Feb. 7: Paramount Drive-In Theatres, Paramount CA

It’s Day 38 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. I reached the Los Angeles area, starting with the theater closest to the previous day’s stop in San Diego. It took a solid two hours to drive north to the Paramount Drive-In Theatres of Paramount CA.

This drive-in opened as the Roadium Drive-In in 1947, just before the post offices of Hynes and Clearwater were merged to form then-unincorporated Paramount. It closed in 1992, but the Paramount was reborn in April 2014, just behind the Bianchi Theatres on Rosecrans Avenue.

The concession stand had pizza and other meals along with the usual suspects for snacking (especially the popcorn), and I enjoyed the video games before the show started.

On one hand, I was glad that the Paramount was open on a Tuesday night in February. Probably only a quarter of US drive-ins were open last night. But what a tough choice! I could watch Rings again, but it’s not my favorite genre and it’s actually not a very good movie. My only other choice was Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. So that’s what I saw for second night in a row and the fourth time in nine nights. New releases come Friday, and I’ll try to hold out till then.

Miles Today / Total:  123 / 4842 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: Resident Evil: The Final Chapter / 28

Nearby Restaurant: Just a short trip west down Rosecrans Avenue brought me to El Compa, a great place for Sinaloan style Mexican food. I went for the bistec ranchero, or steak simmered in ranchera sauce.

Where I Virtually Stayed: Nothing was really close to the Paramount, which is ringed by budget hotels about three miles away in each direction. Fortunately, I found something that’s like a four-leaf clover, a Motel 6 with positive reviews. (I know they exist; they’re just not as common as I’d like.) The one south of the drive-in near Bellflower Plaza worked fine and saved me enough cash for a real breakfast somewhere else in the morning.

Only in Paramount: Paramount is the birthplace and home of the Zamboni Company, started by Frank Joseph Zamboni Jr., inventor of the ice resurfacing machine. Zamboni manufactures and sells the machines worldwide. Since 1939 the Zamboni family has also operated Iceland, an ice skating rink with improvements patented by Frank Zamboni.

Next Stop: Vineland Drive-In, City of Industry CA.