New Hampshire town loses one of nation’s first drive-in movie theaters
Published 3:13 pm Friday, August 25, 2017
- MorgueFile
LACONIA, N.H. – Another landmark of the 20th century, the drive-in movie theater, is disappearing from the New England landscape, a victim of rising land values and commercial development.
The 70-year-old Weirs Drive-In on the edge of this small New Hampshire town will soon be the site of 80 condominium units, a hotel, several businesses and an event center.
It was one of the first drive-in movie theaters in the country – and among the last to close.
Owner Patricia Baldi said she finally sold out because the land became more valuable than the drive-in movie business. The price was $2.5 million.
“I’m going to be 79 in one month,” she told the Laconia Sun newspaper. “I’ve always worked extremely hard and it’s time to take it easy.”
Buyer Al Mitchel said he plans to turn the drive-in’s 12 acres into a successful commercial and tourism location that will attract businesses and visitors to the heart of New Hampshire’s lake and ski country.
The first drive-in theater in America was opened in 1933 in Camden, New Jersey. But the novelty of watching movies under the stars didn’t take off until after World War II. The industry peaked in the 1950s when more than 4,000 drive-ins dotted the country.
Today, according to the United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association, there are some 300 still in existence, many in smaller towns that don’t feature a multiplex or competing in-door movie facility nearby.
It was different in the 1950s and 1960s, when drive-in movies attracted families with a carload of kids and amorous young people, many of them teenagers on their first date. Pickup trucks with lawn chairs in the back, convertibles with tops down, and cars with frosted over windows were mainstays.
The 100-foot screens with uncertain projection, tinny sounding window speakers and older movies didn’t matter. It was the experience that counted.
Their popularity began to fade, however, as in-door theaters began to blossom with large screens and stereo quality sound, along with their first-release movies. To survive, drive-ins opened up their grounds to flea markets, concerts and other outdoor events during the daytime. Weirs Drive-In accommodated thousands of motorcyclists in June during Laconia’s Motorcycle Week.
“It’s sad, but I can’t go on forever,” said Baldi. “We had a lot of good times. Hopefully, some good will come of it.”