Hillside Drive-In
5210 Marlboro Pike, Coral Hills, Md. (1 mile outside of D.C.)
capacity: 715 cars
years of operation: 1953-88
currently: demolished in 1998; sold to Maryland National Park and Planning Commission; school and community center planned for land.
With its final show — the Chuck Norris actioner Hero and the Terror and the horror B-flick Night of the Demons starring Linnea Quigley — the Hillside brought the curtain down on the Washington drive-in era on November _, 1988. As late as 1993 it still stood, with the lot leased by the state of Maryland as commuter parking, and the formidable screen tower still looming above Marlboro Pike, albeit in deteriorating shape. It was opened on August 24, 1953 by legendary drive-in promoter Sidney Lust (see the Beltsville) and purchased by the Wineland circuit in 1956. In 1986 the Winelands sold out to an independent operator; in its last years the surrounding neighborhood grew crime-ridden and the drive-in was plagued with drug-dealing activity. The steel-and-masonite tower, with its Greek comedy/tragedy masks and animated neon “HILLSIDE” lettering (*sigh*), was the creation of famed drive-in architect Jack Vogel; his original representation of it appears on page 63 of the book The American Drive-In Theatre, although it is misidentified as the Beltsville by the authors.
Watch video clip below: