THC Drive-In
3601 Main Street,
Adamsville,
AL
35005
3601 Main Street,
Adamsville,
AL
35005
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The THC Drive-In was located in Adamsville, Alabama, a small town to the northwest of Birmingham but still in Jefferson County. The THC Drive-In was opened on June 7, 1952 with Judy Canova in “Sleepy Time Gal” & Roy Rogers in “Susanna Pass”. The 1953-1954 edition of Theatre Catalog has a THC Drive-In located in nearby Graysville, AL. operated by The Theatre Company Inc. out of the Pastime Theatre, Carbon Hill. It was listed with a capacity for 328 cars. The 1955 edition of Theatre Catalog has a THC Drive-In, located in Graysville, operated by Glenora Thornton. It had a capacity for 300 cars.
The 1956 & 1957 editions of Film Daily Yearbook have a THJ Drive-In (a misspelling?) listed in Adamsville. The phone book from 1967 does not list a street number, just Jasper Highway. That is U.S. 78 which was the main street through town, so that is all you probably needed to find it.
For years it had is own independent advertisement in the Birmingham News, always one column, one inch. It generally ran standard second run fare from the main theatres in Birmingham with an occasional booking of drive in horror and motorcycle classics. It was closed in 1970.
Contributed by
Stan Malone
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
Found It! The address (at least for Google) is 3601 Main Street, Adamsville, AL. Today, the Adamsville Church of God sits on the property with no trace of the drive-in remaining. http://tinyurl.com/ze5xh5o
Does anyone know what the name THC stands for?
I haven’t verified this yet but I suspect this drive-in may have been owned by my family. They owned the Guin Drive-In, the Pastime, the Quintown & a few others in small towns west of Birmingham. At one time, the holding company was called Thornton-Horn Theatres and the logo showed TH. The mystery here is that C… Stay tuned!
Glenn, you are correct. I believe THC stood for Thorton, Horn and Chaffin.
Stan, In the early sixties, Jack Borders purchased the drive in from the original owners after working there for several years. Jack ran the theater side and Mary ran the concession stand. If you have any other questions, please let me know and I can likely get an answer for you.
Mr. Borders eventually went on to purchase other drive-ins & theaters including the Guin drive in and the Pastime Theater in Winfield. The purchase price was high for the time and location of the Windfield Pastime Theater which can be found in this report: http://ahc.alabama.gov/Alabama%20Register%20Properties/Marion%20County/AR_PastimeTheatre_Winfield_MarionCounty.pdf speaks to it but erroneously claims that “Jack Border” i.e. Jack Borders, died in 1993 (he died in 2000) and refers to his wife Fransis, which is a reference to his wife Mary Frances Borders who was known to most as
My father, E. W. Andrew, Jr., my sisters, Julie Andrew Franklin and Jone Andrew Ackerly Cross, all work for Southern Independent Theatres out of Atlanta. My father had been a salesman for RKO Pictures and 20th Century Fox for many years; Jack and Mary Borders were among the first to sign on to his independent booking agency when he left Fox in 1958. Remember the THC Drive In, Gui-Win Drive IN, and the Pastime Drive In. We had a lot of fun working for them. They resisted the pressure to join the Jerry Lewis Cinema bubble of 1971-1972.
As Earliest I Can Find, The THC Opened On June 7, 1952 With “Sleepy Time Gal” And “Susanna Pass” With No Extras.
Listings started ended in 1970