News Article: Outdoor theater history will be made here Saturday night with the opening of the Lansing Drive-In theater on highway US-127, south of the city near Jolly road, it was announced Wednesday. There will be two shows nightly, rain or clear. Lawrence Aubry, secretary-treasurer of the corporation, who has supervised building of the Drive-In theater, announced the opening date and he said John Stamler of Detroit will manage the theater. Stamler said the first performance of the new type of entertainment will be at 7:30 o'clock Saturday evening. Opening of the theater brings to the community a form of entertainment proving popular in other Michigan cities, Stamler said. The Drive-In theater will have three shows each Saturday night with the first starting at 8 p.m., the second at 10:30 p.m., and a gala Midnight show, he said. The opening show will present Gene Autry in "Bells of San Angelo", and a comedy-color cartoon and a first run newsreel, Stamler said. There will be a new show Sunday and Monday. Work has been rushed recently to make possible the opening Saturday of the 800 to 1,000-car drive-in theater, Aubry reported. There will be an individual "in-a-car" speakers and a towering screen on which the scenes will be projected, making it easy for car occupants to see, Stamler said. (The State Journal 5/27/48)

News Article: Pearce Parkhurst, formerly well known in Michigan as manager of the Lansing Drive-In at Lansing, has returned to the area to assume general management of the Joseph Ellul circuit, with headquarters at the downtown Family Theatre in Detroit. Much of his attention will be centered on the Mount Clemens Drive-In. Parkhurst, who won a reputation for his exploitation activity during his stay at Lansing, for the past two years has been advertising director for Chakeres Theatres, a circuit of about 40 theatres centered at Springfield, Ohio. (Boxoffice Magazine 8/3/64)

News Article: County may buy drive-in property - Ingham County Commissioners are expected to approve purchase of the former Lansing Drive-In Theater in south Lansing next week as the site for a new human services building. The finance and human services committees have unanimously approved exercising the county's option to buy the 20-acre site on Cedar Street near Jolly Road for $400,000. The property is owned by the C.O. McLaughlin Trust Fund. The proposed purchase has cleared two other board committees without serious opposition, and approval is seen as a virtual certainty. (Lansing State Journal 6/7/83)

Status: Gone, site is now an Ingham Co. office bldg. (Michigandriveins.com 8/8/03)

History: Lansing's first drive-in theater, and the only drive-in ever in the city limits, opened Saturday, May 29th, 1948. The Lansing Drive-In was initially operated by James Blackburn and the Lansing Drive-In Corporation. The inviting design of the enclosed screen tower looked more like a Colonial home than a theater, with a "porch" and "garages" at both ends, the right side serving as the ticket booth. Large neon "Drive-In Theatre" letters adorned the 70-foot screen tower, with the marquee below. The first film shown at the Lansing Drive-In was Bells of San Angelo, a year-old western. The drive-in was built to handle about 700 cars, it eventually grew to a capacity of 1,100 on it's single screen. The Lansing Drive-In also had a twin, the Jackson Drive-In in Jackson. This ozoner was nearly identical, and also opened in the spring of 1948. Detroit-based theatre chain W.S. Butterfield Theaters took over operation of the Lansing Drive-In in May 1967, and continued until it's closure. Butterfield also operated the Starlite Drive-In in Delta Township, and advertised these two together. Butterfield sold the property to the C.O. McLaughlin Trust Fund in May 1978, but the drive-in soldiered on for a few more years. The last night of operation was September 7th, 1981. The Lansing Drive-In quietly closed, and with four other local drive-ins to chose from, no one in Lansing seemed to care. Ingham County purchased the drive-in property in 1983 and constructed a large Human Services complex on the site. The only photos known to exist of this drive-in are the early shots shown here. (Michigandriveins.com 4/3/09)

Update: Hoping Lansing readers can help record drive-in history - I suspect that most readers remember the Crest Drive-In as an adult X-rated outdoor theater. I remember seeing Walt Disney's "Swiss Family Robinson" there in pajamas with my family. The M-78, Northside, Starlite, and Lansing Drive-Ins no longer exist, nor does the Crest.
I think it is important that 100 years from now, historians are able to look at photographic and video evidence that prove these lost landmarks in fact existed.
To that end, my friends and I have managed, after great effort, to document all but one of them. We've exhausted all avenues and are hoping LSJ readers could complete our research. So, if anyone reading this has photos or home movies of the Lansing Drive-In, please consider contributing at www.michigandriveins.com, or call me at (517) 898-5387.
The Lansing Drive-In opened in May 1948 and closed in September 1981. It was located on Cedar at Jolly. Someone must have taken pictures. (Darryl L. Burgess Lansing - LSJ.com Letters to the Editor 9/11/11)