Back in September 2001, less than a week before 9/11, I snuck into the Burlingame Drive in one last time . . . to take pictures, not see a movie. This was my hometown drive in. I saw movies here that changed my life: Mad Max, Monty Python’s Holy Grail, Sleeper, Soylent Green, Harold & Maude, Animal House, Star Wars about 14 times–dozens of movies over the course of 15 years. It was as Jetsons futuristic as local architecture would ever get. Being a space age kid, I loved it. I loved everything about this place. Watching the non-stop stream of airliners landing at SFO was endlessly entertaining. I even loved the crappy pizza. All those memories came flooding back as I shot here . . . and when I dug these slides up the other day. I remember feeling really happy to make one more trip and give it a good send off. It was razed a few months later, and the site is still a vacant lot. Shot with outdated, possibly overheated Kodak 160T chrome film through a Canon T90. Lit by the full moon and gelled strobe. A couple of these are in my 2003 book “Lost America,” but none have been online since then.
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