Turnpike Drive-In
1970 Western Avenue,
Albany,
NY
12203
1970 Western Avenue,
Albany,
NY
12203
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The Turnpike Drive-In was located in the town of Guilderland on Western Avenue (US Route 20). It opened on August 29, 1952 with Mickey Rooney in “Sound Off” & Robert Cummings in “The Barefoot Mailman”. It had a capacity of 300 cars, and a playground area in front of the screen.
It was possibly closed on June 12, 1984 with Steve Guttenberg in “Police Academy” & Kevin Bacon in “Footloose”. A housing development was built on the site.
Contributed by
Gregg Davenport
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Recent comments (view all 11 comments)
Or maybe a no-print!
It was just really strange,Albany,is pretty good size city.
PLEASE CHANGE ADDRESS TO:
WESTERN AVENUE & ARLENE AVENUE.
Albany is not really a large city geographically so all the drive-ins are and were located outside the city limits. The closest ones still operating are the Jericho in Glenmont, Malta in Malta and the Hollywood in Averill Park. The long gone ones include the Tri-City Twin in Menands,Latham in Latham, Mohawk in Colonie, Carmen in Guilderland, Auto-Vision in East Greenbush, Super 50 in Glenville, and Indian Ladder in New Scotland, as well as the Turnpike. This list is far from complete, but includes the ones I went to as a youngster.
The Turnpike was not located at Arlene Av., which runs north from Western Avenue. The drive-in was on the south side of Western Av., and what was the entrance to the drive-in is now Highwood Circle.
Approx. address for this drive-in was 1970 Western Avenue.
Its former operator, John Gardner, was one of the owners of the Unadilla Drive-In when it opened in 1956.
Opened on 29/8/1952 with a cartoon(not named) and “Sound off” and “The barefoot mailman”.
Grand opening ad posted August 29th, 1952
Throughout the late-1970s and early-1980s, the Turnpike ran X-rated movies. Normal mainstream movies returned to the Turnpike at the start of the 1984 season, but this appeared to not last long at all. The Turnpike appears that it was last advertised on the Knickerbocker on June 12, 1984 with “Police Academy” and “Footloose”, but it was unknown if that’s final closure.