Bel-Air Drive-In
3101 S. Cicero Avenue,
Cicero,
IL
60804
3101 S. Cicero Avenue,
Cicero,
IL
60804
7 people
favorited this theater
Opened around 1956 as a single-screen drive-in, the Bel-Air Drive-In added two more screens over the ensuing decades, with space for around 1,000 cars, one of the larger outdoor theaters in Illinois.
The Bel-Air Drive-In typically screened double-features, and was one of only a few drive-ins in the US to feature two-sided screens, enabling the theater to show two different double bills at once.
Last operated by Loews Cineplex, the Bel-Air Drive-In has been closed since 1999.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Quote from The Chicago Sun-Times
Business briefs
December 15, 2006
Retail planned for Cicero site
Cicero trustees have approved plans for a Wal-Mart store and a Lowe’s Home Improvement store to be built near 31st Street and Cicero Avenue, at the site of a former drive-in movie theater, the Bel-Air, said a spokesman for the developer, Monroe Investment Partners of Chicago. Prior to the Bel-Air drive-in, the property was used as a landfill and a quarry. The 217,000-square-foot Wal-Mart and the 150,000-square-foot Lowe’s stores are expected to open at the end of 2007 or in early 2008. The site will be difficult to develop because a berm circling the drive-in, standing as high as 70 feet in some places, must be taken down, the developer’s spokesman said. The property is about two blocks from the old Sportsman’s Park racetrack, an 80-acre site the town wants to develop into a lifestyle shopping center.
View link
Pictures and more at http://www.drive-ins.com/theater/iltbela
Sadly, I saw some cranes and other equipment when I drove past the area last week. I suspect they’re getting ready to tear it down. And so dies another historic site. :–(
They want to build a walmart there eh, what a shocker. I found the Bel-Air site on Google maps street view, the screens are definitely gone, bummer. That two sided screen was a very cool concept. There was also one in Indy (gone) called the Theatair Twin and the Admiral Twin in Tulsa, which is still open. Ron/michigandriveins.com
The Bel-Air was great. You never could get the frequency on the radio, so you had to use the speakers. The last film we saw at The Bel-Air was Pet Cemetary. I always remember that at about 10:15 they’d interrupt you with the annoucement that the consession stand is closing in 15 minutes, and that means the restrooms will be closed too. One young man was cute one night and said “So if you need to use the restroom, go now or forever hold your pees”
So, Wal-Mart eh? Not a place I would ever shop, not even for the $4 prescriptions.
Here is an aerial shot from 1972.
Here is a 1986 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/carges
Google map shows the remains of this Loews-Cineplex Bel-Air Drive-in.
This may has been opened in 1956. The 1951 aerial shows empty land.
My first experience at the Bel Air drive in was in 1966. My parents bought their first and only brand new car— a 1966 Ford Country Sedan station wagon. All us kids piled in the wagon and went to the Bel Air- I still remember the movies: Munsters Go Home, and The Ghost and Mr. Chicken… :o)