Ridge Road Drive-In
444 W. Ridge Road,
Griffith,
IN
46319
444 W. Ridge Road,
Griffith,
IN
46319
1 person
favorited this theater
General Cinema opened the Ridge Road Drive-In on May 7, 1948 with Ginger Rogers in “It Had to be You”. It was located just one mile west of where GCC would build their first twin screen indoor theater in the area, Ridge Plaza. Ridge Road Drive-In was absolutely huge and could hold 1,200 cars. It’s large screen faced away from W. Ridge Road but the giant concrete wall with the name of the theater and the marquee that was built into it was quite an eye catcher.
The drive-in played a great mixture of films. One week would be a horror triple feature. One week was a Disney triple feature. One week was a biker triple feature. One thing RRDI did that neither the Hammond Drive-In or Y & W Drive-In did was show their main feature second.
General Cinema closed the drive-in in 1976 and was re-opened in 1977 by independent owners. With the drive-in business slipping and more indoor theaters opening the new owners bailed out after one season and soon after was torn down. By summer of 1978 a strip mall was being built and General Cinema would open Griffith Park Cinema in that very strip mall in 1979. A restaurant (which recently burned down) stood on the site where the screen and box office were.
Sadly, there is nothing to indicate a drive-in ever stood there.
Contributed by
John
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
Aerial photographs of the intersection of Ridge Road and Cline Avenue show Ridge Road Drive-In existing as early as 1950.
Correct! The main ad should have said early 1950’s instead of 1960’s.
The Ridge Road Drive In closed in October of 1977. Its final triple feature the week of 10/14 was “The Outlaw Josey Wales” plus “Joshua” plus “A Touch of Satin”.
Aerial photo uploaded here.
Approx. address for this drive-in was 444 West Ridge Road.
This opened as Drive-In on May 7th, 1948. Grand opening ad in the photo section.
According to the Feb. 16, 1970 issue of Boxoffice, a shopping center was planned for the old Ridge Road Drive-In site at the northeast corner of Ridge Road and Cline Avenue. Developers were going to move the drive-in north “near the Colonial Golf Center” to make room for the shopping center.
But a 1973 aerial photo showed a drive-in at the same place as in the 1951 photo, so never mind?