Diamond State Drive-In

Filmed this around late december of 2012. Screen still looked great. Roller rink is shot! Projection room is still there as are the bench seats aside of it. the concession stand was in horrible shape. Talked to the grand Daughter of the owner the day after Christmas and she said they took it off the market and never had anyone intrested in the property. If you look in local paper’s at the time of closing it sounded like a war between them and the renter’s. She said that the people who leased the property stole her Grandfather’s original sign and took other things as well. But the leasor was the one who fixed up the property. ie his stuff! No projectors , but the power units were there. Also found tickets 4 years later in the feild laying in the grass. have some in my house now. It would take little effort to open this again. But money and time and dealing with the owners are again a challenge.

So disapointed they never did anything with this. the origional owners mr. & mrs. steel would not be happy everything they worked for is gone! My mother worked here until the day she died. I have so many childhood memories here & so many memories of my mother. She was so dedicated to the drive inn she worked their for free every weekend just to help out patty Dave and donnie the leasers which by the was are the ones who did all the work restoring the drive inn when it opened back up. Mr. & Mrs. steel loved and trusted them i highly doubt they would steel any signs or whatever u say! They were so deticated to keeping the drive inn going! If i had the money i would open it back up in my mothers memory. when she passed i thought what would my mother want to be after death & the only place i could think of where she enjoyed her life and loved being was the diamond state drive inn so i spread a part of her their and every summer i go their and just sit and remember! Id give anything to have this up and running again.

4/18/15 land still for sale – just think of all that money they could have made if they kept leasing the property as a Drive-In Theater. They could have put a clause in the lease that if it sold that the lease was finished. They would have had a monthly check coming in anyways and Delaware would still have a drive in theater.

The Diamond State Drive In did not switch to porn until at least the mid to late 1970’s.

From about the mid 1960’s until at least the mid 1970’s the Diamond State was leased to R/C Theatres (Roth/Cohen) from the Baltimore/Washington area. Under R/C banner the Diamond State played nothing but low rent ‘Drive-In’ oriented fare such as “Caged Women” “Macon County Line” “Last House On the Left” and other similar Corman New World Pictures/AIP motorcyle and exploitation fare.

Opened with “Under California skies” and “Campus honeymoon”. Closed With “Bolt” and “Madagascar 2 escape to Africa”. Also had a roller rink(ice or roller?) building on site(still standing, possibly also closed?).