Shore Drive-In
4640 Shore Drive,
Virginia Beach,
VA
23445
4640 Shore Drive,
Virginia Beach,
VA
23445
3 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Architects: Israel Slutzky, Orville A. Slutzky
Firms: I. & O.A. Slutzky
Nearby Theaters
This one screen drive-in was located at Shore Drive in Virginia Beach, close to Bayside. It was a part of Price Enterprises who a owned majority of all the drive-ins in the Tidewater region. The Shore Drive-In was opened on June 14, 1956 by Visulite Theatres, with a capacity for 900 cars. The opening movies were John Lund in “Battle Stations” & Burt Lancaster in “The Kentuckian”. An unusual feature was the location of the concession building, which rather than being at or near the center of the site, was placed at one end. The building had an outdoor patio area with tables. There was a children’s playground with swings and slides.
My dad Charles used to work as a projectionist here. One night while checking out a broken speaker box, a swarm of yellow jackets flew out and stung the crap out of him.
It closed in 1983. Today condos sit where it used to be.
Contributed by
Adrian Everett
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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
It had an interesting history. Ernie Price, owner of the chain, had had troubles with the law for showing X-rated movies there, but in 1982 became a born-again Christian; he closed all his drive-ins except this one, which he turned into a Christian/family drive-in called the Cross Roads. It wasn’t successful.
This page has some cool B&W photos of the Shore from the mid-‘50s:
http://www.driveins.org/va-virginiabeach-shore.htm
Very Nice photos cool looking place.
I practically lived there on the weekends. My dad worked as a Projectionist there and at The Twin on Baxter Rd. and The Suburban Theater in Norfolk formerly located at Wards Corner now occupied by a recently built Harris Teeter.
An article about the Shore Drive-In appeared in Boxoffice of November 3, 1956. The project was designed and built by I. & O. A. Slutzky, contractors and engineers. Brothers Israel and Orville A. Slutzky founded their company in 1939, and designed and built a wide array of projects, including a number of drive-in theaters.
By process of elimination, I believe this drive-in was featured in a pivotal scene in Umberto Lenzi’s 1989 kidnap thriller HITCHER IN THE DARK with Josie Bissett, which was shot around the Virginia Beach area. Amusingly enough, during the scene, the movie being screened is the Italian caveman comedy GRUNT, which to the best of my knowledge, never actually got a U.S. release.
The Shore Drive-In opened on June 14th, 1956, with “Battle Stations” and “The Kentuckian”
Shore Drive-In opening 14 Jun 1956, Thu The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Virginia) Newspapers.com