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Home » Claycord Online Museum – The Concord Auto Movies

Claycord Online Museum – The Concord Auto Movies

by CLAYCORD.com
19 comments

This is an old advertisement for the Concord Auto Movies (drive-in), which was located across from Buchanan Field on Concord Avenue, in the area of the Concord Airport Plaza & Trader Joe’s.

Who remembers this place? What movies do you remember seeing there?

ABOUT THE CLAYCORD ONLINE MUSEUM: The Claycord Online Museum is made up of historical photos, documents & anything else that has to do with the history of our area.

If you have any old photos or items that you’d like to place in the Claycord Online Museum, just scan or take a photo of them, and send them to the following address: news@claycord.com. It doesn’t matter what it is, even if it’s just an old photo of your house, a scan of an old advertisement or an artifact that you’d like us to see, send it in and we’ll put it online!

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Click on the tag below titled “Claycord Online Museum” to view other items!

19 comments


Badge1104 October 11, 2022 - 9:00 PM - 9:00 PM

I do remember that! I had forgotten! it was the first time I had ever been to drive-in movie. Probably 1964 or so. I was a boy but my sister and her boyfriend brought me there with them. I remember not wanting to go back is going to the Enean movie theater (how many remember that?) was a better experience in my young opinion.

nytemuvr October 11, 2022 - 11:58 PM - 11:58 PM

That was the first drive-in I had been to, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, I was 16 in 1970.
@Badge1104 The Enea brothers built and owned that drive-in along with the Enean downtown. The drive-in was built in ’60 and closed in ’77. There used to be a photo of the marquee and screen on this website, it’s no longer there, I have it on my PC….
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/11509

Martinezmike October 12, 2022 - 6:32 AM - 6:32 AM

Good movie! . It was where I first learned about the rules in a knife fight.

James October 12, 2022 - 1:17 AM - 1:17 AM

This place made it so we didnt need to sneak people into the drive-in hidden in the trunk anymore.They charged by the carload.
My Buick Electra could hold 4 people side by side in the trunk

DD October 12, 2022 - 4:50 AM - 4:50 AM

Saw The Great Race there as a kid!

The Professor October 12, 2022 - 7:33 AM - 7:33 AM

I remember seeing Pinocchio there around ’70 or ’71. I was around 5 or 6. I spent half the movie looking out the car window at the pretty blue lights at Buchanan Field.

Does anybody remember the drive in that was at Monument and Contra Costa? Staples is there now.

Noj October 12, 2022 - 12:00 PM - 12:00 PM

Pleasant Hill Motor Movies. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly was playing there the night we graduated from Pleasant Hill High School.
On another note: Did you know that the old EL Rey Theater in Walnut Creek has an identical twin, that still operates? It’s the Cascade Theater up in Redding…

https://cascadetheatre.org/about-us/photo-gallery/

The Professor October 12, 2022 - 2:57 PM - 2:57 PM

I think I remember the El Rey. Where the Lesher Center is now? Went there once for a Disney movie about a field goal kicking donkey. Gus the mule?

I also remember driving by with my mom when I was around 7 or 8 and “Deep Throat” was on the marquis. Mom never did tell me what that movie was about. Sadly, neither did any of my girlfriends nor my wife.

Noj October 12, 2022 - 4:10 PM - 4:10 PM

The old El Rey theater was at 1649 North Main street, right downtown. Can’t remember the local family who owned the candy shop next door. Wonderful town in the old days. Not so hot anymore…

http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/10834

Original G October 12, 2022 - 4:37 PM - 4:37 PM

El Rey in 1970s was owned by Nathaniel Blumenfeld.
Also owned Village theater in San Ramon and Park theater in Lafayette.

nytemuvr October 12, 2022 - 8:11 PM - 8:11 PM

@The Professor…. Wasn’t that the documentary movie about Tricky Dick Nixon and Watergate?

Krissy October 12, 2022 - 9:42 AM - 9:42 AM

I remember the Solano Drive in, Planet of the apes, I was 6 maybe. My dad made a big bed in the back of your BelAir station wagon, I fell asleep.. my oldest Sibs talked about the movie and I was bummed I didn’t see it to the end. I remember the PH drive in and the farm to the north.

FPN October 12, 2022 - 12:14 PM - 12:14 PM

Fonzie Parrish my neighbor, was the manager at the El Rey theater. We use to go there all the time. Saw the movie Born Free there. It was a nice theater.

Noj October 12, 2022 - 4:02 PM - 4:02 PM

Fonzie was a wonderful guy. Knew him back in the day when he was with Farmers Insurance. Thanks for thinking of him FPN/

redrazor October 13, 2022 - 12:01 PM - 12:01 PM

“Mr. Parrish” was the manager of the Park Theater in Lafayette in the middle 50’s when all my school friends and I would stand in a looong line all around the theater to get in (25cents) for a double feature, 10 cartoons, and nickel candy bars!! My family even went to the Park Theater for the first St. Perpetua’s Catholic Sunday masses; before the church was built. Great times and great memories.

Ripley October 12, 2022 - 1:07 PM - 1:07 PM

Remember all three, PH Drive In, Concord Auto, and Solano. Remember the PH Drive In started showing porn movies a couple years before they closed. As kids you could be in the Wards parking lot or on Contra Costa Blvd. and watch! Pretty eye opening as an elementary school aged kid.

nytemuvr October 12, 2022 - 2:56 PM - 2:56 PM

@Ripley….Concord Auto Movies showed porn movies too before they closed, plus you could hear it on your car radio.

OverWhelmed October 12, 2022 - 1:26 PM - 1:26 PM

What was the name of the drive in that used to be on the corner of Monument and Contra Costa Blvd?

Noj October 12, 2022 - 4:00 PM - 4:00 PM

That was the Pleasant Hill Motor Movies. I think Thursday night was a buck a car. Might’ve been the Solano. Fun times.


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