Friday, June 3, 2016

Retro Colfax: East Drive-In

East Drive-In
Contributed by John Gillen

     The East Drive-In opened in 1947. I lived behind the Drive-In when it was in full operation (1955-1964). Many of us worked there during the summer washing windshields for tips and walking the back rows to clear out stragglers.

     We had many a play hour there during the day, since the layout was quite amenable to go-karts. We would race from Colfax Street to the entrance booth and whip around the corner into the vast sea of speakers on poles.

     I happened to drive by on a visit to Aurora the day the wrecking crew was committing architectural homicide on the place and felt a genuine loss. I’m sure it was living on life support, but I still hated to see it go.

Compass Drive-In Theatres
      The North, South, East, West and Monaco drive-ins were part of the Compass chain of theaters when I was there. The East 70 Drive-In had an 850 car capacity.

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