Burnside Drive-In
Burnside, Michigan1951-1985
Shop Burnside Drive-In tees, long sleeve tees and hoodies. Its screen tower leaned back with BURNSIDE in tilted red letters over a huge mural of a pheasant rising from a farm field, and a white picket fence ran along the road. The ramps and the outline of the concession building still show from the air at M-53 and M-90. Pick a style below, then read the full Burnside history further down. We are an American small business bringing back the signs and logos of places and teams that are long gone but remembered fondly.
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Burnside Drive-In History
The Burnside Drive-In in Burnside, Michigan, opened in June 1951 at the crossing of M-53 and M-90, about eight miles north of Imlay City in the state's Thumb. It parked about 300 cars. Johnson Construction Company built it, and Al Johnson, who ran the company, took color slides of the job, including his crew painting the plywood on the screen tower in January.
Those slides show why travelers remembered the place. The tower leaned back, with BURNSIDE across it in tilted red letters. Below that, in a red frame, was a huge mural of a pheasant rising from a farm field, fitting for a region known for upland game hunting. A white picket fence ran along the road.
Norman Fisher, listed on Cinema Treasures as N. Fishner, was an owner, and Harold Muir managed it in the early 1950s. The trade papers have Muir staging free outdoor shows one night a week in nearby towns in 1953, running the county fair that year, and reporting the theater's safe and all its records lost. Cinema Treasures gives 1985 as the closing year. The ramps and the outline of the concession building still show from the air, under brush and trees.