Grand River Drive-In
30200 Grand River Avenue,
Farmington,
MI
48336
30200 Grand River Avenue,
Farmington,
MI
48336
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The Grand River Drive-In opened April 15, 1949 with Rod Cameron in “The Plunderers”. It was a single screen theatre with a capacity for 750 cars. Two more screens were later added, giving a car capacity for 1,100. It was closed on July 20, 1988.
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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
The Grand River Drive in was run by the Goldberg family’s Community theatres chain. I had my first job at the Grand River DI, at which I failed misrably!
April 15th, 1949 grand opening ad in photo section.
West River shopping center now on this site (Target, etc.), including the Riviera theater.
This popular and well-attended drive-in was the only one near Detroit that never installed in-car heaters for year-round operation. It would be open from March to after Thanksgiving, but you were on your own to keep warm on cold nights. Most odd was that after the Town Drive-in closed in 1962, the Grand River was heavily marketed as the Town’s replacement (“The Grand River - Town”) but why didn’t they take the Town’s heaters and install them at the Grand River? Considering the next drive-ins “westward” were the Walake and the Lakes, they were closed all winter too, so it seemed like a missed opportunity.
Closed on July 20, 1988 with the following in screen order: “Coming To America” and “Eddie Murphy Raw” in Screen 1, “Phantasm II” and “Red Heat” in Screen 2, and “Arthur 2: On The Rocks” and “Bull Durham” in Screen 3.
Opened on 15th April 1949 with news, 2 colour cartoons(not named?), a 3 Stooges comedy(not named?), and “The Plunderers”.