Reading Drive-In
US 222 Business and Leesport Avenue,
Reading,
PA
19560
US 222 Business and Leesport Avenue,
Reading,
PA
19560
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Located in the Temple district, north of Reading, the Reading Drive-In opened on August 1, 1949. It had a capacity for 744 cars.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 11 comments)
PLEASE CHANGE ADDRESS TO:
POTTSVILLE PIKE & MARGARET LANE
Berkley Road, Route 222, on the map showed the Southern United States and Central America, Not very helpful for finding a Drive-In in Reading.
I know it was not open in 1967.
Owned at one time by Milgram Theaters, Inc., of Philadelphia, David E. Milgram, President, they owned 51 theaters in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersy, and Pennsylvania.
Anyone have more info or photos?
This is as close as I could come to the location. Can anyone verify if this is correct?
The Reading Drive-In was located on the 5th Street Hi-way (old Rt. 222)several miles north of reading at Temple, Pa. It was just a couple blocks south of the intersection with Kutztown Road, and was located on the north side of the street. There is a shopping center on that site today. From the sixties on until it closed it was oprated by Fox Theatres out of Reading. That’s the Richard A. Fox Theatres… not the Fox Theatres begun by William Fox.
I worked as a relief manager for the Reading Drive-in, the Mt. Penn Drive-In and the Sinking Spring Drive-In as well as the Fox indoor in the Mulhlenburg Shopping center from spring 1967 thru the fall of 1968. I left Fox at that time and aquired my own theatres, one of which I still operate to this day.
I don’t remember when the Reading Drive-In closed as I left Reading before that occurred, but I would guess that it was either late 70s or early 80s.
Good guess,Drive-ins everywhere were closing quick in those years.thanks for the story.
PLEASE CHANGE ADDRESS TO:
U.S. 222 BUSINESS & LEESPORT AVENUE, TEMPLE, PA 19560
SORRY
Rick Wolfe, Thanks for the info. Check out the map now, is that about right?
Pretty close location. About a block to the left. The side fence ran very close to Las Vegas Drive. I spent my teen years at the corner of Kutztown Rd. and Leesport Ave. shown on the map. Worked there as a ramp boy for several years in the early 60’s.
Aerial from 1969
The Reading Drive-In was built by Philadelphia theater owners Jay Emanuel and Frank L. McNamee in partnership with the Fabian circuit, according to an item about the groundbreaking in the June 18, 1949, issue of The Billboard.
Approx. address for this drive-in was 5314 Allentown Pike. Now Sam’s Club.