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Opened as the E-I Drive-In on May 1, 1953 with Piper Laurie in “Has Anybody Seen My Gal”. It had been renamed Charleston Drive-In by 1955.

1953 3D PRESENTATION

3-D Film Archive, LLC - Writes - In mid-July 1953, encouraged by the success of his first 3-D release SIDE STREETS OF HOLLYWOOD, Dan Sonney and producer Willis Kent recruited Jack Mann and his stock company of burlesque performers.

They included George “Beetlepuss” Lewis, Charlie Crafts, Wilma Wescot, Dorothy Burke, Corky Marshall and dancers Mickey Harris and Syra aka Miss Switzerland. Five three-dimensional shorts were filmed on the stage of the New Follies Theatre in Los Angeles: A COCKTAIL AT SLOPPY JOE’S, IN YOUR HAT, I’LL SELL MY SHIRT, SKID ROW HOLDUP and A SWISS FAN DANCE.

Confined to two sets, these vaudeville-style films were photographed by veteran cinematographer William C. Thompson. An unknown camera rig was used with an enormously high interaxial (estimated at 3-4" IA by Greg Kintz) and even worse, the left/right camera shutters were not interlocked. As a result, many of the segments are virtually unwatchable in 3-D with VERY severe phasing issues.

On top of that technical disaster, the anaglyphic shorts went into release just as 3-D movies began to decline at the box-office.

The only confirmed booking of I’LL SELL MY SHIRT and IN YOUR HAT (with LOVE FOR SALE, originally released on June 22, 1953) began seventy years ago on October 19 – 21,1953 at the E-I Drive-In Theatre in Mattoon, Illinois.

Contributed by Greg Lynch -