PALMDALE DRIVE-IN

It opened as the "Valley Drive-In" on Wednesday, September 3, 1958. First movies shown were "The Wings of Eagles" starring John Wayne and "Abandon Ship" Starring Tyrone Power. It appears to have become the Palmdale Drive-In around 1971 and the last few years was known as the Palmdale Family Drive-In. The exact closing date January 17, 1990. I even have the last ad they put in the Antelope Valley Times which gave no warning they were closing. The next day the paper wrote about their closing.

There is a scrap metal yard next to where the drive-In was and I met (Rusty) the owner of it. He has the remains of the 100ft wide screen in his yard which he bought as scrap metal. When I asked him if we could see it he said it was way back at the far side of his lot and his time was limited that day, but he could show us something even better - some aerial pictures of his lot that had part of the Drive-In and the screen in them! He also gave me a "Coming Soon" sign that was used with posters and I found one of the bolts that held the screen in place. He also he pointed out a sign that was still standing that was an arrow pointing to the entrance. He also had most all of the speaker stands, but no speakers.

Today, the lot reamins along with the entrance drive way. The current color aerial picture below shows the lot is clearly visible. What looks like the screen is actually only the concrete base on which the screen once stood.

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The last movies shown on Jan 17, 1990 were "The Wizard" and "Family Business":

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The Palmdale drive-in as it looks in 2008:

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This story was in the Antelope Valley Press the day after the drive-in closed: