Delmar Drive In Movie - 1950

The entrance to the Delmar Drive-In
The Delmar Drive-In was built in 1950. In 1950, the Drive-In had as competition; The "Avenue" in Delmar, the "Waller" in Laurel, and in Salisbury the "New" theater, "Ulman's", and the "Boulevard" theater. The drive-in charged 50 cents a person on Friday and Saturday and thru the rest of the week $1.00 a carload. After a couple months of operation the owner, Nat Rosen, requested the Drive-In be annexed into the Town of Delmar, Delaware. At that time there were "blue" laws on the book that prevented a movie theater that was not in a town limits to show movies on Sunday and he wanted the Sunday revenue. After a heated debate, and a referendum vote on July 1, 1950 the drive-in and a 300 foot wide strip from Francis Lane running north by the railroad tracks about 3,000 foot to the drive-in was made part of the town. Prior to the referendum vote, Councilman A. E. Hantwerker expressed concerns that the idea was not a good one as the town could not support the annexed land by providing services (water, sewer, police protection). This has been a continuing concern of many people to this day. We have had an inquiry from the owner of the property in 2005 for the availability of water and sewer. The Delmar Drive-In spend it last remaining days showing X rated movies in the town limits of Delmar.

This photo is of the snack bar that is on the property. Well, it is hard to see due to the height of the weeds and shrubs. In the weeds you can see the white speaker posts are still there. When my parents use to take us kids to the Delmar drive-in it had a playground and pony rides. It was quite an event.

This is the road leading thru the Drive-in.