Grand River Drive-In
30200 Grand River Avenue,
Farmington,
MI
48336
30200 Grand River Avenue,
Farmington,
MI
48336
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Opened on 15th April 1949 with news, 2 colour cartoons(not named?), a 3 Stooges comedy(not named?), and “The Plunderers”.
Closed on July 20, 1988 with the following in screen order: “Coming To America” and “Eddie Murphy Raw” in Screen 1, “Phantasm II” and “Red Heat” in Screen 2, and “Arthur 2: On The Rocks” and “Bull Durham” in Screen 3.
This popular and well-attended drive-in was the only one near Detroit that never installed in-car heaters for year-round operation. It would be open from March to after Thanksgiving, but you were on your own to keep warm on cold nights. Most odd was that after the Town Drive-in closed in 1962, the Grand River was heavily marketed as the Town’s replacement (“The Grand River - Town”) but why didn’t they take the Town’s heaters and install them at the Grand River? Considering the next drive-ins “westward” were the Walake and the Lakes, they were closed all winter too, so it seemed like a missed opportunity.
West River shopping center now on this site (Target, etc.), including the Riviera theater.
April 15th, 1949 grand opening ad in photo section.
The Grand River Drive in was run by the Goldberg family’s Community theatres chain. I had my first job at the Grand River DI, at which I failed misrably!