Weymouth Drive-In
729 Bridge Street,
Weymouth,
MA
02191
729 Bridge Street,
Weymouth,
MA
02191
4 people
favorited this theater
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Opened on May 28, 1936, the Weymouth Drive-In was the fifth to be built in America. It was located on the west side of Bridge Street (State Route 3A) just north of the bridge to Hingham. With a 600-car capacity, it drew patronage from Weymouth, Hingham and Quincy. It lasted until 1964 when it was demolished and a new twin-screen drive-in was built. Each screen had a capacity for 800 cars. It was closed in April 1976.
After demolition, a mall anchored by a K-Mart occupied the property; this was later demolished for a new mall anchored by a Lowes Home Improvement store.
Contributed by
Ron Salters
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Recent comments (view all 19 comments)
The poster described above dates from 1938.
When it changed to 2 screens it was completely rebuilt and re-oriented. You can see the changes on HistoricalAerials.com from 1955 to 1969.
Went to the Weymouth Drive-in many times coming up th 11 miles from Scituate. Yes it was the 5th Drive-in in the U.S. It was twinned in the early 60’s after the 1st screen blew down in a hurricane. Went with my family to see Jack Webbs Dragnet and there was a huge thunderstorm and the power went out i the whole area. Were issued rainchecks. Went to Woodstock there in 1970 with my soon tobe wife. I believe it closed shortly after that when they built a SMALL mall anchored by K-Mart and a Cinema complea and Purity Supreme supermarket.
The Weymouth Drive-in was never triplexed.
The Archives section of Aug.20 Quincy Patriot-Ledger reproduced an ad for the Weymouth Drive-In from August 1937. The ad copy says “Sit in your Car – See and Hear the Movies! New England’s Only open air auto theatre” (I don’t know how accurate that claim was.) Below that it says: “Drive-In Theatre Weymouth. Continous Nightly, rain/shine. Last Show 10PM” Movie playing was “Here Comes Carter”. Located on “South Shore Route 3A to Nantasket”.
my dad and another gentleman built the drive-in. I can’t remember his name but my father sold his half to this man. When I was a kid my dad built another with his lawyer (Sy Queen) in Clinton Ma. In Weymouth the surrounding neighbors complained about the loud speakers used for the sound. Of course this was before the in car speakers. Also I have an interesting story about the man that asked Joe if it would be all right for him to sell food from a cart. Joe’s response was ok but you can’t bother the customers. The cart would have to remain stationary. As it turned out food service became the real profit of Drive-Ins. I refer to my dad’s partner as Joe because I think his name was Joe Dimambro.
In my earlier comments I referred to a gentleman as J. Dimambro as my dads partner. I just came across a website mentioning the owners of the Weymouth Drive-In in a law suit. They were Tom DiMaura and James Guarino. I think my father was smart enough to get out before these issues hit the fan. http://www.umich.edu/~drivein/theater_02.html
The name of the person who built the Drive in with your father was Joe Buschini. He built a couple more for Richard Hollingshead after Weymouth.
The April 2, 2019 issue of The Patriot Ledger included an article titled WHATEVER HAPPENED TO: The Weymouth Drive-In.
It opened on May 28, 1936, the fifth drive-in to be built. (Kerry Segrave’s book Drive-In Theaters says the date was May 6, 1936, per Billboard.) It was one of the few to get a license from the patent holder, Park-In Theater of Camden, NJ. “The builders were Thomas G. DiMaura, a contractor, and James Guarino of Milton.”
At the start, the Weymouth had noise problems, sometimes audible from five miles away. It used pole speakers in the 1940s, then in-car speakers in the 1950s. “In 1964, the original theater was torn down and the site expanded to make room for a two-screen (capacity 800 each) drive-in complete with a playground, a modernized concession stand and in-car heaters so the theater could remain open year-round.” But the Weymouth closed in April 1976.
The Weymouth Drive-In Theatre survived one 30-year lease and a final 10-year lease but it wasn’t without challenges. Drive-In Theatre launched May 28, 1936 playing outdoor films with a single loudspeaker. Just weeks later, they were sued by Camden, New Jersey’s Park-In which claimed it had built the first drive-in theatre in the world (it was absolutely not true; but they had the patents to protect their methodology of presentation). The Weymouth settled moving on. Meanwhile, the complaints about sound leakage from locals grew.
Weymouth Heights citizens finally got the venue closed in 1947 due to the sound. The operators finally installed individual speakers and were able to reopen Drive-In Theatre on May 1, 1948. In February of 1950, American Theatres Corporation (ATC) took over the venue renaming it as Weymouth Drive-In Theatre at its season opening on April 8, 1950. ATC also took on the Saugus and West Springfield ozoners.
On August 31, 1954, Hurricane Carol destroyed the Weymouth Drive-In Theatre closing it for the year. ATC built a brand new drive-in complex with Cinemascope projection reopening on May 25, 1955 with “Drum Beat” and “Combat Squad.” It closed for the season on September 22, 1963 and was demolished. That demolition went awry leading to lawsuits stemming from damaged cars in the area struck by the falling tower. ATC moved on from the project and the original operators, led by Thomas G. DiMaura, returned under the operational name of Drive-In Theatres Corporation of Weymouth.
Hoping to move to year-round operation, a new plan with a twin screen and a hardtop indoor cinema were announced in 1963. The plans approved in 1964 called for a 734-car screen tower and a 702-car screen tower for 1,436 car capacity. Towers were markedly larger with 120' by 75' screens The facility had a playground and concession stand/projection booth combo with 70mm capability and the first with Todd-AO capability, but no indoor theatre. It opened as the Weymouth Twin Drive-In Theatre on July 16, 1965 with one screen ready to go with “Tickle Me” and “The Millionairess.”
In 1975, the Twin knew you got to know when to fold ‘em as the Weymouth Twin Drive-In Theatre exited with “The Gambler” and “Mandingo” on Screen 2 and a triple feature of “Walking Tall: Part 2,” “This is a Hijack,” and “Chastity” on November 15, 1975. The Harborlight Mall project was announced and they would knock the twin over in March of 1976. The ozoner didn’t go easily or quietly as when the screen came down, it took the crane that was removing her down as well breaking the operator’s leg. But that was her last kick and the Harborlight opened as a more permanent replacement for the 40-year old ozoner.
That is until the Harborlight Mall went into greyfield descent and was demolished in 2001 prior to its 25th Anniversary.