Century Drive-In Theater

Above, a view of the Century Drive-In with its Cinerama screen erected in front of the old screen in 1964.

One noteworthy theater in the Los Angeles area was Pacific Theaters' Century Drive-In Theater. It opened on July 2, 1949.

It was noteworthy for having a curved Cinerama screen (erected in 1964) to show Cinerama movies and being under the approach to Los Angeles International Airport with resulting jet engine noise from approaching planes. It was located near Hollywood Park Racetrack.

The first Cinerama feature shown there was This Is Cinerama. 

The theater had spaces for 918 cars. It originally was a single screen drive-in, but a second screen was added in the 1970s.  

When the theater was to start showing Cinerama movies, a curved screen was erected in front of the old standard screen. 

I never saw a Cinerama movie there, but I did see other movies at the Century Drive-In such as Gone With The Wind. We generally tried to avoid the Century due to the jet noise from planes on approach to LAX. Before the advent of jets, airplane noise was not a problem.

The drive-in was demolished in 1984.

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