Santa Barbara Drive-In
907 S. Kellogg Avenue,
Goleta,
CA
93117
907 S. Kellogg Avenue,
Goleta,
CA
93117
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I worked at the original Airport Drive in theater on Hollister Ave. Goleta, Calif. I worked the ticket booth. one special time we had two or three actors show up for the premeire of GIANT.
Chill Wills was one of them. i loved working for that company i have many great memories. I lived in Goleta, Calif since 1938. anyone else around who remembers the drive in back in the early years ?
nancy ann smith
now in Oregon
As well as the Airport Drive-In, I spent quite a few weekends at the Twin Screens which was actually the favorite of teenagers. Several reasons: 1. They usually showed more “adult” films on the far screen and curious teens could sneak a peek here and there. 2. It was easier to sneak in along the back fence and meet up with your fiends who had already entered with a “car-load”. 3. They catered to the teen crowd more than the Airport Drive-In which was just down the road. In fact, as I recall, my friends and I went to see “TGIF” five nights in a row and never saw a minute of the film. Couldn’t even tell you what it was about.
Correction on opening year. The drive-in was opened summer of 1966 with Bill Cummings and myself as co-managers. I rented an apartment at Isla Vista at the end of, that time, Ward Memorial Highway, now 217 fwy. I had previously managed the Americana, the Embassy and the Alley Cat before training and opening the twin theatre. These were all Robert L. Lippert theatres but the Santa Barbara may have been co-owned with Pacific Drive-ins. Coming in from Hollister was a flea market on Kellogg, a name unfamiliar in the San Fernando Valley where I lived. Shame – none of the theatres I worked at are in existence today………
The actual screens and concession stand / projection booth are still standing; it can be seen off the 217 Freeway as one drives west to the University of California at Santa Barbara campus.