Shop City Drive-In
5050 Summit Avenue,
East St. Louis,
IL
62205
5050 Summit Avenue,
East St. Louis,
IL
62205
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Boxoffice, July 27, 1970: “The screen at the Shop City Drive-In at East St. Louis … was toppled early Sunday morning (19), apparently caught by a severe wind gust or a tornado … The 78-foot-high screen was reduced to a mass of jumbled bits and pieces.”
Grand opening ad posted.
Opening films w ere “Money from Home” and “10 Wanted Men” on March 16, 1956. Closed at the end of a 25-year lease with “Octagon,” “Street Fighters” and “Butch and Sundance.” The architects were Gerhardt Kramer and Joe G.Harms. Screen size was 70’ by 102’.
Opened March 16, 1956.
The June 5, 1955 St. Louis Globe-Democrat wrote that the 648-car Shop City was being developed by St. Louis investors and would be managed by Jablonow-Komm Theaters.
The address given is incorrect.
This drive in (and yes the screen is still up in the overgrowth) was located at approximately 5050 Summit Ave, East St Louis, IL 62205. Most of the field is the Nathan Health Care Center. Please update.
It appears in the most recent Google Maps that the screen is still standing. http://tinyurl.com/qgbpahg
At the link below is a recent photo of all that is left of the Shop City shopping center taken from State Street:
View link
For quite a few years after the Shop City Drive In closed, the screen remained, and if I remember correctly, it was towards the rear of the photo, where the trees are. The shopping center was virtually abandoned by the mid 80’s. The last open business I remember being there was a Red Fox Supermarket, but by the early 90’s, it was also closed and demolished, and at some point the drive in screen was either torn down or fell down. I drove down State Street last month, and the Shop City sign in the photo still remains. Near the site of the Shop City Drive In, but not actually on the drive in property, is the new East St Louis High School football stadium
Closing date was Labor Day (September 1), 1980.
The Shop City is listed in the 1981 motion picture almanac. It was still operated by Mid-America at that time.
The Shop City Drive In was open as late as 1979, as an article in BOXOFFICE magazine notes that the kung fu movie THE MASTER KILLS opened there on August 31, 1979.
The Shop-City Drive-In was open throughout the early part of the 70’s – I saw the ‘Planet of the Apes’ movies there as a kid as well as many memorable (and not so memorable) blackexploitation films!