Typical of an older drive-in, the central building is sunk into the ground, because the booth is closer to the screen. The door under the hamburger sign is the entrance to the projection booth. The door is only four feet high and you must step DOWN into the booth. Submitted by Ken Layton
The newer screen is attached in front of the older screen. This is evidence that the theater was built before wider aspect ratios started in 1953. Submitted by Ken Layton
Another yellow and orange United snack bar, this one with blue too. Submitted by Ken Layton
Update: The Tacoma Public Library has several photos of drive-ins available in their on-line database. Go to //search.tpl.lib.wa.us/images/default.asp, type in "drive-in theaters" in the first text field, then look for photos 1, 5 and 9. Photo 5 shows tall trees clearly growing out of the back row of the otherwise cleared and fenced lot. That area is heavily populated and developed today. Photo 9 shows reconstruction of the theater's screen tower. (This source uses dynamic addressing, so I can't link the photos directly from here.)
Terraserver urban areas photo of Auto-View. Zoom in and you can see that the newer screen bolted on to the older screen is bigger, thus more visible from the back rows. The old screen was smaller, made in the days when projector images were darker and thus it was sheilded on the sides from stray light.
USGS Tacoma South, 1961, 1968 and 1973
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