Waterford Drive-In #1
117 Boston Post Road,
Waterford,
CT
06385
117 Boston Post Road,
Waterford,
CT
06385
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The Waterford Drive-In #1 was opened on May 28, 1949 with Bud Abbott & Lou Costello in “The Noose Hangs High” & Randolph Scott in “Albuquerque”, when it was operated by Joe Gloth. It had a capacity for 750-cars. By 1952 it was operated by Amalgamated Buying Service and was located on Boston Post Road at Clark Lane. At that time it had a capacity for 710 cars. By 1955 it was operated by S. Gloth & Amalgamated and had a 750-car capacity. In later years the owner was L. Goldberg. Closed on December 28, 1969 with Michael York in “The Strange Affair” & Liza Minnelli in “The Sterile Cuckoo”.
It was demolished in May 1970.
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Dave Bonan
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Recent comments (view all 15 comments)
Goggle Earth view 2012
Approx. address for this drive-in was 117 Boston Post Road.
The Waterford DI at Boston Post Road near the intersection of Clark Lane opened in April 1955. In 1970, Raymond C. Sroczenski took over the theater and applied for permits to move the lot down the hill, a bit further from Clark Lane, to a space approximately the same size, but with one direct access entrance from the main road (Boston Post Road, aka Route 1). The new downhill locale also removed the screen from the “light pollution” caused by its original location being in the middle of a rapidly growing array of shopping plazas on all the surrounding properties.
The Google Maps image shows the ruins of the latterday locale, mostly covered in shrubbery. The original drive-in was to the left of that, on the lot now covered by broken concrete and where the small greytop building is attached to the building with the whit roof. Those buildings (the larger being a Stop ‘N’ Shop) went up in 1972 after the original Waterford DI closed, with the small grey roof building housing the indoor Waterford Theater, run by the same United General Theater chain that built the exactly identical Cameo Theater in nearby Niantic at the same time. Carl Sherman ran both the indoor and outdoor Waterford theaters
The new locale was built in spring 1973, though construction and permit delays kept the drive-in from reopening until August 29, with a screening of Dillinger (“Free admission to the first 25 Ladies in Red!”) backed with The Little Cigars Mob. It closed after the summer 1980 season.
BTW, the reason that big empty lot of concrete up the hill from the latterday DI remained undeveloped after 1972 was because the drive-in owners maintained ownership of their property where the original DI had been, refusing to so much as stripe the concrete for parking, in order to ensure that no business or cars would throw distracting light downhill onto their lovely new screen, now finally surrounded by trees instead of billboards and lit-up storefronts.
By the late ‘70s, that uphill wasteland was a mass of broken concrete, possibly broken up by the drive-in owners who wanted to discourage “bootleg” screenings by parked cars getting a free view the new screen, at least according to Waterford city officials who tried to get property owners to fix up overgrown lot (it’s true, you could usually hear the movie fine from uphill, especially if someone on the lot itself turned up a bunch of speakers!).
The fact that both the latterday DI lot and the old concrete wasteland remain undeveloped to this day leads me to suspect they’re still both own by someone apparently unwilling to sell or develop for some reason.
The original drive in was at the intersection of Boston Post Road and Clark Lane. The foot print was actually the entire shopping center now there. Later, a new screen was erected to the left of the old foot print. My brother, Larry and I were involved in the booth installation. Nothing was new. All used equipment Brenkert projectors and Ashcraft lamps. The sound amplifier tower (RCA) Theater Sound I located just inside the door from the rectifier room to help cool it. The screen was nowhere as big as the original Drive In. The parking lot lights from the shopping center lit up the field causing the old lamp houses to compete. Unfortunately, even with home made sheet metal shades installed around the parking lot lights, it never really worked. In your arial photo the second Drive In can be seen to the right of the shopping center. It is rusting away and being reclaimed by the trees. It was a nice experiment, but a failure. Side note: The original Drive In was very successful packed almost every weekend and well built much like the original Norwich New London. What was unusual, was that the projection booth was on the left of the snack bar unlike any other Drive In in the area. Tom Beebe
As of 2017, the property has been developed.
The Hartford Courant wrote on June 1, 1949 that the Waterford Drive-In, capacity 750 cars, had opened. Corporation officers included president Michael Radin, vice-president William Rabinowitz, and treasurer Lorraine Forcier, all of Hartford. Sherwood Gloth was the drive-in’s manager.
W R O N G ! The parking field and the screen frame of the ‘second’ WDI still remain today! The original field footprint (next door) is also still undeveloped. Neither site is anywhere near McDonald’s. - The Drive-In Guys!
Very technically, there should be a Waterford Drive-in (#1) and a Waterford Drive-In (#2). They are close-by but they are on different tracts and had different addresses. And there’s an operational gap caused by numerous issues.
Waterford Drive-In #1 closed December 28, 1969 “Strange Affair” and “Sterile Cuckoo” supported by a cartoon. The City of Waterford approved of a plan in 1970 for a shopping center to be built on top of the drive-in which would include a new spot for a new Waterford Drive-in. All the land was owned by drive-in operator Waterford Drive-In Theatre, Inc. The Drive-In’s plan was to reopen next door to the east of the proposed center in time for the end of the 1970 season. The old drive-in was demolished in May of 1970.
Due to zoning issues, code enforcement, road access issues, sewage and water connectivity issues, and more they just missed the 1970 opening… by three years. Waterford Drive-In Theatre (#2) opened on August 29, 1973 with “Dillinger” and “Little Cigars.” It closed November 1, 1981 with “Friday The 13th” parts one and two supported by “Cocaine Fiends.” The venue didn’t open for its next season. Operator Carl D. Sherman decided to market the land.
Opened on 28th May 1949 with “Noose hangs high”, and"Albuquerque".