L.A.Times 1968
An email from a former Covina Drive-In area resident has shed some light on this drive-in. Many thanks to Keith Wood for the following contribution. What an amazing memory considering he left the area almost 30 years ago:
"The Covina Drive-In was actually two theaters, both screens on the west side of their respective lots. The theater was at Arrow Highway and Grand Avenue. Entry from Arrow down a corridor, exit onto Grand going north. The lot was actually behind the "frontage" commercial buildings (on the south side of Arrow), so there wasn't anywhere to park and watch the screen without being on the lot itself.
Going east on Arrow Hwy from Grand, I think that there was a left-turn cutout in the island, you could turn to the corridor that led to the ticket booths. I think that there were two booths. When you got past the booths, you were pointed at the snack bar and playland (swings, merry-go-round, sandbox with a couple of spring horses), which were at the front of the eastern lot (the base of the screen). I don't remember for sure, but I think that there was an exit lane past the booths back out to Arrow. There were exit lanes along both sides of the west lot, with no-backing wire spikes at the gates on each side of the west screen to go onto the street, but not between theaters. The dips in the curb might still be there. There was a flood control wash crossing Grand Ave more-or-less across from the southern exit gate.
The lots were about average size, fully paved. There was a small projection booth in the east lot. I think that the west lot projected from the snack bar under the east screen.
The speakers were grey castings, rectangular with the top and bottom rounded (an oval if you looked at them sideways). No sharp corners except for the window bracket. The grille was horizontal bars across the speaker, and the knobs were all metal. I remember the sound of metal on glass when you would hang them, so if they ever had rubber
bumpers, the ones I remember didn't have them by the mid-'60s.The screen for the west lot was right alongside Grand Ave. I think that the lots were the same size but I'm not sure. The back of the screen and fencing were a kind of yellowish color, but the ends of the screen tower were dark green or brown.
The big marquee was at the end of the entrance, facing east-west for traffic on Arrow. There was a smaller marquee on the street side of the west screen. The big one was divided with a vertical line for the ads for Theater 1 and Theater 2, I don't remember the other one that well but think that it was divided like that also.
The houses which lined the cinderblock wall to the south all featured raised platforms There they would watch the movies. I THINK (don't remember for sure) that the theater had run a speaker lead to each of the platforms to make up for the annoyance of the cars leaving at midnight.
Shows were double features, with the first one replayed, so you could watch three films if they didn't catch you moving from one theater to the other. They priced by the person but had a carload price for however many bodies you could stuff inside a normal passenger car.
There was always a gap where the wall and chain-link fence met at one back corner, but the word was out that Covina PD liked to stick an officer there to bust cheaters. One guy at the high school was caught making the gap wider so that he could get through, and was also fined for criminal damage. We never let him forget it.
When the Santa Ana winds would come up, the marquee would get interesting, like the times that it proclaimed that the title was "SKIN ME" ('Skin Game') or 'WILLY WONK.'"
Today, the Vista Pointe Condo complex sits on the site of the Covina Twin.