61st Street Drive-In

There is still an inty portion of the “61st Street Drive-In” sign still standing amidst the other rubble to this day. It’s mainly yellow with (I think) blue and red lettering. Saw it en route to work one day and wanted to hop off the bus to photograph it, but 61st St. is a very busy stretch of road.

I was talking once with a projectionist that worked practically every DI in the area-he mentioned how much of a problem the rats were here. Another projectionist kept one in the booth for company! Was this the DI theater that had several speakers outside the fence on the street side? The screen was angled toward the other direction, though, so they wouldn’t see much!

if u go to google earth and type in 3220 s 61st street philadelphia pa, u will see the rotted frame of the old sign. it is next to an aluminum building and trees are growing around it. u can barely make out what looks like a red arrow pointing to what used to be the drive in entrance. it’s eerie.

research i conducted is that the theater closed in 1983. can’t find any ads for it after that.. if this photo is from the mid 80’s it would make sense.. Lots of low budget horror b flicks shown here during the late 70’s early 80’s..

Went to this theater 2 times. Once in the 60’s and saw a double feature The Cincinatti Kid and The Hill and again in 1983 and saw Snow WHite and another Disney movies. Both times all films were flat. B+NEver saw a scope movie on there big screen.