Van Nuys Drive-In: now and then

I recently drove (was driven) by the Van Nuys Drive-In and took a picture of the school that now stands there. According to http://www.garbell.com/drive-ins/drive-in.htm, it was "built (in) 1948 (&) Operated by Pacific Theatres. (Its) Vehicle Capacity (was) Originally 890 (and) Eventually 1400." (It) Closed August 1996,(& was) demolished in August, 1998."

I went there with my family and saw "Fiddler on the Roof." I also went there on dates. I wasn't living in the area when it closed, so I don't remember when it closed. I do remember many a time sneaking views of movies from the adjacent wash or from friends'houses who lived in back of the theater and hiding in the bushes under the marquee (see above) after school. It was of several hide-outs that my friends and I had along the way home.

The area at the time was called Sepulveda. It's now called, "North Hills." The original North Hills was a break-away area west of the 405 freeway that was an upper-middle class area that didn't want to be associated with crime-ridden Sepulveda. I remember the change and how quickly the rest of Sepulveda joined and thus became North Hills that resulted in Sepulveda as an area name disappearing.

Van Nuys may have a similar fate as we lost part of it to Lake Balboa. We lost the southern part of Van Nuys to Sherman Oaks. Obviously, real estate drives our naming of areas and not history like it does in other places on the planet.