Comments from newtonlakekid

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newtonlakekid
newtonlakekid commented about Ideal Drive-In on Jan 5, 2021 at 8:33 pm

I grew up at Newton Lake in the 1970s and ‘80s and remember hearing about the drive-in but I wasn’t born when it was open. I remember sort of being able to see it driving past on the highway and riding my bike to explore the “ruins” - cracked asphalt, concession building, and poles for the speakers, overgrown with blueberry bushes that grew all around the area. I haven’t been back for many years but believe all traces are long gone. I bought some paraphernalia from this drive-in on ebay this past year.

newtonlakekid
newtonlakekid commented about Ideal Drive-In on Jan 5, 2021 at 8:24 pm

In March 1961, during a severe winter storm, the ice-covered screen collapsed and blew onto the roof of a garage on a neighbor’s lot, destroying an antique car inside. Owners Anthony and Joseph Cerra valued the screen at $15,000 (about $130,500 in 2021). For a few months in the summer of ‘61, they turned the drive-in grounds into a go-kart course but then closed and never re-opened. The last movie shown was “Psycho” in October 1960. - from articles and ads in The Scranton Times and The Scrantonian found on Newspapers.com