Victory Drive-In
Victory Drive and Leslie Drive,
Columbus,
GA
31903
Victory Drive and Leslie Drive,
Columbus,
GA
31903
1 person
favorited this theater
The Victory Drive-In was opened on March 28, 1952 with Robert Ryan in “Best of the Badmen”. Parking 300 cars, it was independently owned by H.P. Rhodes, in a city controlled by Martin Theatres. I bet it was an uphill battle with Martin theatres probably controlling a lot of the product. From 1972 until it closed in 1976 it screened adult movies.
For a while it operated as a flea market, then stood vacant for many years until it was eventually demolished around 2022.
Contributed by
MikeRogers
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Any extra info would be great.
Victory Dr & Leslie Dr, Columbus, GA 31903
The above address will map accurately to the location of the drive-in, which is visible on Google Earth using historic aerial imagery.
Here is a 1968 aerial photo of the drive-in, courtesy of Earth Explorer and USGS.
It’s used as a flea market now you can tell it used to me a theatre but the screen is gone
This opened on March 28th, 1952 and closed in 1976. Adult movies from 1972 until it closed.
The Victory Drive-In was originally supposed to be a Georgia Theatre Company drive-in due to the fact that a September 1951 article shows that they were building the 554-car Victory Drive-In on that same exact spot. It was originally planned to be open by Thanksgiving 1951 but that was scrapped for unknown reasons.
The Victory opened its gates by H.P. Rhodes on March 28, 1952 with “Best Of The Badmen” along with three cartoons that were listed in a weird order: an unnamed Bugs Bunny cartoon, the Barney Bear cartoon “Goggle Fishing Bear”, and another cartoon simply named “Three Bears” (I first thought it was either “Bear Feat” or “A Bear For Punishment”, but it could be several others too; right now its currently unknown at this time).
The Victory Drive-In last operated as an adult drive-in from 1972 until closing in 1976.
Its life as a flea market after closing in 1976 seems short-lived. While it looks like a flea market in 1981, by 1986 the property was empty with only the projection booth remaining.
After that, the property quickly became overgrown with trees which lasted until at least 2021.
Afterward, the entire property was razed and a housing edition is being constructed.