News Article: Detroit Drive-In Closed; Land Is Too Valuable - The permanent closing of the 1,400-car Town Drive-In, on Telegraph road just beyond the western city limits, has been confirmed by Community Theatres, which operates several drive-ins and a conventional house. This is the first drive-in in the Detroit area to go out of business since the opening of the East Side Drive-In which recently marked its silver anniversary. It is also the first major drive-in in Michigan to fold. While the Town has been considered a profitable operation, the location on about 23 acres at a major intersection proved too valuable for drive-in purposes and has been sold for the construction of a Corvette discount store. Ironically, various theatre interests have been seeking for a long time to overcome opposition to four projected drive-ins a few miles west of the Town. Irving Goldberg, the partner in Commmunity, said that while the circuit has no immediate plans for expansion to replace the Town, "We are looking". (Boxoffice Magazine 2/4/63)

Status: TOWN -- Telegraph Rd and West Chicago, Detroit -- Built in the late '40s and closed in the late '50s. #1 grossing theater in the Detroit area while it was open. The drive in was replaced by a discount department store, E J Korvettes. The owners had planned on moving the theater across the street to a larger location, the original theater holding only about 1,000 cars. They sold the drive in site before getting all permits to build on the new site. Needless to say, those permits were not granted and the larger Town Drive-In was never built. (Evil Sams Drive-In Theatre Guide/Fredrick R. 1996)

Update: I grew up around drive-ins in the Detroit area. My father was manager of the Town Drive-In from the day it opened until it closed in the mid 60's. The company that owned the Town, Gratiot, Grand River and Bel-Air is Community Theatres. They are still in business, operating several indoor houses and shopping centers. ( Joe Pellerito 10/14/99)

News Article: In 1959, the Town Drive-In Theater in Redford Township meant more to the people living around it than to those who paid to drive inside. Up until 1962, the drive-in opened during Easter vacation and, if the spring twilights were exquisite, children straddled the cool, steel corner mailbox and watched Technicolor Woody Woodpecker cartoons. Then the movies, with titles like "The Angry Red Planet," "Experiment in Terror" and "Love in a Goldfish Bowl" starring Fabian, came on. The two neighbor girls and I never got to watch the entire movie; our parents called us indoors when it got too late. But the movies meant summer excitement for the children on West Chicago Road, even with the traffic noises from Telegraph all around. The neighbors knew one another well; many of the kids attended the same Catholic church (St. Hilary's), or public schools like Fisher Elementary and Thurston High. Many would reside on this block for the next 35 years. Our family of four knew the families on our block and their relatives like the backs of our hands. The houses on Wormer Street were not tract houses, but the five rooms on the first floor were all the same sizes and, architecturally, in the same positions in all the homes. There were plenty of playmates for me and my brother. Throughout the summers, after the first feature was shown at the drive-in, there often were fireworks shot into the night sky from the parking lot, like blessings over the big backyards where our neighbors sat, ate snacks and watched the dazzling explosions and brilliant hues. As the backyard hose ran all night to fill up our swimming pool, my brother and I sometimes ran up to the corner in the dark to get a better view with other children who might be out. On the Fourth of July, 1961, so many people from Livonia, Dearborn Heights and Inkster parked their automobiles along the block-length of the green steel drive-in fence, and stood on the corners of Wormer and Woodbine as well as on the lawns along West Chicago Road, that we thought the State Fair had opened. Of course, it wasn't the Fourth of July without this pyrotechnic brilliance up at the Town Drive-In. But it was especially wonderful when my father's sister, her husband and our three cousins came over, staying until 10 p.m. in the warm blackness between the brick houses, illuminated in emerald, gold and sapphire lights. Anthony Suder, a freelance writer and graduate of Michigan State University, has lived in the house on Wormer Street all his life. He is working on a novel about growing up in Detroit in the 1950s. He also delivers the Free Press part-time. (Detroit Free Press 5/17/01)

Update: The movie Babes In Toyland was released in 1961 and I remember seeing it at the Town as a little girl. The drive-in burned shortly thereafter. One has to wonder how a drive-in can burn, but I distinctly remember seeing the huge, scorched screen as we would drive by. It was pretty spooky. (Waterwinterwonderland.com/Jan 10/26/03)

Update: The date mentioned are mistaken. I was born in 1958, yet I recall seeing movies there, and I also recall when the Town burned. As best as I can discern from memory, it must have burned in the early 60s, closer to 1965 than 1960, however. (Waterwinterwonderland.com/Dave 9/11/04)

Update: I was born in 1958. The Town Drive Inn was operational for many years of my early life. We could see the fireworks from our backyard on Virgil Street. I remember seeing The Lady and the Tramp with my parents , brothers and sisters the the old blue Mercury Wagon. They knocked it down and put in E.J. Korvette's. (Waterwinterwonderland.com/Jim 3/18/07)

Update: I was born in '53 and my parents bought a new house on Crosley just N. of Joy in 1955. I remember looking out my bedroom window and seeing fireworks on holidays and my friends and I would climb up the elm tree so we could see the screen - it was a long ways away but I guess we were trying to see something "dirty" which I am sure was never played there - that would have been the early 60's I think. We were good tree climbers! The best thing about the Town drive-in was the wetlands behind it (Wormer, Woodbine weren't developed yet) and that''s where we went to catch polywogs! Those were the days. E.J. Korvettes replaced the drive-in in the early 60's and it was one hell of a fine department store in it's prime. I bought all my LP''s there and slot-cars and... everything! (Waterwinterwonderland.com/Cliff Rockefellow 9/15/07)

Update: My dad took us there often--my mom worked a late shift as a waitress, so we went to the drive in until she got off-shift on the weekends when my dad's shift allowed. I remember seeing a number of science fiction movies there--one of my favorites was "The Mysterians". One night in August (1962, I think--possibly 1961), the Perseid meteor shower was clearly visible even with the brightly-lit screen right in front of us--I could see falling stars clearly all night on either side of the screen--it was an AMAZING sight! (Michael Rudas 4/8/11)