Falcon Drive-In
7798 Collinsville Road,
Collinsville,
IL
62234
7798 Collinsville Road,
Collinsville,
IL
62234
3 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Komm Theaters
Previous Names: Mounds Drive-In
Nearby Theaters
Located near the Cahokia Mounds, the Mounds Drive-In opened on July 3, 1949 with Walt Disney’s “Melody Time”. At the time, in a less culturally and historically sensitive era, a few smaller mounds, created by the ancient people of Illinois over a millenium earlier, were bulldozed to make way for the drive-in. It was operated by the Komm Theaters chain. In 1960 it was renamed Falcon Drive-In.
By the 1970’s the Falcon Drive-In was showing porn films. Views of the X-rated movies were sneaked at the tops of nearby mounds.
After the drive-in closed January 16, 1983, it was cleared and incoporated into the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. The name of the former outdoor theatre was retained for a picnic area that sits on part of the Falcon’s site, and some of the old speaker posts have been reused as trail markers.
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 16 comments)
Checking the borders with Google Maps, it seems clear that the former Falcon site is in Collinsville. Also, I get a better result on Google Maps with 7798 Collinsville Road.
A note in the July 9, 1949 issue of BoxOffice narrows the opening date, “The 1,000-car Mounds Drive-In on the Collinsville road near Monks mound has been opened by the owners, the Pimes (sic) Company, controlled by East St. Louis interests.”
Closed with “Talk dirty to me part 2”, “Platinum Paradise” and “Getting off”. The state of Illinois brought out the drive-in to expand the Cahokia Mounds State Historic site.
Is that a lake behind the screen in the above photo?
Opened July 3, 1949 with “Melody Time.”
I may have been wrong on labeling Pimes as a misspelling, because that’s the way it was again in the Sept. 3, 1949 issue of BoxOffice:
“EAST ST. LOUIS: The recently incorporated Jablonow-Komm Theatres, Inc., of St. Louis has closed a ten-year lease on the Mounds, a 1,000-car drive-in opened by the Pimes Co. July 1 on U.S. 40, the Collinsville road.”
The longer article included another reference to the Pimes company. No, I don’t know why it was called “Pimes,” but I presume it was someone’s name. And if you check the very nice Mounds photo under the Photos tab here on CT, you’ll read the story behind the apparent lake.
Not a lake in photo. Heavy rains caused flooding when photo was taken.
The Edwardsville (IL) Intelligencer reported on May 25, 1962 that Jerry Lindemann had sued the owners of the Falcon. Lindemann said that he “was parked with a loudspeaker on the window when another patron passing his auto hit the wire and knocked the loudspeaker against his head.” He said he suffered head, jaw, and teeth injuries when the speaker was dislodged from his window.
The location of the drive-in would have had an East St Louis mailing address. When Cahokia Mounds swallowed up the area, the parks address was Collinsville, which was the address across the highway from the drive-in. It is actually in an unincorporated areas between Fairmont City and State Park Place.
“EAST ST. LOUIS – The Mounds Drive-In between here and Collinsville has been taken over by Mid-American Theatres of St. Louis renamed the Falcon and will be reopened in March with R. L. Wesseman as manager. The concession stand is being enlarged and other improvements being made. Wesseman said no sex-type pictures will be shown, and the policy will be strictly family type.” — BoxOffice, Feb. 29, 1960