Quinebaug Drive-In
Thompson, Connecticut1953-1978
Order Quinebaug Drive-In tees, long sleeve tees and hoodies. It opened on May 1, 1953, in the Thompson, Connecticut, village of Quinebaug, and its grand opening ad billed it as America's most modern drive-in, with free flowers for women and free cigarettes for men. John Margolies photographed the sign in 1977, a turquoise fin reading DRIVE IN beside a pink arrow. Browse the styles below, and the full Quinebaug history is further down. Every shirt is printed to order in the USA and carries the memories of bygone places and teams.
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Quinebaug Drive-In History
The Quinebaug Drive-In in Thompson, Connecticut, opened on May 1, 1953, with Alan Ladd in Branded and Mitzi Gaynor in Bloodhounds of Broadway. Its grand opening ad billed it as America's most modern drive-in. A Thompson Historical Society newsletter, passed along by a commenter on Cinema Treasures, says women got free flowers that night and men got free cigarettes.
It stood on Route 131 in the village of Quinebaug, just short of the Massachusetts line. Cinema Treasures lists 415 cars, and Drive-ins.com lists 600. E.M. Loew's ran it in the 1950s and was still operating it in 1955.
John Margolies photographed the sign in 1977. A turquoise fin carried DRIVE IN down its length, a turquoise board carried the name, and a pink arrow pointed left above a marquee that offered the show for $4 a car.
The theater was still open in 1978, and no closing notice has turned up. A man who drove past it often in 1983 did not recall it running by then, though he allowed he might be wrong. It was torn down around 1991. The land became a housing subdivision on a road called Leo Circle.