South City Drive-In
S. Broad Street and Hartranft Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19145
S. Broad Street and Hartranft Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19145
4 people
favorited this theater
It used to be on S. Broad Street at Hartranft Street to the north of Pattison Avenue, above the naval base, around where the sports complex now stands. The South City Drive-In was opened June 2, 1950 with Clifton Webb in “Cheaper by the Dozen”. It was operated by Charles Goldfine. In May 1958 it was taken over by Redstone Drive-In Theaters and closed in 1966. Demolished soon after to make way for the stadiums.
Contributed by
Joe Loverro
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Recent comments (view all 13 comments)
Approx. location for this drive-in was S Broad St & Hartranft St, Philadelphia, PA 19145.
It was demolished to make way for Veterans stadium the Phillies/Eagle stadium shich has since been demolished. It had a huge screen. I remember in 1966 they were playing Elvis Pressley Girl Girls Girls.
Ground breaking for Veterans Stadium was 10 April, 1967 so 1966 would have been the last year for the South City Drive-In.
The drive in was actually named the South Philadelphia drive-in
My first experience with PIX mosquito repellant. The films were “Imitation of Life” with Lana Turner and “Raisin in the Sun” with Sydney Poitier. I mostly slept in the back seat.
June 2nd, 1950 grand opening ad
All references in Film Daily Yearbook and International Motion Picture Almanac call this South City Drive-In. The grand opening ad indicates it was called South City Drive-In. The signage in the photo uploaded on the photo page also points toward this drive-in being called South City.
I Know that in 64 it was the South Phila Drive In. I remember as it was the only time I was at the theater. It would be interesting to see fi someone can find when it changed names. To my knowledge it was operated by George Hamid who operated all the Atlantic City theaters and built the Stadium theater across the street which is now demolished.
Boxoffice, May 12, 1958: “The 1,400-car South City Drive-In has been purchased by Redstone Drive-In Theatres of Boston.”
This was always, so far as I can tell, called the “South City” Drive-in. To the person vividly remembering otherwise, that’s probably just what you referred to it in the vernacular. The grand opening advertisement is in the photos here as “South City,” and it’s also listed that way for the 1965 Beatles features.