Bel-Air Drive-In
1117 E. Chain of Rocks Road,
Mitchell,
IL
62040
1117 E. Chain of Rocks Road,
Mitchell,
IL
62040
2 people
favorited this theater
The Bel-Air opened in the mid-1950’s as a single-screen drive-in, situated off the historic Route 66. It was originally part of the Mid-America Theatres chain, based in St. Louis. In the 1970’s, a second screen was built. At one time, the Bel-Air Drive-In could accomodate about 700 cars.
Its concession building also housed a tiny indoor seating area, with a large picture window, for when the weather was bad (since it was originally open year-round).
BAC Theatres ran the drive-in from 1982 until it closed in 1987. The Bel-Air Drive-In was completely demolished by the mid-1990’s except for its colorful and classy marquee (a large, bright red bell is behind the name of the drive-in), still in fairly good shape (except for the “R” in the “Air” part of the theater’s name is missing).
An industrial park is being constructed on the site of the Bel-Air Drive-In.
Contributed by
Bryan
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Recent comments (view all 20 comments)
I don’t if this means anything but notice in this photo that there is no hyphen in the word drive-in either.
That photo looks familiar.
Are you saying that it’s already been posted?
On 11/29/07.
Sorry about that. I thought I clicked on all of the links.
It was hidden under another one. No worries.
Venue operated from 1953 to 1986. The second screen was added in 1979.
There is a snall article on the Bel-Air and photo, second photo down from the top here
Saw a war movie here that took place in the Vietnam era. Very violent. A guy was walking down a path and a tree stump with spikes came out of a tree and impaled him. LOL Far out.Wish I could remember the name of the movie. Also saw the Dick Van Dyke flick “Cold Turkey”.
That Vietnam movie sounds like “The Green Berets” with John Wayne. Jim Hutton met his demise in the fashion described.