I have many fond memories of the Peoria Drive-In that was located on Glen Avenue midway between University and War Memorial Drive.
When I was a teenager, we used to climb the back fence and go up and watch the movies on the swing sets in Kiddie Land while smoking cigarettes and drinking Cokes from the concession stand with my friends.
Sadly, I don’t have any personal photos of the outside theater but below are some photos of the drive-in and some artifacts that I found online.
There’s also a video of the history of drive-in movies and of course a relaxing intermission until tomorrow’s post. Enjoy!
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THE PEORIA DRIVE-IN THEATRE
Here’s the newspaper announcement of the grand opening in 1946. It was the first drive-in theatre in Peoria and it wasn’t yet called, Peoria Drive-In, just the generic, Drive-In Theatre! It was built, owned and operated by Ralph and Marie Lawler.
In the ’60’s they sold the drive-in to the Kerasotes chain.
The drive-in closed after a fire burned the legendary theatre to the ground in 1989 and a chunk of Peoria movie history was gone for good.
Here’s a photo of the grand entrance to the Peoria Drive-In Theatre in living color.
Here’s two black and white photos of the iconic Peoria theatre.
Here’s three vintage ads from the PJ Star’s movie section back in the day.
I thought this was a cool find, a window speaker from the Peoria Drive-In!
Dean Muellerieile wrote a nice column about the history of drive-in theaters in Peoria in this 2023, “Ask Dean” column in the PJ Star.
Here’s a fun, mini-documentary about the drive-in theaters in America.
And now, a tasty intermission!
We’ll see you all tomorrow!
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Related Posts: Meanwhile, Back In Peoria’s Past: Sam Kinison, Dan Fogelberg and Santa at the Northwoods Mall.