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News Article: M. B. "Tiny" Worden, former owner of the Temple Theatre at East Jordan, is projectionist at the Albion
Drive-In for the Ryser Brothers for the summer. (Boxoffice Magazine May 5/60)
News Article: Drive-In Demolition - 30-year-old theater to be torn down next week -
The End. The sun will set for the last time on the crumbling Albion Drive-In Theater
next week. Albion Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Sue Marcos said the Chamber
and Parma Township officials have been working toward tearing down the drive-in, located
three miles east of the city, since fall. "We felt it was a distraction coming from
that side of the city," Marcos said. "Thousands of people drive by on the highway and
nobody (wants) to look at it." After showing movies for 30 years, films stopped running
during the early 1980's, said Frank Passic, curator of local history. The theater, owned
by World-Wide Business Management and Consulting in Durand, had shown X-rated movies
since the late 1970's, Passic said. The theater will be demolished by the owner "right
around March 1," Marcos said. The theater's removal could help sell the land, said Parma
Township Supervisor Jack Tornga. Tornga and Marcos said the site's future was undetermined.
"It makes the property look a little more attractive not having the screen up." Tornga said.
"People might be more interested in buying it knowing they don't have the expense of
removing everything." After Walter Campbell constructed the theater in 1950, Albert Bohm
operated it until 1955, when his nephews Jack and George Ryser assumed responsibility.
In March 1976, the Rysers sold the theater to Mid-States Theatres, Inc., of Okemos. The
drive-in was purchased by its current management shortly after, Passic said. The drive-in
started having problems shortly after reaching it's peak of popularity, said Helen Sharp,
former Bohm Theatre employee. "It was really the thing there for a long time," Sharp said.
"It started having problems when theaters as a whole started going down ... right when
television was really going big." (Albion News Recorder 2/23/89)
Update: Only the gutted snack bar and speaker poles remain. (Michigandriveins.com 5/4/02)
Update: The speaker poles and Albion snack bar ruins remain, now labeled no trespassing. No remains of the screen
foundations were found. (Michigandriveins.com 6/03)
Update: The Rysers sold the Bohm Theatre and the Albion Drive-In in March, 1976 to Mid-State Theatres, Inc., an Okemos-based operation
headed by Curtis Peterson....The Albion Drive-In became an "all-adult" establishment and fed its partons from the Calhoun and Jackson county
areas a steady diet of X-rated movies. Advertisements were placed not only in the local Albion Evening Recorder, but also in the Jackson Citizen
Patriot. Mid-State Theatres lost money on the X-rated films and sold the Bohm Theatre [Note: in Downtown Albion] and Albion Drive-In
in early 1981 to Arnold and David Simmons, operators of the D.A.S. Theatres headquartered in Oxford. The establishments were sold again in
November 1981 to James Sattler of Quincy, who closed the Bohm Theatre in late Septmember 198..[Note: it was later reaquired by Simmons
and reopened May 4, 1984]. The Albion Drive-In, however, continued to show X-rated movies and was forced to place "blinder"
lights around the perimeter of the property, to prevent distracting passers-by on I-94. The drive-in closed in 1986. Its facilities gradually
deteriorated in the open weather, and the large outdoor screen was finally demolished in 1989. Frank Passic, Albion Historian.
(Scott Biggs/Waterwinterwonderland.com 3/6/04)
Update: The Albion opened for business on Tuesday, May 9th, 1950. It closed sometime in the early 1980's after running adult movies since 1976.
The screen tower was demolished March 1st, 1989. (Michigandriveins.com 3/6/04)
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