History Lost Drive-In Restaurants

I was watching The Graduate the other night on TCM. They had a scene filmed at a drive in. Positive it was Truman's. The structural beams had those holes in them and the menu/order board had that asymmetrical trapezoid shape.

 

You're killing me

 

Not sure if they were mentioned already, but the Milwaukee area has the Night Owl in Milwaukee and Wayne's Drive In in Cedarburg. I have not got a chance to make it to the Night Owl yet. But I do go to Wayne's on Tuesday nights for Cruise Night. It is a good time if you are in the area you should stop by!

 

The Malt Shop, in Anna Texas is still in operation, AFAIK..think they changed hands last year, it's been in business off and on since '58. The Kustom Kings have a charity car show at the Watsonburger in Denison, it's been there since the 50's and still open.

 

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Too bad this pic is so SMALL! [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Anybody [/FONT]know how to enlarge
it, maybe double?





Don't recall this one of a A&W Rootbeer Drive-In!
Could have been shot right in my little hometown
of Logan, Ohio! Posted first by HAMBer 1stGrumpy
over on the "Vintage Shots From Days Gone By"
thread.

(OH! And put ME down for a fish sandwich too!)

 

No info on the photo of who or where she is, just listed as being in the 50's. Click on the picture to enlarge...

 

ask al drake he was there

 

Burgerville is gone. I did the DQ in a 60 pont. @ 15 and 50 yrs

 

Found that pic on another site, properties say 1955-Denton TX. http://dailyshot.homestead.com/aug12.html

 

Here's another Corral, now Corral Cleaners and Launderers, Phx.

 

And Dick's, Phx. in all it's incarnations.

 

Cool. Thanks for the info. I had an idea that it was from the 50's by the body lines of the car in the picture.

 

Yuuup on Taste Freeze. Back in the day it was one of our first places to cruise to.

 

This was the Zeppelin diner on Figoria in Los Angles , now a Mc Donald's . I'm currently doing a model of the place :


scrubba

 

Hey, Grump! BIG THANKS, bro! It worked!!!




And, Ed! LOVE your model! It would be COOL to have a national hotrod/custom museum where we could all create diorama's and all sorts of displays for EVERYBODY to enjoy.

 

being from Fresno do you remember Stans back in the 50s spent many of nights there

 

Just did this thread from start to finish but never saw any reference(s) to the drive-ins in Flint, MI back in the '50s-'60s. That was when G.M. was on top of the heap and so was Flint. Every twenty something was driving a new Chevy or Buick compliments of the high factory wages. Dad's Carfeteria (Later changed to The Varsity) on Fenton Road at 12th St. was THE place-to see and be seen. Countless "arrangements" were made there almost every night. Many had to do with street racing. I saw the ex Bill Waddill famous Buick powered roadster there frequently in '56. Cars would "make laps"around the building so's the driver & passengers could make detailed surveys of who or what was parked. 'Off Fenton Rd into the lot on the Southside, around the back and out onto Fenton Rd again from the North side, then repeat. I vaguely remember they finally had to put security people out front to stop that-one loop was enough-unless you went down the street half a block then came back.

There were two other spots at the extreme ends of Saginaw St. I don't remember the name of the one on the South end-I think it was at Hemphill Rd. At the North end was Wally's. I believe those two were about 7-8 miles apart. So the routine evolved into one of: start at the Varsity, head east on 12th to Saginaw, south on Saginaw to the spot at Hemphill, check it out (maybe even buy something) then head for Wally's far to the North. There were many opportunities for stop light square off's on that long length of Saginaw St., downtown being about the only part you had to be careful of. After doing the "thing" at Wally's it was back to the South,thru downtown, west at Court St to get back to Fenton Rd and The Varsity. A lap or two, a cheeseburger, then repeat the circuit. Gas and drive-in food was cheap and it seemed like everybody thought they had the world by the ass. (Actually we probably did.)

Sadly, if you go there now, you'll find few traces of the good times-the city has reverted to the jungle. The factories and thus the $ are gone. There's some kind of derelict building at the site of the Varsity. Can't speak for the other spots.

 

We had Sandy's Hamburger drive in's all over our area until Hardee's bought them out.
Sandy's had good hamburgers, fries and shakes

 

Not a drive in, but a great hamburger stand in West Los Angeles we grew up with until a drunk took it out one night....

 

Please look at this link for Biff Burgers.........still going strong.

www.BiffBurgers.com

 

In 1965, there was a Biff Burger location at 3850 Chapman Highway in Knoxville, Tennessee. It is listed in the Knoxville City Directory for 1965. I would love to find a photo of that restaurant. Unfortunately, it was only in business at that location for a year or two.

 

Notice how the bland appearance is favored with each generation since the 1950s! This is happening all over the country. I am a retired architect whose interest was urban studies. Although the big picture looks like an ugly step by step conspiracy it has lots to do with the changing prevailing attitudes in our society. The hows and whys of it makes for good debate.

 

What made the drive-ins mentioned on this thread special and memorable was the originality: the great names, signs, architecture and food specialties. Most were one-of-a-kind which is why we have fond memories of them. How many of us can think of good memories of our dining experiences at Mickey D's, BK, etc. I didn't think so ... neither can I.

 

Thanks for sharing! Just love these bits of Drive-in history from HAMB members.

 

Biff's looks like a time capsule. That black and white photo on their website could be framed and hanging in my garage.....since my wife won't let me hang it in the family room.

 

Blue tops in highland Indiana is still up though abandoned. The people want 500.000 for the place. Wish I had the money to buy it and open it back up.

 

Look like Mels Drive-In is returning.....in HO scale anyway.



http://www.moebiusmodels.com/ourkits/kits/productpage-mels.html

This seemed the best thread to put it.

 

Check out www.dinerhotline

 

No pics of the building but here's the 1960 menu from the Drive in where my wife was a carhop when we met. Still together! Newly opened McDonalds prompted lottsa 15 cent burgers in the area. You could get a burger, fries, and a coke for 35 cents!

 

Sorry about the very late response, Kevin - yes, I drove by there a couple times during filming and asked someone on the crew what movie it was for. I saw a scene being filmed where Dermot Mulroney was standing by the '57 Chevy bouncing a rubber ball and opening a letter, letting the ball bounce away as he reads it (draft notice?). The scene was not used in the movie, though. I tried to get a friend to bring his white-over-yellow glasstop '54 Ford to the shoot, but he was busy.

Speaking of movies, were you involved with the Fox TV movie Pink Lightning that was filmed around Monrovia around that time? My friend's glasstop was in several scenes in that movie; I was with him when they shot the cruising scenes. I put together the IMCDb page for it.