There was the very first one in the county, the Lorain Drive-in Theatre on Route 6, which opened in June 1946; the Carlisle Drive-in Theater on Route 20 (1949); the Tower Drive-in (May 1950); and the Aut-O-Rama on Route 10 out in North Ridgeville (1965).
Today, only the Aut-O-Rama – the very last to open – remains. Here’s the link to its website.
The ad shown above in from that inaugural 1965 season and ran in the Lorain Journal on July 2, 1965. The double feature was a good one with lots of star power: Mister Moses (with Robert Mitchum and Carroll Baker) and The Rounders (featuring Glenn Ford and Henry Fonda).
I love the great caricatures in the ad of Baker and Mitchum by Al Hirschfeld, although they didn't make it onto the official movie poster.
After all, any movie with Doodles Weaver, Chill Wills and Edgar Buchanan can’t be all bad!
"Open all year?" I remember most of the drive-ins you mentioned (we used to go to Lorain Drive in a lot when I was a kid), but I don't remember them being open all year. Wonder what it would have been like to watch during winter.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good question, Mark! At least the snow drifts would make the little ridges you park on even higher for better viewing.
ReplyDeleteBut I did notice in the 1965 ad that it also said "indoor" on it, maybe they had seats in that building or something.