Joliet, IL: Hill-Top Drive-In Movie Theater

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I parked the van next to the right side of the screen building to provide scale. As you can see on the right, they could handle two lines of cars entering for the show.

My parents were not movie goers, so I barely remember going to a drive-in theater. But one thing I do remember is there was a speaker stand next to the car. The two stands in the foreground still have their speaker hooks.

I walked behind the last row to get an overview. The building closest to the screen is original. It would have had a projection booth on the screen side and a concession stand on the car side. They have added some more buildings. I wonder if they host flea markets now?

Satellite

I remember the projection/concession building being closer to the screen and the cars parked closer. A satellite image shows I correctly remember the classical design. The satellite image shows they quit using the close rows and moved everything back further. It also shows that the "flea market" buildings are a rather recent addition. Also, the trees on the south end have been removed and a soccer field has been installed.

A closeup of a speaker stand that has its dome missing so that you can see some of the wires that are still left as well as the hooks that held the speakers. If I remember correctly, you took the speaker off the hook and hung it off your partially rolled down window. I do remember that cars were not air conditioned back then. (Speaking of rolling down the window to hook something on it, that was also done with food trays. Drive-in restaurants were probably more common than drive-in movie theaters back in the 1950s. One of the revolutions of McDonalds, besides the shake machine and pre-cooked food, was reducing labor costs by forcing the people to get out of their car to get their food.)

As I walked back to the van, I turned around and took this view. The north goal net for the soccer field is on the right.

This is a closeup of the left side of the projection/concessions building so that you can see the holes through which the movie was projected.

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Here is what it would have looked like in better days.

Jimmy JoeCool D'Ambrosia posted

Route 66 Drive-In

5900 S. LaGrange Road, Countryside, IL 60525.

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.

Aaron Grace shared