South Expressway Drive-In 1 & 2

5300 Frontage Road,
Forest Park, GA 30297

900 cars

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: Georgia Theatre Company

Previous Names: South Expressway Drive-In

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The South Expressway Drive-In opened as a single screen on July 1, 1955 with Spencer Tracy in “Bad Day at Black Rock” & Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in “3 Ring Circus”. It held 1,000 cars and was operated by the Georgia Theatre Company. It’s been at least thirty years since I visited the South Expressway Drive-In 1 & 2 which sat right off 1-75 in Forest Park, GA. I remember the marquee clearly – it had a big illuminated interstate shield sign that read “South 75” (much like the big “North 85” shield that graced the North 85 Twin in Chamblee, GA).

The ticket booth was much like the one at Atlanta’s Starlite Drive-In. Back then you could get boxes of popcorn as you paid admission at the ticket booth. The concession stand was a low rectangular building with big windows and a play ground with monkey bars and a whirly-round on the side. There were two huge screens that sat at 90 degree angles from the projection booth / concession stand and the entire area was surrounded by woods (not anymore). It had a 900 car capacity.

I saw some great movies there. Now the land is home to several large outlet stores.

Contributed by C. Martin Croker

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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)

StanMalone on May 26, 2009 at 4:08 pm

Link to the Drive In ladder ad in the Atlanta paper on August 5, 1964. The blogger has also written up some of his memories of working at these places. Worth a look if you are interested in the drive in culture from 1970 – 1990.

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NYozoner on February 3, 2011 at 2:43 pm

The title of this listing should be “South Expressway Drive-In.” At the very least, the words “drive-in” should be mentioned in the title.

Here is a 1960 aerial photo of the drive-in, courtesy of HistoricAerials.com.

JBrantley on October 16, 2011 at 3:49 pm

It is interesting to know that after PACE, a Sam’s Club and Costco type store, demolished the South Expressway, you could walk over to the the end of the parking lot and still see part of the drive-in that had not yet been demolished.

jwmovies on December 3, 2012 at 3:42 pm

Approx. address for this drive-in is now 5300 Frontage Rd. Used to be i-75 and Kennedy. Now Grainger and other businesses.