Bygone Sunrise Drive-In a Fond Memory for Many

SACRAMENTO REGION, CA (MPG) - Many local residents still fondly remember warm summer nights spent at the Sunrise Drive-In Theater which was located at 8149 Greenback Lane in Fair Oaks and owned by Fred Gabriel and June Cranor.

The Sunrise Drive-In which opened with great public fanfare on July 3, 1963, and parking capacity for 1,258 cars, with a showing of “The Greatest Show on Earth,” starring James Stewart and Elizabeth Taylor, closed to the public in 2004 to make way for a residential development.

Another popular local drive-in had also met the same fate. The Citrus Heights Drive-In, which opened on August 3, 1950, with Randolph Scott in “The Cariboo Trail” & Arthur Singleton in “Beware of Blondie,” closed in the fall of 1979, according to Larry Fritz, president of the Citrus Heights Historical Society. Its entrance was directly across Auburn Blvd. from Twin Oaks Avenue, right behind Harris Welding. The site is now the home of Auburn Oaks Apartments.

Bulldozers soon cleared the lot where a busy Sunrise Drive-In snack bar once stood. The once bright orange neon marquee sign which welcomed theatre goers at the gate, was taken down by workers of Western Sign Company of Sacramento where it sat for 16 years outside, exposed to the elements in their back storage lot in Diamond Springs.

Brought into the workshop for some much-needed attention, work on the historic Sunrise Drive-In sign helped keep workers of Western Sign Company busy for much of 2020 during the pandemic, said Todd Johnston, sales and marketing representative for the company.

“The sign had been there so long we’d almost forgotten about it,” Johnston said. He turned to the internet to research the history of the Sunrise Drive-In Theatre and soon got in touch by telephone with Orangevale artist and historian BJ Nartker, who had produced a one-hour video documentary about the history of the old drive-in on YouTube.

“Johnston gave me a call that he had the original Sunrise Drive-In sign and had watched the documentary which my company (BJ Nartker Productions) had made. I was floored and went over to Western Sign as soon as I could to see it,” Nartker said.

The second documentary which BJ Nartker Productions recently produced at the start of the restoration project can be seen on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYm_Cq5BnMc

Nartker and his wife Cindy had interviewed the original owners Fred and June Gabriel for the original documentary and had created a painting depicting classic cars at sunset in the parking lot of the Sunrise Drive-In.

The couple developed a friendship with the Gabriels who had owned the Sunrise Drive-In through the years before his family moved to Washington State in 2011. When he returned to Orangevale, he sadly learned that both the Gabriels had passed away.

“They were great people,” Nartker said. “They recognized that times were changing when fewer and fewer people wanted to go to the drive-in for entertainment.”

Nartker has a few keepsakes from the old drive-in including a car speaker given to him by Fred Gabriel, which has the name Sunrise Drive-In engraved on it. He furnished several photos for use with this article, including photos of the snack bar, a ticket stub, and of the parking lot at sunset.

“I’m delighted that the sign has been preserved. Seeing it restored brought back a lot of memories for me. I’m proud of the work Todd and Western Sign put into restoring the sign.”

Nartker said he remembered going to the Sunrise Drive-In with his family when it first opened. “We were regular customers through the years. I had a chance to buy the snack bar’s original pizza ovens when it closed, and I still regret not doing that.”

He remembered the sound of owner Fred Gabriel’s booming voice coming through the loudspeaker encouraging customers to visit the snack bar and as a young adult, introduced himself to him.

Nartker’s own 8 mm home movies form a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the original Sunrise Drive-In snack bar as attendants busily pour fountain drinks and fill orders for customers eager to get back to the latest movie feature.

Once Johnston watched Nartker’s original 2019 documentary and learned the drive-in’s history, he grew eager for Western Sign to take the time and effort to thoroughly restore the vintage sign to its original glory. Workers soon discovered that much of the sign’s original metal was very badly rusted and needed replacement, Johnston said.

“I think our shop put about 300-400 hours in fabrication and metal work on that sign to get it back in shape,” he said. Once it was sandblasted, the refurbished Sunrise Drive-In sign received a new coat of bright orange paint closely matching the original color. New lettering was hand applied.

“The original globe was in pieces, so we had to source that from a supplier in Reno, Nevada,” Johnston said. New neon was supplied by Bo Hooks, owner of TN Hooks in Rancho Cordova, a specialty sign shop which put eight hours into its lighting fabrication. Hooks, which has been in business for over 22 years, also did neon work for most of the Mel’s Diners in the Sacramento area and specializes in the restoration of antique neon signs.

“It was an honor to work on it,” Hooks said. “It now looks great.”

“We kept much of its original character of the sign intact,” Johnston said. “We discovered a bullet-hole in the metal and left that in.”

For now, the newly restored Sunrise Drive-In sign is on display at Western Sign Company in Diamond Springs, Johnston said. It’s available to be seen for interested groups by appointment.

Take a walk back in time to remember the Sunrise Drive-In in Fair Oaks on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEWgY8Z7RF0&t=22s. Interviews with the owners and operators of the drive-in are mixed with old snack bar commercials as you relive that excitement of being at the Sunrise Drive-In. And as always, please replace your speakers on their post prior to exiting the theatre.