Athens Drive-In

The famous theatre painter Davis Cone painted this Drive-in and it is in his book. It parked 450 cars and it was owned by Publix Theatres in the late 50’s. I remember it because it was close to GEORGIA SQUARE MALL where i worked for GCC. At that time it was a Georgia Theatre playing typical second run movies like “BLAZING STEWARTRESS” and “NAUGHTY STEWARTRESS” soft core R rated features.
Time I got up to Athens the Drive-in was gone and a car lot was there. On at ATLANTA HIGHWAY heading towards HOTLANTA!

3190 Atlanta Hwy, Athens, GA 30606

The above address will map accurately to the location of the drive-in, which is now occupied by a shopping plaza.

Here is a USGS topo map which notes the location of the drive-in, courtesy of MSRMaps.com.

One of the pictures on its gallery page at Drive-ins.com confirms the showing of the films Mike mentioned in his comment above: http://www.drive-ins.com/gallery/gatathe

In 1980 this place was in a very run down condition and was run by Georgia Theater Company. When the Atlanta City Manager moved out of Lenox Square Theater and into the company HQ to be the new GM, he left behind a lot of paperwork that I had the pleasure of reading through.

One that I recall was a report he did on this theater. Everything from the dirty bathrooms to the peeling paint, lack of working speakers, uncut grass, and messy storerooms got a mention. The last line of the report sticks in my mind as he called it the dirtiest, most run down theater he had ever been involved with.

He included a long list of repairs and improvements that were needed to get the place into respectable condition, but I do not know if they were ever done. GTC was pretty conservative when it came to spending money on everyday necessities so they might have decided this location was not worth it.

The May 14, 1949 issue of Boxoffice said that the Georgia Theatre Company’s 350-car Athens Drive-In had been opened on a 50-acre site. It was the first Drive-In theater in Athens.