Patmars
Howard Patrick and Norman Marsh combined their names and opened El Segundo, California’s Patmars Drive-in at Imperial Highway & Sepulveda Boulevard in 1939.
Sepulveda Boulevard had been part of the Pacific Coast Highway since 1919, and the classically circular drive-in was such a hit that the duo opened an adjacent motel a year later. The complex was immediately south of Los Angeles Airport, which had opened as Mines Field in 1930. The remote isolation of the intersection depicted in the postcard wouldn’t last. El Segundo filled up with houses and airport-adjacent businesses after World War II, and Patmars was sold in 1960. The site, cleared and rebuilt, is adjacent to the Century Freeway’s Sepulveda interchange. The drive-in building, however, survived…for a time. It was moved and repurposed as the El Segundo Golf Course’s pro shop until 1994 when it was demolished.