Baseline Drive-In
Highland, California1948-1989
Shop Baseline Drive-In tees, long sleeve tees and hoodies. It stood on Base Line, named for a survey line set out in 1852, and the tower carried the name in lit letters with a giant looping B. Pacific Theatres ran its district offices inside the screen tower. Pick a style below, then read the full Baseline history further down. We are an American small business bringing back the signs and logos of places and teams that are long gone but remembered fondly.
4 products
Baseline Drive-In History
The Baseline Drive-In in Highland, California, opened on October 15, 1948, with Her Husband's Affairs and Tarzan and the Huntress. It stood on Base Line, the east-west road that takes its name from the survey line Colonel Henry Washington set out from San Bernardino Peak in 1852. Its ads gave the address as East Base Line, San Bernardino. It had one screen, room for 750 to 800 cars depending on the source, and outdoor seats for walk-in patrons.
Balch and Bryan were the architects. A long marquee sat on concrete legs at the road, with the name in script above it and a ribbed fin at one end, and the road side of the tower carried the name again in lit letters, with a giant looping B. Cinema Treasures calls it the flagship of Pacific Theatres in San Bernardino County, with the district offices inside the screen tower. Palms once ringed the lot, and the San Bernardino Mountains showed behind the screen at dusk.
Its 1950s ads promised children in cars free and sold twin bills of monsters and space invaders, and one from 1951 ran under a Pacific Drive-In Theatres banner. A projectionist who worked there around 1981 remembered it as the drive-in to see in the county.
It closed in May 1989, with The Dream Team and Fletch Lives as the last bill. On the evening of July 27, 1989, a fire reportedly set by vandals destroyed the screen and the offices inside it. Houses now cover the site.