Wellfleet Drive-In Theater

Wellfleet Drive-In and Cinemas
Address 51 State Highway, Route 6
City Wellfleet, Massachusetts
Country USA
Owned by Spring Brook Center
Type Drive-in theater
Opened 1957

The Wellfleet Drive-In Theater, the only drive-in theater on Cape Cod, located in Wellfleet, Massachusetts along U.S. Route 6,[1] near the Massachusetts Audubon Society's Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. The complex offers first-run double features in season, with other attractions such as indoor cinemas, a flea market,[2] a miniature golf course,[3] and restaurants.

The Drive-In is one of the venues for the annual Provincetown International Film Festival in Provincetown, Massachusetts .[4] Frommer's lists the Drive-In as of the "500 Places to See Before They Disappear"[5] and Travel and Leisure selected it as a Top Ten Retro Escape.[6]

History

Its original owners, John Jentz and Charlie Zehnder, opened the drive-in opened on July 3, 1957.[7] It has a 100-by-44-foot (30 × 13 m) screen, with sound provided by both a FM stereo signal[1] and the original individual monaural speakers that can be attached to a car's window.[5] The mini-golf features obstacles that date back to 1961.[3] The cinema was built in the 1980s; according to Eleanor Hazen, its owner at the time, one of the reasons the cinema was built is that film distributors started refusing to allow drive-ins to show first-run feature films.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b "Drive-In Theatre". Spring Brook Center. http://www.wellfleetcinemas.com/drive-in-theatre. Retrieved 2010-11-02. 
  2. ^ "Flea Market". Spring Brook Center. http://www.wellfleetcinemas.com/flea-market. Retrieved 2010-11-02. 
  3. ^ a b "Mini-Golf/Ice Cream". Spring Brook Center, Inc. http://www.wellfleetcinemas.com/miniature-golf. Retrieved 2010-11-02. 
  4. ^ "Screening Venues". Provincetown International Film Festival. http://www.ptownfilmfest.org/venues.php. Retrieved 2010-11-02. 
  5. ^ a b Hughes, Holly; West, Larry (2008). Frommer's 500 Places to See Before They Disappear. Frommer's. p. 440. ISBN 047018986X. http://books.google.com/books?id=xMDPksxFhCYC. Retrieved 2010-11-02. 
  6. ^ Savino, Charlotte (April 2009). "America's Best Retro Escapes". American Express Publishing Corporation. http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/americas-best-retro-escapes. Retrieved 2009-06-14. 
  7. ^ Pierson, Elspeth (July 11, 2008). "Nostalgia featured showing at Wellfleet Drive-In". Cape Cod Times. http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080711/LIFE/807110301. Retrieved 2009-11-02. 
  8. ^ Segrave, Kerry (1992). Drive-in theaters - a History from their Inception in 1933. McFarland. p. 182. ISBN 0899507522. http://books.google.com/books?id=m10A0dwrXvAC. Retrieved 2010-11-02. 

External links