What we’re seeing here is the back of the 45-by-60-foot screen of the Vermont Drive-In that opened on October 23, 1947 at 17737 S. Vermont Ave in Gardena, not far from Redondo Beach. (The opening double bill was “Dear Ruth” starring William Holden and “Fear in the Night.”) I’m not sure what’s going on in that painting. I think it’s Snow White dancing with the dwarfs next to a five-foot mushroom. I suspect the subtext here is that they all ate some of the mushroom and now they’re all tripping . . . or at least enjoying nature—a lot.
Here’s a side-by-side aerial comparison of the area. The drive-in closed in 1999 and was redeveloped as housing. I assume the top photo is from the 1940s; the bottom one is from 2021.
It is Snow White and her gang.
“Such a playground was added to the Vermont in 1949. That same year, Arnoldo Rubio and his brother painted the distinctive mural on the outside-facing wall of the drive-in, a depiction of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.”
Working from sketches, Arnoldo and his brother completed the 45-by-65-foot mural in two weeks. His brother did the backgrounds, and Arnoldo painted the larger-than-life figures.”
https://www.dailybreeze.com/2020/01/13/south-bay-history-gardenas-vermont-drive-in-theatre-becomes-the-south-bays-last-drive-in/
Ah! Thanks, Yuma!
Had my first drive-in date there in my Studebaker..