Lovington Drive-In
827 Old Springfield Road,
Lovington,
IL
61937
827 Old Springfield Road,
Lovington,
IL
61937
1 person
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There was some kind of amateurish drive-in west of Lovington that opened in late-1949. A note in the September 3, 1949 issue BoxOffice reported, “the drive-in planned for that community will operate with 16mm films. Sam Randall is said to be the owner”.
Two weeks later, a paragraph in BoxOffice offered more details. “Lovington, IL. - The drive-in located on the L. B. Hettinger farm west of this city, now is operating under the management of Hettinger, who has taken the place of George Carroll in the theatre organization. Heck Randol continues as the projectionist. The drive-in now operates on Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights until further notice”.
Darren Snow told CinemaTour that the Lovington “consisted of a screen hung up between two poles”. He said the drive-in operated “to the mid-1950’s” with a mixture of cars and walk-in patrons.
At 827 Old Springfield Road today, there’s a farm with a fenced off yard area that, in a 1956 aerial, looked something like a drive-in field.
Contributed by
Michael Kilgore
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
Sounds like a Mom and Pop drive-in theatre…with 16mm. There was alot of them back in the day.
I think International Projectionist magazine (published for Union projectionists) did a story about this theater and other drive-ins which used 16mm film instead of 35mm.