56 Drive-In

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Uploaded on: July 27, 2020

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Photo & description credit Wade Peebles.

“PICTURE SHOW ….. Pictured here, about forty years ago is my old friend and neighbor, Tommy Bellamy, Sr. who, along with his family owned and operated The Hiway 56 Drive-In Theater in Swainsboro for decades. I cannot tell you the thousands of days I spent in their home and nights at the "picture show.” Pictured, Mr. Bellamy is getting one of the two projectors “threaded-up” and ready. These projectors are vintage Strong Moguls and were the type made after WW II and for decades afterward. There were no light bulb systems then powerful enough to project a movie onto a drive-in movie screen, so these used arc-carbon rods that burned as do electric welding rods. The rods were made of carbon material wrapped in a thin copper coating. The light would cause severe eye damage just as welding will and took place inside the large area contained in the lamp house that you see and the smoke and heat was taken out by those stove pipes. The other projector was identical and sat beside it, out of the photo. Movies came on several reels and were shown on the two projectors which were switched back and forth as the movie progressed. Those projectors are obsolete now and movies come on electronic storage devices. I miss those days, the place and the people…and movies."