Old Theaters
posted by
DaveGrau
on
August 13, 2004 at 1:48 pm
PITTSBURGH, PA — Does anyone out there remember the Fairgrounds Drive-In Outside of South Park in Pittsburgh.? I also would like to know how many of us got the chance to work one of the old theaters with what seemed like 900 steps going up to the booth?
God, do I miss those theaters. I remember the Stanley in Pittsburgh, Pa. was like going on a mountain climbing crusade, same with the Warner. Oh how the ushers hated us, when they had to carry film up to us. I would gladly do it again.
Comments (1)
I don’t remember the South Park drive-in, but I did go to the Rt.30 Twin Drive-In in North Versailles when I first started college in the 70’s. The site is now the Wal-Mart in North Versailles.
The drive-in was on top of a hill overlooking Rt. 30 and the Turtle Creek valley. Sometimes the most interesting thing was not what was going on on-screen but rather in the steel mills in Braddock and rest of the Mon valley. Whenever they would do a “burn” at what I assume was E.T. (Edgar Thompson Works of U.S. Steel) the whole sky would glow orange for maybe 20 minutes. It certainly dragged your attention away from the screen, but I never seemed to mind because the unearthly glow lighting up the sky was beautiful. Well, the steel mills are all torn down or operating as mere ghosts of their former selves but that wonderful orange glow in the sky is something I’ll never forget.