Long Beach : Circle Drive-In Will Close After Tonight’s Show

The Circle Drive-In is scheduled to show its last motion picture tonight, then close forever.

On Tuesday, a Long Beach developer took ownership of the 800-car drive-in near the Los Cerritos Traffic Circle. The developer, IDM Corp., plans to build apartments and office buildings on the 13-acre site.

IDM officials would not disclose the purchase price for the drive-in site. Demolition of the outdoor theater, a Long Beach landmark for more than 34 years, is set for February.

Work is to begin in March on the first of two six-story office buildings that will make up the Circle Business Center. The business center is expected to be completed by the end of 1986, but no date has been set for the completion of the apartment project.

The City Council has voted to allow fortune-tellers to do business in the central downtown area and in pockets of the city zoned for the tourist trade.

Previously, fortune-telling businesses were banned, said Dennis Eschen, zoning administrator.

Under the ordinance, approved by the council Tuesday, the businesses can operate only between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. They cannot locate within 1,000 feet of each other or of bars, arcades or adult bookstores.

Long Beach currently has one fortune-telling business, which opened before the ban, Eschen said.

City officials decided to lift the ban on fortune-tellers because of a recent state Court of Appeal ruling that such restrictions violate the First Amendment right to free speech.

With the Board of Education elections only six weeks away, two local organizations have endorsed candidates. Nine residents--including two incumbents--are running in the March 19 election for two seats on the Long Beach Unified School District board.

The Teachers Assn. of Long Beach announced Jan. 25 that it endorses Ramon Cruz, past president of the Long Beach League of United Latin American Citizens, and Ben Lipson, a retired local teacher.

After interviewing the five candidates who agreed to be screened, the Council of Long Beach Organizations announced that it endorses Cruz. The council is the new incarnation of Citizens for a Representative School Board, which fought to change school board elections from at-large to by-district through Proposition S on the November ballot. Citizens for a Representative School Board dissolved after Proposition S failed.

Long Beach residents Carmen Perez and Mary Custer have been elected to positions in the state Democratic Party by delegates at the annual state convention in Sacramento.

Custer, Long Beach city treasurer, was elected secretary of the southern division, which covers Southern California. Perez, who serves on the Democratic National Committee, ran unopposed as the party’s southern section vice chairwoman.

Perez, a former state party vice chairwoman, said she plans to run next year for chairwoman of the state Democratic Party. In July, Perez led delegates to the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco in the Pledge of Allegiance during the opening session.

Circling slowly around a flag-draped coffin, about 200 Cambodians living in the Long Beach area conducted a memorial service at the Bixby Park Recreation Center on Sunday.

The demonstration honored civilians slain during recent Vietnamese attacks on camps along the Thai border that shelter refugees from the Vietnamese-backed government now ruling Cambodia.

About $1,200 to aid surviving victims was collected at the gathering, said Than Pok, a spokesman for the United Cambodian Community. The organization sponsored the event with the Cambodian Assn. of America and the Cambodian Veterans Assn.