Whitestone Drive-In
2505 Bruckner Boulevard,
Bronx,
NY
10465
2505 Bruckner Boulevard,
Bronx,
NY
10465
6 people
favorited this theater
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Boxoffice, April 2, 1949: “Michael Redstone, operator of the Sunrise Highway Drive-In Theatre at Valley Stream, L. I., will build an 800 to 1,000-car drive-in in the east Bronx. This will be the second drive-in within the city limits. The Fabian circuit opened a 620-car drive-in on Staten Island last spring. Redstone’s new theatre will be built on a 22-acre site near the Bronx-Whitestone bridge. The property was bought last week”
Please update, theatre closed December 2, 1982 with Horror Planet, Creep Show, Hands of Lighting and Alone in The Dark. It was a twin as Blue and Red, never 3 screens. The Multiplex open October 28, 1983. A better improved grand opening ad in photos section and the name of the twins in the photos section.
1200 cars.
You’re so right about the odd bookings, Mike. As a 9-year old at the Whitestone, I recall a double-bill of Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid playing along with The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie. Also saw Steve McQueen in The Reivers, sort of a modern, comedic western along with The Go-Between, which was an English romance film.
I use to go there as a child. What happens is that the movies would start at dusk and there would still be a little bit of daylight left. They would show two features. They also had two screens so you would have a chose of movies. It was hard leaving the theater because there was always a traffic jam after the last movie. They even had a playground for the kids to play on.
Here is the Whitestone Drive in I hve…with all the cars lined up and the speakers….
Aerial photos and grand opening ads uploaded in the photo section for this drive-in.
“TRUE GRIT” and “THE LAWYER” what Double feature.Wonder about bookers at Drive-ins.They justed slapped stuff together it seems to me.
42nd Street,couple of those Double features were great.Those were the days.
Yes, the picture on the screen DOES look superimposed — but the lot is full of cars, which leads me to wonder if the entire thing was staged.
The picture on the screen looks superimposed.
There’s something very odd about that New York Times photo — it appears to have been taken during the day! How is that even possible??
The toll was 25 cents when the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge (as it is officially known) opened in 1939. I suspect it was still the same in 1951.
This lawsuit states that the drive-in had space for 1500 cars:
http://tinyurl.com/yktja5
Jan of 1968 the Bible at popular prices even included the Whitestone & Sunrise Drive-Ins.
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I too remember this drive-in. I moved to NYC in March ‘82 and when I would make frequent treks back to New England you could see this drive-in from either the Bruckner or Route 95. I am surprised that a drive-in theatre in the Bronx lasted as late as '83.
I lived in a four family house about a half mile from the Whitestone Drive-in (i952 to 1946). We had an unobstructed view of the screen from our bathroom and kitchen windows. We could see the film without sound of course. I remember that when Cinemascope was introduced the screen was added on to to allow for the new technology.
The back of the big screen, white with WHITESTONE DRIVE-IN in huge red letters, was a familiar landmark alongside the Hutch — even during all those years when the massive interchange construction project was going on. Seeing just another single-story building with a generic multiplex sign has never been the same.
At the bottom of the page is an ad for the Whitestone playing a double bill of “Salt & Pepper” and “Yours Mine & Ours”.
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See if the Bronx Historical Society has photos of the drive in.
When it opened as a multiplex in 1983, it was worth the trip from nearby Yonkers and I commend National Amusements for maintaining it so well that it doesn’t appear to have aged one day in 20 years. They added on two more screens years back and I think it’s mentioned in Sumner Redstone’s biography as being one of their top earning theaters. They were leery about building this theater because the the left over Bronx stigma from the 1970’s. Now literally every retailer in America sees the money to made in Da' Bronx. Another possible multiplex coming to Marble Hill at Broadway and West 233 Street.
Here’s a 1959 ad showing the Whitestone, Sunrise & Newark Drive-Ins.
That’s Steve Reeves GOLIATH & THE BARBARIANS at the Newark. Hard to read. Check out the FREE IN-CAR ELECTRIC HEATERS!
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My time at the Whitestone was in the late 60s-early 70s. Some of the double features that I saw then were:
Beneath the Valley of the Dolls/Chamber of Horrors
Bloody Mama/Wild in the Streets (AIP)
3 in the Attic/Chastity (AIP)
Cherry Harry & Requel/Good Morning and Goodbye (Russ Meyer)
Count Yorga Vampire/Crimson Cult (AIP)
El Condor/The Grasshopper
Fearless Vampire Killers/House of Dark Shadows
The AMbushers (Matt Helm)/Liberation of LB Jones
Night of Bloody Horror/Black Cat
Rosemary’s Baby/Sterile Cuckoo
True Grit/The Lawyer
Last time that I recall being there was 1974 for Golden Voyage of Sinbad. This time with my kids. j
As a kid (especially in the mid-1950s), I remember we used to go by this drive-in all the time, and I suspect that some of my drive-in memories are of this theater (although my more distinct memories are of drive-ins near relatives out on Long Island).
Actually, now that I think about it, I probably do have some memories of going to the Whitestone Drive-In with my relatives from the “old neighborhood” in the South Bronx, too — people whom I doubt would have gone out to the Island with us to a drive-in.
Perhaps the strongest memories of drive-ins that I have, though, are of the little playground area that they all seemed to invariably have, just in front of the screen, for the early (daylight) arrivals. I really looked forward to this part of the drive-in experience. In particular I associated a “kid powered” carousel-like piece of play equipment that I really liked with drive-ins. (Also, since the playgrounds were up front by the screen, maybe it was also fun because it was a way to get to see what it was like being up front and onstage?)
As a little kid, I also liked the excitement of getting out of the car and going to the bustling centrally located refreshment stand.
Drive-ins were a lot of fun. Somehow the fun of going to a drive-in reminds me of the fun of being driven around in a convertible with the top down. (This is something that I rarely got to do, as my family never owned a convertible.) It was just such a different and special “take” on an otherwise commonplace experience.
Movie Playing at Whitestone Bridge Drive-In
Original caption: 6/13/1951-New York: A general view of the Whitestone Bridge Drive-In Movie Theater. The theater, one of two in the Greater New York area, sprawls over 22 acres accomodating up to 1,200 cars. The screen is four times the size of an ordinary screen, and there are two projectors.Drive-in theaters are growing increasingly popular. Today there are 3,000 such theaters in the U.S., 800 more than there were just a year ago.
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Type whitestone drive in into the search box for 3 old photos.
Look at this picture from the 1940’s.
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