Plainfield Drive-In Theatre

Info Updates:

5/16/2020 - Holly

I remember watching that riot unfold right from the start. Someone threw a beer bottle at a cruiser. A cop jumped out and began hitting a kid with a billy club. Thats when the devils house broke loose.

1/30/2018 - Laurel Lazar

I enjoyed the story about 1973, when the cops came. I went to this drive in as a child and then later in high school. Somehow I happened across this site tonight by accident and am so pleased to see the photos. This is so long ago to me, as I moved away after h. s. and never knew it was torn down. But, of course, it would have been. I think that when we are dealing with our memories it can be difficult to imagine the change as we did not witness it. During my hs years, we didn't watch movies as much as we did drink and cause trouble. Mostly, just making noise and being dumb teenagers. Thanx to the other participants who wrote about my favorite old-drive-in.

4/29/2010 - Unknown

Such wonderful memories of the Plainfield Drive-In. I can''t count the times that we snuck in from the side and sit in the front benches. We used to live just down Plainfield. This was in the 60''s. I''ll never forget the excitement of seeing God''s Half Acre and Splendor in the Grass! Before that the memory of popping a grocery bag full of corn and heading up the hill in our 1957 Chevy Impala Station Wagon with the family to see a double header. WOW! We never did make it through the second film as we always feel asleep. Great memories!

10/14/2003 - MichiganDriveIns.com

I worked at the Plainfield Drive-In back in 1973. My first job ever. I was 16 years old and they paid me 99 cents a hour. That was the year they had the huge riot. It was WGRD Night. They charged 50 cents per person. Alfred Hitchcocks Psycho was the film being shown. A local policeman drove through and after being pelted with stones and beer bottles and then having his vehicle surrounded by our local patrons who began rocking his car, he made his way back out and then put out a call for any and all nearby back up vehicles - a total 53 cars and 83 officers responded. The lights came up, the film was stopped and they streamedin one after the other, lights flashing and just surrounded the place. Oh the memories. Hello to my fellow drive-in employees, Cindy M., Dave D., Don C., Mark B. Thanks for the photos.

1/6/2003 - WaterWinterWonderland

Everything is gone, the site is now a residential street (Paramount St.). Seems hard to believe that this was a drive-in, as there is a fairly steep hill on the lot.

HomeDrive-In TheatersPlainfield Drive-In Theatre - Grand Rapids, MI

Plainfield Drive-In Theatre