Piedmont Drive-In
2426 Piedmont Road NE,
Atlanta,
GA
30324
2426 Piedmont Road NE,
Atlanta,
GA
30324
1 person
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Opened prior to 1955, and located on Piedmont Road NE at Lindbergh Drive NE. This was not a drive-in theater that was glitzy or glamorous. It was pretty much a working-class theater, with a great concession stand. There was a kiddie section almost right below the screen, where the parents would escort us so they could have peace and quiet in the car. They would retrieve us at the end of the movie.
Later, it was a favorite place to take dates for obvious reasons. On weekends, the theatre hired an off-duty policeman to walk up and down the rows of cars, shining his flashlight in, and cautioning couples to keep their heads above the seat.
Contributed by
William J. Brotherton
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Recent comments (view all 10 comments)
While it may have been rather plain on the inside, from outside it was the most impressive looking of all Atlanta Drive Ins. The screen backed up to Piedmont Road and could be seen from a good ways down LaVista Road. It was decorated with neon script “Piedmont Drive In” signage. To get to the box office you drove down the entrance drive through the towering pine trees that dominated the lot. As was the custom in those days the box office had a large warmer so that boxes of popcorn could be sold along with the tickets. The exit was located in the rear of the lot and opened onto Lindberg Drive.
I only had the pleasure of attending a show at the Piedmont one time, this being in 1966 when I was in Atlanta visiting family. The feature was the pleasant but unremarkable “Born Free.” As usual, the co-feature was an older offering from the same film company, in this case Columbia. Although the purpose of the trip was to see ‘'Born Free" it was the co-feature that made the night memorable. It was the first, and only time in a theatre, that I saw ’‘Bye Bye Birdie’‘ although I have watched and enjoyed it many times since. If I watch it enough I may discover why Ann-Margaret calls the title character by the proper name of Birdie in the movie itself, while in the opening and closing songs she sings his name BurHEE. The fact that I attended this showing with my cousins, one of whom is named Anne, and the other Margaret, only made the show more memorable.
Sadly, by the time I moved to Atlanta in 1967, the Piedmont had recently closed. It was torn down and in its place was a K-Mart style discount store by the name of Arlands, or maybe just Arlans. The arrival of this chain was a major blow to the historical past of Atlanta. In addition to the destruction of the Piedmont, another fine drive in, the Stewart Avenue, was also destroyed to make way for another Arlands location. Even worse, they also destroyed the old Ponce de Leon Park baseball stadium where the Atlanta Crackers had played minor league baseball for years until the arrival of the major league Braves in 1966.
As it turned out, these fine Atlanta landmarks had the last laugh as the Arlands chain went out of business within a couple of years. The Ponce de Leon store was taken over by the government as office space and later torn down to make way for yet another strip shopping center. The old Piedmont Drive In location became the site of a major weekend flea market which drew bigger crowds than the drive in or discount store ever saw. That store was torn down and the MARTA Lindberg station built on its site. The front part of the property along Piedmont where the box office and screen were sited became a parking lot and later a huge Bell South office complex.
Across the street at Broadview Plaza, later renamed Lindberg Plaza, two indoor theatres were built in the early 70’s and are listed on this site as the Screening Room. They are also gone as that shopping center was torn down in about 2004 to make way for yet another and still larger shopping center. The way some things change never changes.
This link to the Drive Ins.com website has some pictures of the snack bar and playground with the screen in the background.
http://www.drive-ins.com/theater/gatpied
Newspaper ad from August 1964 and a write up on the lead feature opening that day:
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Link to the Drive In ladder ad in the Atlanta paper on August 5, 1964. The blogger has also written up some of his memories of working at these places. Worth a look if you are interested in the drive in culture from 1970 – 1990.
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Here is a 1950’s ad for The Dixie’s Drive-In Theatres, The Piedmont Drive-In Theatre and The Stewart Drive-In Theatre
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I’m not sure all of Mr. Malone’s recollections are accurate. The Piedmont Drive-In was followed by Hastings Nurseries, a huge nursery and retail gardening facility. From there it went to retail and restaurants, and from that to Marta. And I think that the Arlan’s on Ponce de Leon became a huge Asian market before it was torn down for the present large shopping center (Home Depot, Whole Foods, Borders Books,Office Depot, et cetera.). I don’t think the government ever had anything to do with the old Ponce de Leon site. The City of Atlanta bought the old Sear’s distribution center/retail store directly across Ponce de Leon, and it has since been sold to private developers.
Added Aerial from 1960
My memories of the area are from around the 1979-84 time period when I lived and worked near there, worked at Carolina Lumber & Supply a bit to the south of this area, on Plaster Bridge Road, and the memories are very vivid. At that time, the Atlanta Flea Market was there, in a building that looked like it was once a department store, although I reckon it could have been the former location of Hastings Nursery, which by that time was located out Lindberg Drive at the corner of Cheshire Bridge Road, a few blocks to the east of Piedmont Road, across from the Varisty Jr.
Next to the Flea Market on one side was Shoney’s (the caving in building can still be seen there today), and across the street, across Lindberg, from the Flea Market was (in 1979-80) the empty building that once was a Copperfield’s nightclub.
Across from there was the small strip that housed Ken’s Tavern and Moonshadow Saloon, a couple of hopping nightspots for us working class types of the early 1980s. Past that going up Piedmont, and across from the fairly huge Flea Market space was a Sizzling Steaks, and a Zesto’s, which, amazingly, is also still in the same spot. Then Broadview Plaze, which was anchored by K-Mart, Picadilly Cafe, and the Screening Room Theaters mentioned earlier. What isn’t mentioned is that before becoming movie theaters, the location was the Great Southeastern Music Hall, where many great rock, pop and country acts performed… including the Sex Pistols with their American debut shows!
Piedmont Drive in was before all this by over a decade, and it was forgotten by the time I arrived.
Correction, that was Harvest Moon Saloon next to Ken’s Tavern, not Moonshadow Saloon, which was on out near Decatur.
Mr Malone account is accurate. The theater was torn down for Arlans. Hastings was never on the corner of Piedmont and Lindberg. Spent many nights in the baack seat of my parents car Watching Elvis movies, How the West Was Won, and can remember the largest crowd for The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. The line went thru the winding drive and overflowed out onto Lindberg. Remember ther had a board up by concession stand that you matched your ticket number and could win goodies at concession stand. When I was real small use to be scared to go to bathroom because you had to go down those 3 or 4 steps to get to there. Very fond memories of this place and Hastings. We would shop for Christmas tree every year at Hastings. Loved playing by the pond while parents shopped. Zesto’s was always a treat. Kiddieland at Broadview Plaza was place to have Birthday parties.