Louisville Unearthed: Remembering the drive-in theater (tip: there's still one open)

Drive-in theaters were an American staple, and Louisville had plenty of them. (Photo by Eric Bartley/Flickr)

Back in the 1950s, the drive-in movie theater was an American staple, a place where families would sit in their cars, one muffled speaker perched on a window, watching family movies and eating family-sized feasts of popcorn, candy and soda.

At one point, there were some 4,000 drive-ins in the U.S. Of course, that was before television’s massive ascent. And then came modern (and air-conditioned) movie theaters and cable, followed by home movie rentals and now streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime.

And while there are only a little more than 300 drive-ins left in America, per Driveinmovie.com, there’s one near Louisville where you can still go to reminisce about those innocent days when you and your siblings could play in the little playground in front of the screen before the movies started.

The old Kenwood Drive-in sign. (Courtesy of CinemaTreasures.com)

In nearby Georgetown, Ind., which is about 16 miles west of Louisville down I-64, Georgetown Drive-in is still reliving those days, and when you go, it’s truly like a mild form of time-travel. There’s a vintage Chevy parked out front, at times there’s a line down Ind. 64 to get in, and you can still get popcorn at the concession stand.

The first drive-in – called an Automobile Movie Theatre – was the brainchild of a guy named Richard Hollingshead in Camden, N.J., back in 1933, according to Driveinmovie.com. Hollingshead never made good on his, but the concept ultimately caught on, becoming fixtures in America for the next several decades.

Of course, Louisvillians fondly remember two of the most enduring, dearly departed car theaters of their youth: Kenwood Drive-in and Preston Drive-in.

Kenwood Drive-In was located on Southside Drive until owner National Amusements finally closed it in 2009, having been the final Louisville drive-in to finally turn off its projector for the final time (there’s now a warehouse on the site). Originally opened in 1949, the single-screen complex could hold up to 700 cars, making it the largest drive-in in drive-in rich Kentucky.

An ad for Preston Drive-in from the late 1950s. (Courtesy of CinemaTreasures.com)

Efforts to reopen Kenwood in 2011 fell short, and it was finally demolished in 2015 to make way for American “progress.”

The smaller Preston Drive-In opened in 1947 as a one-screen facility at 6705 Dixie Highway. It finally closed in 1992. And there were others along the way: Skyway Drive-In on Bardstown Road; East Drive-in on Shelbyville Road; Parkway Drive-In; Twilight Drive-in; Valley Drive-In, and Dixie Drive-in, to name a few.

In case you’re feeling nostalgic for drive-in theaters now, Georgetown Drive-in is open this weekend, thanks to the ease of social distancing when sitting in one’s own car. The theater will be screening “Minions” on one screen and “Doolittle” on the other, with special deals all weekend. (Photos below by the author, circa 2016,)

Louisville Unearthed will periodically bring you unusual facts, historical nuggets, places, people, etc., that you may not know about our city.