South Shore Plaza Twin Drive-In
400 Forbes Road,
Braintree,
MA
02184
400 Forbes Road,
Braintree,
MA
02184
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: General Cinema Corp.
Functions: Parking Garage
Nearby Theaters
This ozoner was originally General Drive-In Theatre Corp., which eventually changed its name to General Cinema Corp. in the 1960’s. It was one of the first two-screen drive-ins on the east coast. The South Shore Plaza Twin Drive-In was opened one screen on July 22, 1960 with James Stewart in “The Mountain Road” & Steve Reeves in “Hercules Unchained”. The second screen opened on August 5, 1960 with Micheal Rennie in “The Lost World” & Debbie Reynolds in “The Mating Game”. Closure came on August 31, 1986 with Harrison Ford in “Witness” & Tom Cruise in “Top Gun” on screen 1 and Chevy Chase in “National Lampoon’s European Vacation” & John Cusack in “One Crazy Summer” on screen 2.
Today, the parking field is being used as a driving range and park-and-ride lot to Logan Airport. The concession building is the bus terminal for the park-and-ride. One of the screen towers is still standing but becoming obscured by trees.
Contributed by
dave-bronx
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Recent comments (view all 20 comments)
The “Ledger Archives” column of today’s Quincy Patriot Ledger mentions an item from June 2, 1987. It reports that General Cinemas has said that the South Shore Plaza Twin Drive-In is closed and will not reopen. Closing drive-in cinemas is a “trend” the article says, which also mentions that the cinema was more than 25 years old.
The June 2 1987 article also pointed out that within the past decade (1977-87) drive-in cinemas had also closed in Marshfield, Kingston, Dedham, Canton, Brockton, Avon and Boston.
Approx. address for this drive-in was further north @ 262 Forbes.
When the drive-in was open, the road ended at the box office.
This opened on July 22nd, 1960.
I worked there part time while in high school around 1970. My jobs were to clean up the fields from the previous nights' visitors. Also did some speaker maintenance. I got $1.65 per hour. Finding money was not all that uncommon nor was coming across used condoms. We saw several movies there in the 60’s as I was growing up in Braintree.
A few days ago I was driving compass-East on the Interstate (ex- Rt 128)in Braintree and looked over to my right at just the right moment and saw the huge Drive-in screen still standing, looking slightly ratty.
Other drive-ins to close in the Boston area besides the ones listed above were in these areas. West Roxbury, Ouintree(Quincy/Braintree line,the Meadow Glen, Abington and the Weymouth Twin. There may be others.
EARLY DAYS AS AN ASST. MANAGER OF OUR CINEMAS I DID TIME HERE ONE LONG LONG SUMMER, THEN RETURNED TO WERE MY HEART WAS THE CINEMAS, THIS DRIVE-IN WAS A VERY VERY HIGH GROSSER IN ITS TIME, AND WAS A LANDMARK FROM THE HIGHWAY 128, EVEN ALL THESE YEARS LATER WHILE CLOSE, THE GROUNDS ARE USED FOR A PARK AND RIDE NOW
I love that sign
Both screens opened two weeks apart. The first screen opened on July 22, 1960 with James Stewart in “The Mountain Road” and Steve Reeves in “Hercules Unchained”, while the second screen opened two weeks later on August 5, 1960 with “The Lost World” and “The Mating Game”.
General Cinema closed the South Shore Plaza Twin Drive-In for the final time on August 31, 1986 with “Witness” and “Top Gun” in Screen 1 and “National Lampoon’s European Vacation” and “One Crazy Summer” in Screen 2.