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Another Drive-In Drives Off Into The Sunset
posted by
Ross Melnick
on
April 19, 2005 at 4:19 am
CHURCHVILLE, MD — From a high of 47 in 1958 to a total of one today — that is the current state of the drive-in theater in Maryland following the announcement of the closure of the 53 year-old Bel Air Drive-In. According to the Baltimore Sun, patronage had fallen off dramatically and its operators could no longer afford the rent.
To read (and see) more about the end of the Bel Air, visit WBAL-TV, Channel 11 Baltimore’s website. For a forum about drive-ins and a survey about your own drive-in patronage (or lack thereof), visit our weekly poll.
For more information on drive-ins, check out Kipp and Jennifer Sherer’s wonderful website, drive-ins.com. [Editor’s note: I’ve been using it for years to visit drive-ins around the country.] Like our friends at CinemaTour and other sites, drive-ins.com is part of a growing community of like-minded enthusiasts, preservationists and fans. For more drive-in related websites, visit our drive-in theater links.
As the Bel-Air goes dark, perhaps forever, it offers another reminder of how quickly decades of memories can be extinguished. Here today, gone tomorrow. It’s another reason to pay homage to your favorite theaters with your good wishes and your attendance.
(Thank you to Edward Lopez who alerted us to this story.)
Comments (1)
It is sad to see another one go, but what can one do? You cannot force people to come see your product. I just cannot understand how people preffer to sit in crackerbox theatres with 60 seats, and can hear everything in the 2 adjoining theatres, and would rather do that than to go to a wide open Drive-in. Where you get 2 movies for the price of one, plus you can take your own food, and drinks with you. A sad day.
Dave Grau (Mungo)
Norelco