Richard Hollingshead opened the first modern drive-in theater in New Jersey on June 6, 1933. In his advertisements, he described it as a place where “the whole family is welcome, regardless of how noisy the children are.”
The concept really took off during the post-World War II suburban boom, especially in places with mild weather and lots of open space to put the large establishments.
The South Bay fit those criteria well. Former FBI agent L. Dale Gasteiger opened Torrance’s first drive-in, The Roadium, at 2500 W. Redondo Beach Blvd. on a 14-acre plot of land in the far northeast corner of the city, on Friday, May 19, 1950. (The Torrance Drive-In across town on the city’s western edge opened in 1955.)
Gasteiger’s outdoor theater had space for 480 cars, and his grand opening ad in the Torrance Herald highlighted the snack bar, the latest in sound equipment, excellent close-up views, and free admission for children.
The Roadium was located just up the road from El Camino College and Alondra Park. (ECC had opened in 1948.) The land around it was filling up rapidly with tract houses being built in the El Camino Village area on the west, North Torrance to the south, and Gardena to the east.
Business was brisk at the Roadium, but the entrepreneurial Gasteiger didn’t sit still. In addition to screening films, he began looking at other sources of income.
In October 1957, he petitioned the Torrance City Council to grant him a permit allowing him to operate swap meets on the theater grounds during the daytime on weekends. The council approved the proposal at its Nov. 6 meeting, and the Roadium held its first outdoor swap meet on Saturday, Jan. 25, 1958.
It would turn out to be a momentous decision that would end up saving the theater decades later.
Gasteiger wasn’t done, however. Little more than a year later, on Sunday, May 10,1959, he began operating what he called the “Farmer’s Surplus Market,” where local food producers could sell directly to consumers.
The Torrance Press quoted Gasteiger describing the market as giving “the inflation-squeezed consumer a chance to lessen his food costs by buying at close-out prices directly from the growers and handlers here.” (Even in 1959, that should have been changed to “his and her food costs.”)
But he really outdid himself in 1962. On Saturday, May 19, he opened a full-on 18-hole miniature golf course built in the area around the theater’s movie screen. (In ads from the period, the Roadium is described quite grandly as the “Roadium Drive-In Theatre Park.”)
The golf course, designed by Gasteiger, sported a 40-foot-high missile in which was located an up-to-date game room as well as special theme holes secreted in the interior of the layout.
So, by then, the Roadium was earning its name as a “theatre park,” by including a swap meet, a farmers market and a miniature golf course.
It’s unclear how long the miniature golf course lasted, but alas, it is no more. Elements of the farmer’s market eventually were incorporated into the swap meet as the Roadium soldiered on through the decades.
A variety of factors began spelling trouble for drive-ins beginning in the 1970s. Gasoline shortages began a trend toward smaller, more economical cars, which were less comfortable to take to the drive-in. Also, the large plots of land occupied by drive-ins – most require 15 acres or more – were becoming more desired by real estate developers.
The later rise of home video entertainment also hurt theater business. By the early 1980s, the Roadium was advertising its still-regular swap meets far more than its film screenings.
Then owned by the Pioneer theater chain, Roadium management considered adding additional screens as other area drive-ins such as the Vermont in Gardena and the South Bay Six in Carson had done. But it decided economics didn’t favor the move.
Finally, in 1986, the Roadium stopped showing movies altogether, deciding instead to concentrate on its swap meets, which by then were operating seven days a week.
The 80-foot-square screen stood by mutely for more than three decades, until it was announced that movie screenings would return to the theater on Friday nights starting with a June 7, 2019 retro screening of “Back to the Future.”
The swap meet remains the venue’s primary business, but summer movie screenings and occasional special events still are offered. In 2021, the theater hosted the annual South Bay Surf Awards ceremony so it could be held outdoors during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Torrance Drive-In has been replaced by a housing development, a strip mall now stands where the San Pedro Drive-In once did, and the Vermont and Carson multiplex drive-ins have long since been demolished. But the Roadium remains active almost 75 years after it opened, even if its movie screenings remain only a secondary part of its business.
Sources:
Daily Breeze archives.
“The History of Drive-In Movie Theaters (and where they are now),” New York Film Academy website, May 30, 2023.
Los Angeles Times archives.
The Roadium website.
“Roadium Drive-In,” Cinema Treasures website.
Torrance Press-Herald archives.
Note: Thanks to Santiago Carreras for correcting what replaced the San Pedro Drive-In.
