Morton Grove Drive-In
9500 Waukegan Road,
Morton Grove,
IL
60053
9500 Waukegan Road,
Morton Grove,
IL
60053
2 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previous Names: Drive-In
Nearby Theaters
The Drive-In opened June 12, 1941 with Robert Young in “The Trial of Mary Dugan”. It could accommodate 1,160 cars. It was located at Waukegan Road and Golf Road. Later known as the Morton Grove Drive-In, it was still open in 1957.
Contributed by
Bryan
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 14 comments)
CORRECTION ON THE LOCATION-Did some further checking and the theater was indeed located at the southeast corner of Golf & Waukegan. Found a real estate subdivision ad from 1945 that had a map and the drive-in is shown taking up that entire corner. Maybe the location plans changed from 1940 to 1941 or the Trib just got it wrong. Sorry for the confusion.
There is a large Avon cosmetics plant located on that corner now.
It must have been distracting to have railway trains passing during the movie presentation.
Avon bought the land (20 acres) circa May 1955 for approximately $360,000 per the Tribune of June 5, 1955. Groundbreaking started July 14, 1955 for the (350,000 square foot) $3,000,000 building.
There used to be a regular police presence for traffic control, when Avon employees left in mass every afternoon after work.
Not sure whether Avon or a drive-in would accumulate more cars at a given time. But it goes without saying that the 1940’s & `50’s would have had way less cars on the road.
This opened on June 12th, 1941. It’s grand opening ad is in the photo section for this theatre.
Upload article from Box Office May 24,1941
1944 print ad added via David Floodstrand.
The June 25, 1944 Chicago Sun carried a short story that the “Drive-In Theater” would have a fireworks show on July 4 as part of a War Bond drive.
From the Sept. 9, 1945 Chicago Sun:
“With the removal of gasoline restrictions, the Drive In Theater has enjoyed such an upsurge of business that architects have been called in to reconstruct the entire left wing of the screen area to provide another ‘hold-out’ lot for 250 cars.
“Two weeks ago, a similar lot was opened on the right side of the theater to expedite entrance into the landscaped auditorium.”
Completely demolished in the early-1960s.
Groundbreaking for the Avon building that replaced it was in July `55 per 2008 comment above.