66 Drive-In
5900 S. LaGrange Road,
Countryside,
IL
60525
5900 S. LaGrange Road,
Countryside,
IL
60525
4 people
favorited this theater
The single-screen 66 Drive-In opened on May 28, 1948 with Yvonne De Carlo in “Casbah”. The drive-in was located off LaGrange Road, near Route 66(Joliet Road), in what was originally part of LaGrange, but has since 1960 been part of Countryside.
It closed after the 1976 season, and was afterward torn down to make way for the Countryside Plaza shopping center.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 10 comments)
This has to be the drive-in we frequented in the 1950s when we were in high school, but, as I recall, its name was the 66 Drive-In Theater, probably so named because US 66 crossed LaGrange Road maybe a mile – if even that far – south of the theater’s location. Many of the occupants of cars in the back rows of the drive-in never seemed to be too interested on what was going on on the screen.
Definitely 66 Drive-In … I lived next to it for 9 years. It was more like a few hundred feet north of the old Route 66
1962 View
May 28th, 1948 grand opening ad has been posted here.
Most amusing were the newspaper ads about the “shocking” triple features, with such phrases as “the birth of a baby before your eyes” or “nurses in attendance” or “armed guards will check IDs for age.” (Sadly, this was before I lived in the area and could see the screen from my condo balcony.)
The newer Quarry Theater is just south of were this theater was. Surprised the Quarry wsn’t named Rt66 Theater since it’s right off route 66.
My parents bought a house in Brookfield in 1947 (two story brick with basement for $12,500). I remember them taking my brother and me to see three movies here: Snows of Kilimanjaro, Moulin Rouge, and Come Back Little Sheba. Since the films were released in Dec 1952-March 1953 I assume we saw them in the summer of 1953. The names may have stuck with me because each film title contained an unusual word.
The “Sixty-Six” first appeared in the Film Daily Year Book in the 1949 edition under nearby La Grange.
The Motion Picture Almanac listed the 66 under LaGrange, then Lyons Township, then La Grange. MPA drive-in list appearances:
On May 10, 1965, Billboard wrote that General Cinema Corp. operated the 66 “at LaGrange.”
Billboard, Oct. 25, 1976: “The 66 Drive-In, which was owned by Western Outdoor Management, is being torn down to make way for a new shopping center.”
The 66 must have widened its screen in the 1953-54 offseason. Independent Film Journal, May 29. 1954: “The 66 Drive-In opened with a new panoramic screen and a free Kiddieland.”