Lincoln Drive-In
1311 S. Beason Road,
Lincoln,
IL
62656
1311 S. Beason Road,
Lincoln,
IL
62656
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According to Our Times, a Logan County historical publication, the Lincoln Drive-In opened “at the east end of Broadway in 1950”. The 1952 Theatre Catalog listed the owner as W. H. McKee, and its capacity as 475.
An April 17, 1954 article in The Decatur Herald said that the Lincoln’s screen was blown down “and other sections of the plant damaged” by a storm in March 1954. Then-owners Mr. & Mrs. Wilford H. McKee and Mr. & Mrs. Alfred Byrd sold the site to Charles W. Bennis, owner of the Auto-Vue in Lincoln.
The Herald article said the drive-in was “at the edge of Lincoln at East Broadway and Route 121”. Our Times wrote that the Lincoln Drive-In never reopened, although it was dutifully included in the Motion Picture Almanac lists for many years afterward.
Contributed by
Michael Kilgore
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
Another view of the end of the line was in the April 3, 1954 issue of BoxOffice: “LINCOLN, ILL. – The trailer home of William Youngblood, manager of the Lincoln Drive-In, was among those wrecked in a recent windstorm, which also demolished the screen of the Lincoln.”
Aha! I finally found the remains of the old Lincoln, intact except for the screen, in a 1956 USGS photo. At some point they reworked the intersections near there, but the site is the large open field south of 1311 South Beason Road (AKA County Road 1500 N), so that makes a better address.