Campus Drive-In
San Diego, California1948-1983
Order Campus Drive-In tees, long sleeve tees and hoodies. The back of its screen in San Diego carried a 46-foot drum majorette outlined in neon, with a baton that seemed to spin. She outlasted the theater, which closed in 1983. She was restored and still stands in a shopping center, lit at night. Pick a style below, then read the full Campus history further down. Down Home Apparel is an American small business remembering the best places and teams of yesteryear, and every shirt is printed to order in the USA.
4 products
Campus Drive-In History
The Campus Drive-In in San Diego, California, opened on August 18, 1948, near San Diego State College, with Give My Regards to Broadway and The Kansan. It stood at College Avenue and El Cajon Boulevard, in a lot designed by George Lykos. It first held about 700 cars plus about 200 walk-in customers on seats. The seats later came out, and the lot took about 900 cars.
Its fame came from the back of the screen, which faced the road. A mural about 50 by 80 feet showed the college bell tower, football goalposts and mountains, one with a white S. In front of them marched a drum majorette about 46 feet tall, outlined in neon, with a baton that seemed to spin. Austin Linn Gray and Joe Schmith designed her, reportedly from a photo of a San Diego High School drum majorette, Marion Caster. California Neon ran about 1,900 feet of tubing. Life and Time both ran the sign.
The theater was built by the Campus Drive-In Corporation, with Sam Russo as its chief operator, and Eldorado Theatres ran it in its later years. One intermission game was Speedometer Bingo, in which odometer digits won snack bar prizes. It closed in February 1983 with The Dark Crystal and Dragonslayer, and a shopping center took the site.
The majorette outlived the theater. A preservation group crated her before demolition and stored her in a downtown warehouse. After restoration she went to the College Grove shopping center a few miles away, where she was relit, and in 2001 the center's owner gave her to Save Our Heritage Organisation. She still stands there, still lit at night.