The Ceres Drive-in Theater was one of the open air treasures available between Central and Northern California. The drive in theater opened in 1947 as a single screener. It became a double screener later. The Ceres, similar to many other drive-in theaters, closed down in 2008. For more information, please see the Ceres Drive-in Theater website.
Ceres Drive-in Theater (Demolished)
Ceres, CA Photo by RoadsidePeek.com
Out along the edge of San Francisco Bay, the Burlingame Drive-In Theatre offered outdoor movies with airplanes passing nearby and the water just beyond the screens. This was not a little neighborhood drive-in tucked behind a shopping center. The twin fields spread across a huge bayside property with room for nearly 2,000 cars.
The theater opened on June 23, 1965, although it began with two names. The north field was called the Burlingame Drive-In and held around 900 cars, while the south field faced the bay as the Peninsula Drive-In with room for about 1,000. Two screens, two identities, and one enormous lot. Choosing a movie also meant making sure everyone followed the signs to the correct side.
The Ceres marquee while it was standing in its original location
Ceres, CA Photo by RoadsidePeek.com
Syufy Enterprises built the complex on a man-made peninsula created by filling part of the bay during the mid-1960s. The fill project later became part of a much larger environmental controversy, but for moviegoers it produced a wide stretch of land with plenty of room for cars, screens, ticket booths, and a snack bar.
The most interesting part sat halfway between the two original screens. Theater architect Vincent G. Raney designed a circular concession and projection building topped by a low dome. From there, projection booths could serve both fields while moviegoers converged on the same central snack bar. Popcorn lines from two theaters meeting beneath one roof must have made intermission interesting.
The Ceres has been running as a flea market since 2012. While one of the screens was taken down, there is still one screen standing. In January of 2009, it appeared that the Ceres Drive-in theater was going to be reopening in the Spring of 2009 after digitizing their projection system. Unfortunately, by April it was announced that the drive-in would be closed for good with the property put up for sale.
The Ceres Ticket Booth
Ceres, CA Photo by RoadsidePeek.com
The dome and central layout became something of a Syufy family resemblance. Similar ideas appeared at the Coliseum Drive-In in Oakland and the Geneva Drive-In near Daly City. Old interior photographs of the three theaters can look surprisingly alike, especially when the circular snack bars and projection areas are involved.
In November 1973, two more screens were added and the separate Burlingame and Peninsula identities gave way to one unified name. The Burlingame Drive-In had become a four-screen outdoor multiplex. More screens meant more choices, although it also increased the chance that an action scene from the neighboring field might become more entertaining than the movie playing through the windshield.
The Ceres Drive-in still has one of the two screens operating. Not sure which of the screen towers this one is.
Ceres Drive-in (Temporarily reopened)
Ceres, CA Photo by RoadsidePeek.com
For decades, the four towers rose above the bayside lot as airplanes approached nearby San Francisco International Airport. Movie sound came from speakers hanging on car windows, food came from beneath the central dome, and the glow from several screens spread across the parked rows after dark. It was a pretty unusual place to catch a double feature.
The Burlingame showed its final movies on September 10, 2001. By early 2002, the screens, domed concession building, ticket booths, entrance marquee, and nearly four decades of drive-in history had been cleared from the peninsula.
Ceres Drive-in (Temporarily reopened)
Ceres, CA Photo by RoadsidePeek.com
UPDATE: According to the Ceres Drive-in website, the Ceres Drive-in will be re-opening in the Spring of 2009 after completing the Drive-in projector project. 01-09
UPDATE: The Ceres Drive-in is officially gone. The owners declared that the show would not go on and have put the property up for sale. See this article in the Merced Sun-Star for more information. 04-09
UPDATE: Word is the Ceres Drive-in is temporarily reopening to provide an additional source of entertainment during the pandemic. See this website.
The 2020 Covid-19 pandemic has led to many businesses closing and pushing others to the brink of extinction. In the case of Ceres, we are seeing a revival, though it may be temporary.
UPDATE: The former drive-in property has been redeveloped with the Bay Landing Hotel and airport parking facilities. In October 2022, the Burlingame Historical Society installed a permanent marker near Airport and Anza boulevards so the old theater would not disappear completely from the landscape. 09-26
Ceres Drive-in Theater (Demolished)
The Ceres marquee while it was standing in its original location
The Ceres Ticket Booth
Ceres Drive-in (Temporarily reopened)
Ceres Drive-in (Temporarily reopened)
