France Avenue Drive-In
7800 France Avenue S.,
Minneapolis,
MN
55435
7800 France Avenue S.,
Minneapolis,
MN
55435
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Site is now the Minnesota Center office complex.
Worked there in 69 to 70 when I was 14, $1.00 an hour cash. Mr Welch manager, Gene the assistant. Had some fun times back then!
Grand opening ad at
Found on Newspapers.com
and the photo section.
I remember driving my roommate’s car out there with a bunch of us, probably in ‘66 – it was huge! I was used to small town drive-ins, like the one in Pine City (MN). I went to the snack bar & couldn’t find my way back to the car! As I was searching for that '57 Chevy, I saw a car with its lights on. I said to myself, “Some idiot left his lights on!” And then I realized the idiot was me. Good thing, or I might’ve ended up watching the movie sitting on the ground.
Wow, equipped for 70mm films!
Funny seeing Mark Campbell’s name after all these years. It was my first job that wasn’t newspaper. A dollar an hour. A bus to Southdale Center and then a damn long walk to work for a few buck and all the popcorn you could stomach.
This one must have only been a few miles from the Bloomington Drive-in or as I remembered it. The Southtown drive-in (I think thats what it was called there where the Southtown strip mall now sits).
I worked there from around 1977
to 1980. Good times!
kwisp,
Michael C will have a nervous breakdown with that comment……
Thanks Kwisp,how about some more stories.
I worked there during the summer of 77-78 when they showed Star Wars during its initial run – very unusual for a drive-in. The line of cars would back up France all the way to Southdale and 494. They had a small kiddy park in front of the main screen but I don’t recall ever seeing it used. There was often fights and other shenanigans on the busy weekends, but that was half the fun of working there…reminds me of American Graffiti meets Animal House.
1700 cars? Thats a pretty big drive-in.
Not a bad looking Drive-in Ken.
Interesting that it only lasted 20 years.
The Edina Historical Society is looking for more information, stories and photos about France Avenue Drive In for an upcoming exhibit on early suburban Edina. (Yes, the theater was located in neighboring Bloomington, but just over the border, and was a part of community life here.)
Please call the Edina History Museum at 612-866-4581 with your contact info. Thank you!
Marci Matson, Director
Jensen has it right, they started as one screen big house. (I worked there from 66-69.) It was built on an old dump, and the concession stand and attached projection booth kept settling. In the mid ‘70s when they had to rebuild the booth, they added screens in the NW and SW corners and added west directed projector and converted it to a tri-plex. In my day, it was open 365 days a year and in Minnesota that meant pole mounted car-heaters. Lots of maintenance…
I meant 150 ft., of course … sorry.
Wow – that screen was 15o ft. wide, and curved for Cinerama:
http://cinerama.topcities.com/france.htm
That was party central until they ripped it down.
Here is a photo:
http://tinyurl.com/ognf2
There was originally only one screen (facing west, oddly) but at some point in the mid 1970s, they added two more, somewhat smaller, screens on the west edge of the parking area, with the projection building / snack bar being the centre point of all three.