Sky-Hi Drive-In
880 S. Rohlwing Road,
Addison,
IL
60101
880 S. Rohlwing Road,
Addison,
IL
60101
8 people
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Here is part of a 6/30/68 article from the Daily Herald:
Addison’s newest outdoor theater, the Ski-Hi Drive-in on Rt. 53 two blocks north of North Avenue, opened Friday. The theater lot accommodates 2,200 cars on 25 blacktopped acres in a complex that cost more than $1 5 million. It is the only blacktopped theater in the Chicago metropolitan area.
The theater will show two completely independent programs on each screen every week The self-service refreshment stand is air-conditioned Built by the L Robert Jelmek family, the theater will be managed by the M & R Corp , as is the Jehnek’s Dundale Theater in Dundee. The Jelmek family pioneered in the drive-in theater business when they built the original Ski Hi Drive-In theater in Elmhurst 20 years ago. The original theater was taken by the state for highway purposes.
Here’s an aerial shot from 1974
I uploaded the grand opening ad at http://www.drive-ins.com/theater/iltskyd
This is the drive-in my parents took us to when we were younger, back when I thought Lombard was a nice place to live, before the current administration which just decided to knock down the DuPage Theatre. It’s too bad that greed takes over and places like the Sky-Hi, 53 and DuPage Theatre go the way of the Edsel…
I remember going there with a date in my late teens. We were the only ones there and it started to snow…
What was the movie? Who knows…
I have fond memories of the Sky-Hi, my parents uses to take me there and I would look out the back of the station wagon and watch the horror movies that were playing on the other screen. It’s too bad that most of the drive-in’s in the area have been torn down for “progress” The home improvement store closed down and most of the other business have left just to leave a mostly vacant lot.
We used to call this “53 Drive In”, I saw Gremlins and Ghostbusters there on the same eveing.