan Southern California area, there was a drive-in within just a few minutes,” he said.Īccording to information provided by the United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association, the high point came in 1958 when there were more than 4,000 drive-ins nationally. It was a time when there were approximately 50 drive-in theaters throughout the Los Angeles area. The heyday for drive-ins came in the 1950s and ’60s, Phoenix said. The drive-in will show first-run films seven days a week beginning at dusk. The few old speaker boxes leftover from its heyday were removed and the sound will now come via FM radio.
Bianchi spent $1 million on the new drive-in, which includes flat white screens made up of metal panels painted with enamel so they are more reflective. The Bianchi family owns the land and runs the swap meet, as well as the 11-screen Bianchi Theaters multiplex that opened in 1997 on the other side of the property. I think it’s going to be big,” said Bianchi on the day the two screens were installed for the drive-in, which will join the Vineland Drive-In Movie Theater in the City of Industry as the only other true drive-in operating in Los Angeles County when it opens on Friday. They want to sit under the stars and watch a movie. “People want to come to the drive-in again. It will hold up to 800 cars with tickets costing $9 per person, $3 for 5- to 9-year-olds and those under 5 free. The location will feature two 75-foot-wide, 35-foot-tall screens, digital projectors, a new sound system and a few blockbuster films. went permanently dark, Bianchi is resurrecting his father’s dream by reopening the Paramount Drive-In Theatres.
Now, decades after most other drive-ins in the U.S.
The twin screen attracted hundreds of moviegoers nightly before it shut down in 1992. I was very proud of my dad, and I would tell my friends that my dad owns the drive-in theater and it was such a big deal,” Bianchi said, recalling his father’s Paramount Drive-In, which opened on the site in 1947 just as the outdoor film craze was taking off nationally. The 64-year-old reminisced about why his father came to the area from Brooklyn after World War II, which wasn’t to sell discount goods but to get into the film business by opening a drive-in theater. As vendors began setting up their goods at the Paramount Swap Meet on a recent morning, Glenn Bianchi looked over the 45-acre site that houses the busy market his father opened in 1955.
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