Waukegan Drive-In
Waukegan, Illinois1949-1980s
Shop Waukegan Drive-In tees, long sleeve tees and hoodies. The Waukegan Outdoor Theater opened on June 14, 1949, with Randolph Scott in Canadian Pacific, and later became the Waukegan Drive-In. Its roadside sign stacked block letters over a slanted DRIVE-IN panel, with a big arrow framed in rows of lights beside the marquee. Pick a style below, then read the full Waukegan history further down. Every shirt is printed to order in the USA and carries the memories of bygone places and teams.
4 products
Waukegan Drive-In History
The Waukegan Drive-In in Waukegan, Illinois, opened on June 14, 1949, as the Waukegan Outdoor Theater, with Randolph Scott in Canadian Pacific. It stood near Washington Street and Greenleaf, on what one local account says had been a potato farm. Listings put its size anywhere from 750 to 1,250 cars, and it also had kiddie rides.
The roadside sign is what stayed with people. WAUKEGAN sat in block letters on one panel, with DRIVE-IN in slanted capitals on a rounded panel beneath it. Below that, a big arrow framed in rows of lights pointed left, around a changeable marquee.
Trade listings show Outdoor Amusement Co. running it through the 1950s, Stan Kohlberg in the 1960s, and M. B. Brotman from the late 1970s. It lasted well into the 1980s, though the sources disagree on the end. Cinema Treasures says it closed in 1988, but a Drive-ins.com photo caption says it was torn down on November 10, 1987, and a 1988 aerial shows the screen gone. An industrial park now covers the land, with a street named Ambrogio Drive running through it.