Drive-ins and the cruise: the car as the evening's room

1947 – 1991

The drive-in theatres, car side: The picture shows themselves belong to the Theaters section; what belongs here is that they were buildings for automobiles — a screen, a ramped field, and a city's worth of cars as the auditorium. Allen County's first, on the Journal Gazette's 2020 history, was the Fort Wayne Drive-In at 5800 Bluffton Road, opened in 1947; the Cinema Treasures record dates the same theatre to 1940 with a 712-car field, and the conflict stands as found. By 1954 the Journal Gazette's count makes five: the Fort Wayne, the Lincolndale, the Hillcrest, the East 30, and the Sunset. The Lincolndale, near Franke Park, opened on 11 September 1953 and closed on 8 September 1979, its screen moved to a new Lincolndale at Warsaw in 1980. The East 30, at 7500 State Road 930 East, opened on 6 October 1950 with Randolph Scott in The Nevadan, operated first by Carl H. Schwyn. The Hillcrest, at 720 East Tillman Road, was open before 1952 under Charles Loudenslager and Indianapolis Co-Op Theatres, one screen and 500 cars. The end came in the order the Journal Gazette gives: the Hillcrest closed in 1987 and the East 30 in 1991, the last two — Cinema Treasures carries the East 30 as closing at the end of the 1987 season, and that conflict stands as found as well. The Hillcrest's sign was rescued to Hillcrest Elementary School and stood until the school was razed in 2024. The Sunset stood on Lima Road by 1954 — the Journal Gazette's history gives 4740 Lima Road; a 1953 advertisement shows 5800 Lima Road — and the discrepancy is carried rather than resolved.

The other drive-in, and the loop: The cruising record belongs to the drive-in restaurant. Gardner's Drive-In, at 309 West Jefferson Street, opened in 1935 with carhop service and its "Mr. Big" hamburgers; the Allen County–Fort Wayne Historical Society's Old Fort News of 2004 records the 1950s–60s ritual plainly: the evening's drive ran Gardner's to Azar's to Hall's and back — a loop of drive-in restaurants as the city's social circuit, in cars. Gardner's closed in 1967. The loop's third point survives in kind: Hall's Hollywood Drive-In on Lima Road still takes orders at the car, carhop-fashion, in the manner the ritual assumed. When the drive-in theatres went dark the cruising had already moved on — to the arterials the dealer trade also colonised — but the documented Fort Wayne loop remains the downtown triangle of Gardner's, Azar's, and Hall's.

Sources:

1. Blake Sebring, "Drive-in theaters are facing tough season," Journal Gazette, 23 April 2020, as carried by ACGSI's Allen County place-names record — the Fort Wayne Drive-In first in the county in 1947, the five theatres by 1954, the Sunset at 4740 Lima Road, and the Hillcrest (1987) and East 30 (1991) as the last to close.
2. Cinema Treasures theatre records — the Fort Wayne Drive-In dated 1940 with 712 cars; the East 30 (7500 SR-930 East) opened 6 October 1950 with The Nevadan under Carl H. Schwyn and closed at the end of the 1987 season; the Lincolndale opened 11 September 1953 and closed 8 September 1979, its screen to Warsaw in 1980; the Hillcrest (720 E. Tillman Road) open before 1952 under Loudenslager and Indianapolis Co-Op Theatres, 500 cars.
3. Old Fort News (Allen County–Fort Wayne Historical Society), 2004, as carried in local history compilations — Gardner's Drive-In (309 W. Jefferson, 1935, carhops, "Mr. Big") and the Gardner's–Azar's–Hall's cruising loop; Don Hall's — the Hollywood Drive-In on Lima Road and its continuing carhop service.