Outdoor Drive-In
1300 Indiana 212,
Michigan City,
IN
46360
1300 Indiana 212,
Michigan City,
IN
46360
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Kohlberg Theaters
Previous Names: 212 Outdoor Theatre
Nearby Theaters
Located at Routes 12 and 20, the Outdoor Drive-In was opened prior to 1955 when is was operated by Indiana-Illinois Theatres Inc. It was last operated by Chicago based Kohlberg Theatres and closed around 1982. It was demolished in 1988 to make way for the entrance to the Michigan City Municipal Airport.
Contributed by
James Monroe
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Recent comments (view all 3 comments)
Aka 212 Outdoor Theater per Drive-ins.com.
The 212 was located about 60 miles from Chicago. It didn’t advertise independently in the Chicago papers, but its name would sometimes appear below the ad for a specific movie (as part of the list of theaters where that movie was playing). I haven’t found any “mentions” beyond 1982, so that year might have been the 212’s final season.
As part of a 1981 feature on area drive-ins, Chicago Tribune critic Gene Siskel noted that the 212 “looks as though it hasn’t been painted since it was built in the ‘50s. Weeds bloom through the site, and a playground full of rusted and broken swings offers little entertainment value to children.”
Siskel also pointed out that the theater was “operated by Chicago-based Kolhberg Theaters, Inc., which has long held the reputation as our town’s worst film exhibitor.”
So after closing around 1982, the theater sat abandoned for nearly six years until an announcement on the entrance to the Michigan City Municipal Airport being planned in the site of the theater on June 1, 1988. It was demolished during the same year.