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Lost Treasures: Drive-in theatres: 99, Terrace, South Chester, Crest, Edison
| Wednesday, Nov 8 2006 12:16 PM
Last Updated: Friday, Nov 10 2006 2:41 PM
Drive-in theatres: 99, Terrace, South Chester, Crest, Edison
Photos:
The old Crest drive in 2001.
99 Drive-In
Terrace Drive-In in 1961.
South Chester Drive-In in 1961.
When the Crest Drive-In closed in 1998, local media outlets wrote stories and aired newscasts about how it surely was the end of an era.
The fanfare inadvertently pushed the idea that the Crest was Bakersfield’s most well-known drive-in theater.
Not quite so.
The Crest earned the title by default, as the last Bakersfield drive-in to close. The biggest and arguably best of the open-air movie theaters was the 99 Drive-In, near Pierce Road and Golden State Highway.
The 99 opened in 1948, and along with its sister theaters, the Terrace and the South Chester, could serve more than 1,000 cars on a busy weekend night.
The owners billed the drive-in triumvirate as “Entertainment for the Entire Family,” and indeed, many families took advantage of the outdoor theaters for an inexpensive night out.
“People would bring a pickup truck and back in and put chairs in the back end and bring their dinner,” Bakersfield resident Barbara Gardiner recalled.
“They took their children ... and they could take their own soft drinks and all, it was a good way to take a family out,” said Gardiner, who named “Casablanca” as the most memorable film she saw at the 99.
The Edison Highway drive-in was an option, but it wasn’t nearly as popular as the 99 and the rest of the Bakersfield big screens.
For Art Carlock, “movies were movies,” and half the fun was hanging out with friends in the back of a pickup for the low entrance fee of $1 per carload.
The only real problem they had at a drive-in, Carlock said, was when they lost the church key to open the sodas and beers stashed in an ice chest.