Candlelite-Pix Drive-In
110 River Street,
Bridgeport,
CT
06601
110 River Street,
Bridgeport,
CT
06601
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ah, the candlelight/ Pix Drive in. Growing up in Bpt, I remember seeing alot of movies there. So many memories. My dad worked at Sikorsky in Stratford and during the summer he would come home and my mom would have a cooler ready to go. So, all we all loaded into his van and used to go to the drive in. Neighbors would sometimes tag along, with their cars or the kids would just come with us. Everyone seemed to know when someone was going to the drive in that night. LOL We would get to play at the playground, eat, play. Remember those old ads for the concession stand? “You have 9 mins to show time, 9 mins to visit our refreshment stand!” He would turn the van around during intermission and open the back doors. Me and my brother had our sleeping bags laid out and we would fall asleep watching the 2nd movie and they would leave during 2nd show after we fell asleep. unless the 2nd movie was good and the parents would stay. If memory serves me correct, the Candlelite would show more adult themed movies, because you couldn’t see the screen from the Pix side. Once I remember they had a Van Jamboree going on one night at the Candlelite, while we were watching the movie at the Pix side. I remember my dad looking over the fence alot. From what a 11 year could here, it sounded pretty racy. LOL It closed the year I graduated from HS. We went one last time and snuck a guy in with the old “guy in the trunk routine”. LOL Funny part was we didn’t let him out right away., once we parked…LOL
The Pix Drive-in opened with “Interrupted melody” and “The man from Bitter Ridge”.
Billboard, Oct. 16, 1954: “Seymour B. Levine, Stratford, Conn., who operates the Bowl Drive-In, West Haven, has petitioned the State commissioner of police for permission to erect a drive-in theater to accommodate 450 cars on River Street, Bridgeport, on a site adjacent to Candlelight Stadium. If permission is granted, a spring opening is planned.”
This twin-screener closed at the end of the 1982 season. It was sold for $600,000 and became part of an industrial park area by the city.
The Pix Drive-In opened on July 29, 1955. This was located on River St. at North Washington Ave, next to the recently-closed Candlelite Stadium. Just over a month later on September 2, the Candlelite Drive-In opened on the old stadium site at River and Evergreen Sts. After the 1956 season, the two drive-ins merged under the E.M. Loew’s banner and opened as Candlelite-Pix Twin on April 5, 1957. From Historic Aerials, you can see the stadium in the 1949 satellite photo; followed by the drive-in sites in the next available photo from 1960.
I remember being at one screen and watching the movies on the other screen at the same time. We saw a Bruce Lee triple bill (Enter The Dragon, Fists Of Fury and The Chinese Connection) there 2 nights in a row. There were 7 or 8 of us cramped into my ‘66 Riviera. I think “Blacula” and “Abby” on a double bill were the last films I saw there.
Here is a 1960 aerial photo of the drive-in, courtesy of HistoricAerials.com.
I remember going to this drive in with my parents when I was a kid. I was probably only about 4 or 5 years old, maybe 6, so the year was probably 1971 or 1972.
My uncle’s construction company was in the same area as the drive-in. I remember the drive-in closed and my dad and I would drive past it to go to my uncle’s office. In my memory I can still see the tall gray metal wall with the letters PIX on it (it was probably the backside of the movie screen). I beleive when it was an operating theater, the PIX letters were made of red neon lights.
Here is an August 1958 ad from the Bridgeport Post:
http://tinyurl.com/phga6u
This story is dated 5/2/55:
Roger Bailey, of Patchogue, LA captured the 25-lap feature midget auto race at Candlelite Stadium yesterday afternoon. The racing program marked the close of Candlelite Stadium as a sporting arena and it will be torn down for a drive-in motion picture theater which is expected to be completed before July 1.
Part of the grandstand and all the bleachers on the left field side of the baseball diamond already have been razed. The several hundred fans who watched the midget racers yesterday sat in the right field bleachers and on the terrace.
Yes, it was a twin screen theater and I spent many happy moments hearing the movie on one screen with my head turned around watching the movie on the other screen. The snack shop sold drive-in pizzaa that tasted like tomatoes on rotting cardboard and egg rolls that tasted like molten shoe leather, but, if it could be brought back, I wouldn’t change a thing!
Oh, yeah. I forgot that this most surely was a twin. One screen was the Candlelite and the other screen was the Pix.
Maybe they shortened it for the ad but when they were playing a Hammer double bill of “Scars of Dracula” and “Horror of Frankenstein” they listed themselves as Candle Pix Drive-In.
Wasn’t this called the Candlelite Pix?
110 River St.
This Drive-In was called the Candelite-Pix, and was eventually twinned at some point. It was demolished for industrial development.