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A Tuesday night Fun Family Night crowd awaits the start of “The Secret Life of Pets 2.”

A Tuesday night Fun Family Night crowd awaits the start of “The Secret Life of Pets 2.”

Heading into the West Wind Sacramento 6 Drive-In on a Tuesday night.

Heading into the West Wind Sacramento 6 Drive-In on a Tuesday night.

Chuck Arana (second row, striped tank top) has been organizing Tuesday night trips to West Wind since 2004, when he feared the drive-in would close. The group has more than 600 members on a Facebook group, and about 50 people got together here for a June screening of “The Secret Life of Pets 2.”

Chuck Arana (second row, striped tank top) has been organizing Tuesday night trips to West Wind since 2004, when he feared the drive-in would close. The group has more than 600 members on a Facebook group, and about 50 people got together here for a June screening of “The Secret Life of Pets 2.”

The West Wind Sacramento 6 Drive-In originally opened near Highway 50 and Bradshaw in 1973.

The West Wind Sacramento 6 Drive-In originally opened near Highway 50 and Bradshaw in 1973.

The snack bar and restrooms were part of the recent renovations at West Wind Drive-in.

The snack bar and restrooms were part of the recent renovations at West Wind Drive-in.

At sunset, vehicles enter the West Wind Drive-In lot and head to one of the six theaters.

Sacramentans Nick Tamatini (lower left) and Emily, along with Chloe and Ellie, enjoy their first trip to the West Wind Drive-In.

A close-up look at one of the six projectors as it beams “Aladdin” onto a screen at West Wind Drive-In in June.

Inside the West Wind projection room as three of the six all-digital projectors play movies. Unless there’s an emergency, no humans are present inside the projection room while movies are running.

The movie screens at West Wind vary in size with the three largest being 90-feet wide by 45-feet tall.

The movie screens at West Wind vary in size with the three largest being 90-feet wide by 45-feet tall.

Moviegoers head from the snack bar to the parking lot where “Aladdin” is beginning.

Moviegoers head from the snack bar to the parking lot where “Aladdin” is beginning.

A projector beams “Aladdin” to the screen. West Wind projectors use technology from Texas Instruments known as digital light processing, or DLP, to form the images on screen.

A projector beams “Aladdin” to the screen. West Wind projectors use technology from Texas Instruments known as digital light processing, or DLP, to form the images on screen.

The Last Picture Show

Sacramento’s remaining drive-in theater motors into its 46th summer

Back Photo gallery Jun 21, 2019 By Steve Martarano

It’s a summer ritual for the nation’s car culture since the 1930s: catching a flick at the drive-in movie theater. The Sacramento area’s landscape used to be filled with the giant-screen presence of several of these outdoor venues, including the Starlite, 49er, Skyview and El Rancho, which allowed generations to experience watching a new movie on a warm summer night with friends. Now, only West Wind Sacramento 6 Drive-In survives in the Capital Region as a timeless reminder to those days gone by.

Opening in 1973 just off Bradshaw Road and Highway 50, West Wind, a family-owned business operated by Syufy Enterprises, just finished major parking lot and building renovations as its 46th summer kicks off. The drive-in can hold about 1,500 vehicles spread across its six newly paved and lined lots. The all-digital technology used at West Wind means those clunky window speakers many associate with the drive-ins of their youth are now a relic of the past, replaced by an FM radio signal.

Syufy Enterprises has committed exclusively to drive-ins and dominates the industry in the West, operating six locations in California, Nevada and Arizona. Each facility is the only drive-in in its market, says Pia Nepomuceno, Syufy’s director of marketing. “It’s a classic piece of Americana,” Nepomuceno says. “Everyone should go at least once every summer.”

When West Wind faced possible closure in 2004 in the face of a proposed shopping center at the site, movie-goer Chuck Arana thought he’d organize friends to enjoy the drive-in experience of his high school years one last time. The shopping center for a variety of reasons didn’t happen, but Arana still coordinates weekly Tuesday movie nights through a Facebook group that draws from 20 to 100 friends of all ages each week. A recent screening of “The Secret Life of Pets 2” attracted about 50 on a night when temperatures hit 104 degrees during the day.

Arana says the movies are inexpensive and he’s seen friends and their families grow up at the drive-in. But the main reason he keeps returning? “Nostalgia,” he says.

Comments

Visitor (not verified) – June 25, 2019 - 1:14pm

I practically grew up here. My dad and Chuck were good friends and so Chuck would round up a bunch of people and we would all go to the drive-ins. I started going with my dad a little over ten years ago and I have countless memories from that place. So glad to see that Chuck is keeping it alive!