What did they do with the monkeys when they shut the Mission drive-in down?

Now the old Mission was on the corner of Benson and Holt and right down the street you would find the Valley....Or was it the other way around.

Anyway, it was the Mission that had the Monkeys in long cages against the south fence along holt. A lot of people would get in early just so you could go to the snack bar and buy some popcorn or peanuts just to feed the ugly smelly critters...That is one thing I remember about them....If the Santa Ana's were blowing, the smell was almost enough to make you throw up that Pizza you just bought from the snack bar.

Another argument that prevailed for years, was what city was were the drive in's in. The current location of the Valley would have been county area back then, Montclair and Ontario at that time yet to settle there more periminate boundaries, much of the area was county until the 1980's.

Even today there are those residents of Montclair who insist that both the Valley and Mission were in Montclair. Sorry but it was still county.

Getting back to the monkeys, sometimes parents had to hide there youngsters eyes as monkeys would be monkeys or any other animal for that matter. And that Smell only added to the flavor of the cages. I was glad I didn't have to take care of them or clean out the cages.

The valley was demolished in 1977 to make way for the car dealership that still occupies the site to this day. The Mission on the other hand still survives as one of perhaps 3 others in the Inland Empire.

Today, weekday and weekend yard sales are held with the crowd arriving even earlier than it use to. Since I sold at both the MT Baldy and Mission, I had to be there at 5 in the morning to get a space. If you buy in advance you can arrive as late as 6 without having missed to much of the crowd.

But I never found out what happened to the monkeys that occupied those cages for all those years. Do any of you know?

Gary Hall the ghostpainter.