Tacony-Palmyra Bridge Drive-In
201 New Jersey 73,
Palmyra,
NJ
08065
201 New Jersey 73,
Palmyra,
NJ
08065
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Although the overhead Google view shows the drive-in still basically intact minus the screens, there has been some major construction done on the site.
A October 2019 Google Street view at the entrance shows a sign indicating that the flea market closed permanently.
A October 2022 Google Street view shows a large building being constructed next to the entrance roads which have been cut off from the rest of the property. It’s difficult to see if the new building is large enough to cover part of the drive-in itself, but access to that part of the property is currently unavailable.
Closed after the 1989 season.
First drive-in theatre(or theatre even?) with a turnstyle in the snack bar(i think?)!!
Opened with “Tuna clipper ship”, “Men in war” and “Flying leathernecks”.
April 24th, 1957 grand opening ad in photo section. Opened with one screen.
Status needs to be updated to 2 screens and a twin. If you look closely at the newspaper add you’ll see it was a twin.
No Ken, the Tacony-Palmyra bridge toll is no longer a nickel. It’s free to cross the bridge to New Jersey but it’ll cost $2 to get back to Pennsylvania.
The address for the Tacony-Palmyra Flea Market is 201 New Jersey 73.
The bridge was free on Christmas Eve, 1972, when I was coming back to NJ after running a show @ the FOX Levittown on US 1.
I always got a kick about the two drive-in’s on RT. 73 being so close to each other. I used to ride around thinking that there were too many drive-in’s! That changed reel fast around 1983 – 87.
I remember the Tacony-Palmyra Drive-In being open in the mid-1950’s – in fact, I can still remember the marquee posting the Ava Gardner picture ‘The Barefoot Contessa’, which was released in 1954.
Living in NE Philly, we’d come across the bridge for a nickel!
Renewing link.
Per the Inquirer, the cleanup has been finished and the flea market reopened last weekend.
Saw “Birdman of Alcatraz” here in the summer of 1962.
“How much for that empty shell? I’ll give you two dollars”.
The flea market was shut down last month after an unexpected hazard was discovered: WWII-vintage shells buried on the site. Turns out the Army used the site for testing during the war, including lobbing howitzer shells from Philadelphia across the Delaware River to land in Palmyra. Philadelphia Inquirer story here and a small picture from 1985 here.
The story says the drive-in opened in 1957 and closed in 1986.
“Red and Blue” was not the theater’s name, but I think the two screens were designated as the “red” screen and the “blue” screen.
The marquee in the flea market picture is not the one that was visible from Route 73 when the theater was in operation; it looks like it is set up inside the entrance, and may have been used to direct customers to their desired screen.
This was a National Amusements drive-in; their other drive-ins in South Jersey were the Starlite in Gloucester City and the Atco in Atco. In the ‘80s or '90s they were planning an indoor multiplex for this site but never did build it.
It may have been a twin. That site also notes an aka of Red and Blue Drive-In.
The first picture in this collection shows a marquee, but I have mu doubts as to whether it was ever used by the drive-in:
http://tinyurl.com/yo88ux