TePee Drive-In
Liverpool Road,
Pickering,
ON
L1V
Liverpool Road,
Pickering,
ON
L1V
3 people
favorited this theater
Located on Liverpool Road, north of Highway 401. The TePee Drive-In was the first and only drive-in to be an indoor and outdoor drive-in when it opened on November 28, 1963 with Tony Curtis in “40 Pounds of Trouble” & Charlton Heston in “Diamond Head”. There was space for 300 cars indoors and 200 cars on the outside of the main structure.
There was also a area with 100 seats where patrons could watch the movie which was located near the snack bar.
This was a great drive-in and a true treasure. Sadly, the TePee Drive-In closed in 1991 and has been demolished.
Contributed by
Chad Irish
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Recent comments (view all 5 comments)
This drive-in has an interesting past. It was operated by 20th Century theatres, and was located beside Pickering Town Centre. On the other side of Pickering Town Centre, there was another drive-in called the Bay Ridges which was operated by Canadian Odeon. 20th Century took Canadian Odeon to court alleging that the screen for the Bay Ridges was located too close to Hwy 401 by 6 inches! 20th Century won, causing Canadian Odeon to either move the screen for the Bay Ridges or close it. They opted to close it in 1974, leaving the Tepee to operate for years to come.
November 28th, 1963 grand opening ad as Canada’s first all-weather drive-in in photo section.
Opened with “40 pounds of trouble” and “Diamond head”.
17 years too late but the comment above from dgordon from 2002 about the Bay Ridges drive-in which was close by and shut down in 1974 cannot be correct. The Bay Ridges page here on Cinema Treasures has several ad photographs including one from an April 1979 issue of the Toronto Star listing the Buck Rogers movie at Bay Ridges.
This was owned by Holiday drive ins from Buffalo.