Drive-In Theaters in Commerce MI Commerce Drive-In Theatre

Info Updates:

3/9/2011 - Garyrc

I remember as a very young child driving past the future Commerce Drive-In when it was under construction. the material for the screen tower was there but the screen was not constructed yet. What many may not remember: the color of the screen tower was a rusty orange and yellow checkerboard pattern before it was painted blue in the early 1970s. The location of the Commerce was somewhat out of the way, near no major highways, at the south end of 2-lane Union Lake Rd. and the north end of 2-lane Haggerty, and for many years the entrance was not even on the paved portion of Richardson Rd. Conceived as a top-notch modern theater of its day, its location likely prevented it from ever being a major player. Its large screen and capacity was about double the size of the nearby Walake Drive-In on Maple Rd. , just three miles away. Some unusual features included a playground behind the refreshment stand, and lighted plastic or fiberglass speaker-pole heads, color coded for each row. After paying, you entered from the back, which was less common at most area drive-ins. Like the Walake, the very back rows did not actually have speakers on the poles, so the true capacity was likely less than the numbers listed. The famous marquee (as shown in the photos below) actually pointed AWAY from the theater up close, but when seen from southbound Union Lake Rd. , it pointed correctly at the screen which you could only see when the leaves were off the trees. In the 1970s, the Commerce added a limited number of in-car heaters, but was usually just open on weekends in the fall and spring off-season. In its final years, the large Commerce screen was also damaged in a wind storm, so the east-most 25% was missing. Perhaps because its days were numbered, the screen was never repaired. (Memorable ad: for the engagement of “North by Northwest”, their ad showed a map with arrows pointing northwesterly up “Northwestern Highway” then up Orchard Lake, Maple, Haggerty, Richardson roads to the theater. ).

11/28/2006 - Adam Brown

I use to work at the Shell/ Citgo gas station while in High School about 6 years ago. The owner of the gas station owned the property that the sign of the drive thru was located on. At one point he was going to tear it down until myself and a friend who I also worked with held a protest and gethered about 40 people with signs. We also called the radio stations. And well the sign still stands and I haven't heard anything further about it being removed since!

HomeDrive-In TheatersCommerce Drive-In Theatre - Commerce, MI

Commerce Drive-In Theatre - Commerce MI