I don’t normally post photo as far south from Los Angeles as San Diego, but this place was so cute, and so of-its-era that I had to. This is Oscar’s Drive-In restaurant which stood at 4751 El Cajon Blvd, and was photographed on July 18, 1947. I love the cute circus theme with the parade of elephants along the top and roof painted to look like a big top. If you’re wondering what you’d order if you went there, you can check out their menu.
Rick E. said: “Oscars Drive In’s were the early predecessor of Jack In The Box. As Drive In Burger joints were phased out, the Jack In The Boxes took over. It was all the same company, and later became Foodmaker Inc. That’s why Jack In The Boxes had clowns…. a carryover from Oscars.”
Not surprising, Oscar’s is long gone. A Jack in the Box burger joint now occupies 4751 El Cajon Blvd. This is how it looked in January 2023.
There’s no business like show business! And the circus was the greatest show on earth, especially with neon lighting.
Why is it that every photo from today looks dingy and dirty versus the original photo’s when everything looked so much cleaner????? This is the look of progress????
The bottom portion of yesterday’s photo taken of the Giant premiere looks dirty and dingy to me.
Also, photography of the sort we’re looking at historically was more of an art. Until the cell phone, photography was usually purposeful and selective. You had to want to take a photo of something. Dorothea Lang’s depression era photographs are stunningly beautiful, but the subject matter is not. The GSV’s of today are not intended as such. IMO.