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One of the eight new Los Angeles Unified campuses to open this week is built on the site of the former Van Nuys Drive-In theatre on Roscoe Boulevard. Later this month, the school board is expected to decide the fate of the historic but derelict Ambassador Hotel, which occupies one of the largest and most desirable parcels of land in the mid-city area. The Los Angeles Conservancy has issued a "preservation alert" hoping to save the structure and include it in a school on the site.
The Van Nuys photo is at Garbell.com. Here are also photos of the old Victory Drive-In in the Valley and the Olympic Drive-In, which used to stand at Olympic and Bundy in West L.A.
*Sunday update: Over the weekend, Supt. Roy Romer endorsed a compromise that would save a few parts of the hotel, including the Cocoanut Grove and a piece of the Embassy Ballroom where RFK spoke, but apparently not the pantry where Kennedy was shot. A facade would be built facing Wilshire to look like the hotel. Everything else on the property would be razed to make way for the schools. Neither the Conservancy nor a pro-demolition community group sound happy.