Northeast Expressway Drive-In

3200 Atlanta Silverbacks Way,
Chamblee, GA 30340

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Showing 1 - 25 of 28 comments

davidcoppock
davidcoppock on May 31, 2019 at 9:55 am

Opened as a twin with on screen 1 with “Frogs” and “Bug” and screen 2 with “Live and let die” and “The man with the golden gun”.

rivest266
rivest266 on April 8, 2018 at 4:06 pm

2 screens opening on June 6th, 1975. Another ad posted.

rivest266
rivest266 on April 6, 2018 at 7:05 pm

This opened on September 11th, 1963. Grand opening ad in the photo section.

jwmovies
jwmovies on October 30, 2012 at 7:56 pm

Approx. address is now 3200 Atlanta Silverbacks Way, Atlanta, GA 30340. Was 4175 Northeast Expressway, Chamblee, GA 30340.

Cliff Carson
Cliff Carson on June 10, 2011 at 4:39 am

This was a neighborhood Drive-In theatre. If I had known it was going to be torn down I would have taken pictures. I moved to Los Angeles and when I came back it was torn down. Of all the Drive In Movie theaters I’ve been to in my life, and I’ve been to alot, this was by far my favorite. There was something magical about that little dead end road that one had to drive down to get to this Drive-In. Sad looking back at that era that is no longer and the people that were around then that are no longer around now. The warm spring and summer nights with all that dreaming. The memories I have at the N.E. Expressway Drive-In are all good memories. It was another life then and another me. I tell myself not to look back. It drags at your heart till you can’t do anything but look back.

Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers on June 5, 2011 at 1:17 pm

Yes, I guess they were important since it doesn’t look like many were taken after it closed.I wish I would have had more film in the camera,but when I saw it from 285 i knew i had to get down there.Wish I would have had more time to grab a lot of the paper work on the floor.

Cliff Carson
Cliff Carson on May 2, 2011 at 11:43 pm

NO Mike, BOTH pictures were equally important. I compared both of them last night. It was fascinating.
latest edit [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1ePhtYEFwQ[/url]

Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers on May 2, 2011 at 11:34 pm

That is a far cry from the pictures I took after it had closed.Glad Clifford got to see Alonzo' Pictures.

StanMalone
StanMalone on May 2, 2011 at 7:59 pm

Thanks for those great pictures Alonzo. They really bring back some good memories. From the look of them they might be from opening day. The interchange in the background does not look very heavily developed, and the overhead shot shows the field extending only to the point of the concession stand. When I first attended a movie here in 1971, the field extended a good ways further back. I also did not know that there was a picnic area on top of the concession stand. I can say for certain that it was not there in 1974 when I first worked here.

The shot of the marquee is nice, but in later years a second marquee was added underneath and was used to list coming attractions. Looking under the marquee and at the picture with the truck, it is easy to see that the house for the manager was located in the screen structure. It was a very nice, good sized house, but the screen area was so big there was plenty of room in the left side for a speaker repair shop and yard equipment storage. Look closely and you will see that you could just walk in the front door from lot level. Also notice that the truck is sitting on a bridge. In the early 70’s the creek under the bridge rose out of its banks and flooded the house and boxoffice. To protect the managers house, a wall was built around the front entrance up to the window level.

That worked well until March 25th, 1975, when a much bigger flood washed over the wall and through the windows, once again flooding the manager out. This was an especially cruel twist of fate in that the managers house from the recently closed Bolton Drive In had been moved onto the back corner of the lot and within a week would have been ready for the manager to move to higher ground. The manager, Mr. Lewis Vickery, took it all in stride.

It was during this time that construction was underway to twin the place by regrading the back half of the lot so the ramps faced south. Again, the lot would have been repaved in another week, but when the water receded it took most of the new ramps with it. The twinning was eventually finished and this was the way the place looked until about 1982 or so. Then, the I-285 / I-85 interchange was rebuilt and greatly expanded. This expansion took out the access road, the bridge, the marquee, boxoffice, entrance, and then entire screen complex. A smaller steel frame screen was built much closer to the projection booth and a new box office and entrance was built at the end of a new access road cut from Northcrest Road.

Also at this time a steel storage building was built between the concession stand and the managers house to house Georgia Theatre Company archives. In the late 80’s, after GTC had sold itself out to United Artists Theatres, I heard that all of that material had been scooped into the dumpster when UA closed all of the drive ins. I am glad to see that Alonzo has managed to find a few images from some of these places that I enjoyed working in during the days when theatre work could be a pleasure as well as a job.

Cliff Carson
Cliff Carson on April 30, 2011 at 3:37 am

I absolutely LOVE these photographs. Thank you Alonzo Jeter
http://cliffcarson.com

NYozoner
NYozoner on February 2, 2011 at 3:59 pm

Looks like the drive-in site is now occupied by a soccer field. The name of the new road that leads to the former drive-in site is:

Atlanta Silverbacks Way, Chamblee, GA 30340

Here is a 1968 aerial photo of the drive-in, courtesy of HistoricAerials.com.

Cliff Carson
Cliff Carson on August 9, 2010 at 3:29 pm

I love it. Thanks for posting that pic. N. E. Expressway Drive In IS and always will by MY Drive In. Forever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H56VUwZU88M

TLSLOEWS
TLSLOEWS on August 9, 2010 at 1:03 pm

Thanks for the aerial Alonzo.

jeterga
jeterga on August 9, 2010 at 11:15 am

Here a aerial view of the old drive-in.

View link

Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers on May 17, 2010 at 2:09 pm

My address is still on the CApri Theatre {Augusta] just drop me a line when you ever read this and i will mail the MOONLIT pictures to you.

Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers on April 9, 2010 at 7:45 pm

You are still on Almont Drive? want to send the Moonlit Drive-in pictures to the right place out west.

Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers on April 9, 2010 at 7:33 pm

I wish so much the Screen would have been up , but hopefully with the pictures and your memory he should do fine. You are a dang good artist.

Cliff Carson
Cliff Carson on April 4, 2010 at 11:55 pm

Mike, I’m just getting this message on Easter. Thank you for the compliment. I hope to one day capture the N.E. Expressway Drive In on canvas, if I can ever get a decent picture of it. I love the pictures you sent me. Thank you.

Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers on March 14, 2010 at 6:03 pm

Clifford,I just saw some of your art work and it was great.You certainly have a real talent!

Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers on January 15, 2010 at 6:17 pm

I haven’t gotten any pictures yet.I wish the box office had been up ,but sadly it was bulldozed down,I was heading back to Augusta when i spotted the EXPRESSWAY and had to exit.I do this alot,but on interstates you just don’t see a lot of Drive-ins.
I did take some of the MOONLIT in Conyers,Ga. Other side of Atlanta.Be glad to make copies.It is on CT. I have a friend, Nick he has written some great stuff on the Hillsboro Drive in in TAMPA,and he is currently,{and i don’t know how he has the time} doing a write up on every Drive-in,in Tampa.HE spends Hours in research.

Cliff Carson
Cliff Carson on January 10, 2010 at 1:39 am

Tell me, did I send you those pictures that Tommy Holcombe sent me of the N.E. THEATRE?

Cliff Carson
Cliff Carson on January 8, 2010 at 9:10 pm

Mike, I got the pictures and they’re WONDERFUL! Thank you very much. One I have as the wallpaper for my computer. I liked all of them. The one that was the hardest to look at was the one you took of the blanketed Drive In concrete with the Screen Tower gone and the freeway in the distance. That was tough to look at. Seriously. Why wasn’t I there for this? I was in Los Angeles when both this Drive In was taken down and the North 85 too. That picture of the fans by the marquee was hard to look at too. I wish I had been there and I wish I had met them. Strange, I thought I was the only one who loved that Drive In? Too bad there wasn’t a better movie running on it’s last night. It would have been great if they had showed a classic film rather than a current one. The fact that they let everyone in for free was sad too. Even thinking about it now makes me sad. I don’t know why.

Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers on December 19, 2009 at 3:23 pm

I saw SSSSSSS at the MILLER theatre I bet we are the only two people that have any idea what the movie was about;unless they look it up in a filmbook.