Skyland Drive-In
Greenville, South Carolina1948-1977
Browse Skyland Drive-In tees, long sleeve tees and hoodies. For about four years, Greenville disc jockey Lake Cely recorded the preshow and intermission reels it played each week, and a set later turned up at a yard sale and was sold on CDs. One horror ad offered free blood sucker rings to the driver of each of the first 250 cars. Pick a style below, then read the full Skyland history further down. Down Home Apparel is an American small business remembering the best places and teams of yesteryear, and every shirt is printed to order in the USA.
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Skyland Drive-In History
The Skyland Drive-In in Greenville, South Carolina, opened on October 1, 1948, with Dennis Morgan in Cheyenne. It stood on Poinsett Highway next to the WundaWeave carpet mill, with a large green metal-frame screen facing the road, an office in the building under it, and a playground down front. Wilby-Kincey ran it first and ABC Southeastern Theatres later. Furman University was just over the hill, and a commenter recalls students paying a dollar a carload for triple bills that ran until two or three in the morning.
Its best-known relic is on tape. For about four years, a Greenville AM radio disc jockey named Lake Cely recorded the preshow and intermission reels the theater played each week, with rock and roll and snack bar plugs. A Greenville woman found a set of the reels at a yard sale held by the former owners. They were restored and sold on CDs to drive-in collectors, and at least one man has since recorded his own in the same manner for a working theater in West Virginia.
Many of the newspaper ads from its later years were horror. One offered free blood sucker rings to the driver of each of the first 250 cars. Another, for a four-feature horror-thon, promised each car a free hairless bloated blob.
The Skyland closed on June 10, 1977, with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Vanishing Point. The side street across the highway is still named Skyland Avenue.