Evergreen Drive-In
US-41 and County Road CJ,
Ishpeming,
MI
49814
US-41 and County Road CJ,
Ishpeming,
MI
49814
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Outdoor Theatre
Nearby Theaters
The Evergreen Drive-In was owned by Evergreen Enterprises and is listed as opening on June 29, 1950 with William Bendix in “Johnny Holiday”. Car capacity was listed at 200 with a single screen. Closed on August 1, 1986 screening “Sex Play” & “Punk Rock” with a 450 car capacity.
Contributed by
Chuck
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Recent comments (view all 9 comments)
The old drive-in is way West of town.
HERE
This drive-in showed adult films for at least a decade before its closure. The snack bar remains.
Approx. location for this drive-in was o U.S. 41 between County Road CJ & Lowmoor Lake East Rd. The theatre was north of the highway.
More information HERE
The advertisements used to claim it was six miles West of Ishpeming. Also, at one time there was a radio station and tower across the highway. WJAN at 970 on the dial. That was around 1956 or so. Great memories, as I used to operate the projectors there for awhile and also worked at the radio station.
the ramps and projectors booth still remain
450 cars.
On that radio station across the road, WJAN signed on the air on June 26, 1959, and then went off the air from 1964 until the following year when it relaunched as WCKD. There are a number of call-letter changes throughout the years. Today it was known as WZAM, an ESPN Radio affiliate sports format station.
The Herald-Palladium (St. Joseph MI), Sept. 22, 2014: “The Evergreen’s grand opening was June 29, 1950, with a showing of “Johnny Holiday” … An advertisement touted the theater’s capacity of over 300 cars, a giant screen 50 feet tall and 45 feet wide … By 1971, the Evergreen - like other drive-ins in some rural areas nationwide - had begun showing a mixture of mainstream and increasingly more X-rated movies … The last movies shown at the Evergreen were on Aug. 31, 1986, and were “Sex Play” and “Punk Rock,” both rated XXX."