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I so enjoyed finding your web site, by accident I may add, and then, when I saw this clip, I was elated as I grew up about 3/4's of a mile from this location which was on the S/E corner of Pacific Coast Hwy. and Ximeno across the street from the Circle Drive In Theater where I and my parents went on a regular basis.



Today Beany's is a parking lot for a strip mall and the Circle Drive In is a large apartment and condo maze.



If you notice there was another Drive-In restaurant catty corner, ( N/W corner ), called the Clock. As I recall there were about 3 in Long Beach It/they, later became Hody's. This was though a big hang out for all the Wilson HS group on Friday and Saturday nites.



Fast forward, I used to frequent it in my brand new 1966 Olds 442 on a regular basis when I grew up, as the Beany's clip, which was shot on 9/52, I was 9 years old but remember it well as my mother didn't have to cook all the time. Lots of good times on those corners.



One viewer commented on the tan 53 Ford but it was a 1952 and later in the clip a brand new black 1952 Mercury with a new paper plate on the right rear bumper end appears.



There was also a comment about the oil drilling and in the beginning it shows tanks on a hill with oil wells in the back ground and at the base of the hill was a traffic circle, ( which also had several wells in the middle of it which they later had to pull out as on a few foggy nites some fools came down the hill way too fast and went into the inner circle and wiped out a derrick or two creating a nice blow torch ), where PCH, Pacific Coast Hwy went, around the North side of the circle and then climbed that hill proceeding West clear to Redondo Bch. some 20 miles to the West.



PCH when it went then through Long Beach, ( at the top of the hill ), the center yellow line was the City limit divider between Long Beach and Signal Hill, Signal Hill being West bound traffic, with Eastbound being in Long Beach.



There were many times that an accident would happen, as in a left turn situation, and then the cops would fight over as to who would have take the report. Signal Hill at one point was one of the largest most active oil fields, and still has a few wells.



PCH then ended in Redondo Bch. and then went North where it is called Sepulveda going clear up to the San Fernando Valley, and still does next to the 405 going over Sepulveda Pass.



Also towards the end of the clip, a 46-48 Ford pulls up to the drive-in window to order and it is lower in the rear end if you notice. Chances are there were some guys in the trunk and when the driver then bought a bunch of the Beany Burgers they then went across the street to the Circle Drive-In and smuggled a few in and had a nice meal of Beany Burgers and a cut rate movie!



Ironically, the license plate frame from that car was from WF McPheeters, who was a big used car dealer in downtown Long Beach on then what was called American Ave at about 15th. st. just North of Anaheim Street. I became a Claims Rep. in 1968 and I used to call on Mr. McPheeters to adjust claims in his body shop. Small world!



You have a great web site and I hope that I didn't create too much as the old saying goes, "Information Overload".



Keep the good work up!



The Frenchman.....

- April 4, 2015Beany's Drive In