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Wellfleet Drive-In Theater

Coordinates: 41°52′38.88″N 69°59′30.88″W / 41.8774667°N 69.9919111°W / 41.8774667; -69.9919111
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wellfleet Drive-In and Cinemas
Main entrance of the theater
Map
Address51 State Highway, Route 6
Wellfleet, Massachusetts
United States
OwnerSpring Brook Center
TypeDrive-in theater
Opened1957

41°52′38.88″N 69°59′30.88″W / 41.8774667°N 69.9919111°W / 41.8774667; -69.9919111 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 one of the "500 Places to See Before They Disappear"[5] and Travel and Leisure selected it as a Top Ten Retro Escape.[6]

History

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Its original owners, John Jentz and Charlie Zehnder, opened the drive-in on July 3, 1957.[7] It has a 100-by-44-foot (30 m × 13 m) screen, with sound provided by both an 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]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Drive-In Theatre". Spring Brook Center. Retrieved 2010-11-02.
  2. ^ "Flea Market". Spring Brook Center. Retrieved 2010-11-02.
  3. ^ a b "Mini-Golf/Ice Cream". Spring Brook Center, Inc. Retrieved 2010-11-02.
  4. ^ "Screening Venues". Provincetown International Film Festival. 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 0-470-18986-X. Retrieved 2010-11-02.
  6. ^ Savino, Charlotte (April 2009). "America's Best Retro Escapes". American Express Publishing Corporation. Retrieved 2009-06-14.
  7. ^ Pierson, Elspeth (July 11, 2008). "Nostalgia featured showing at Wellfleet Drive-In". Cape Cod Times. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
  8. ^ Segrave, Kerry (1992). Drive-in theaters - a History from their Inception in 1933. McFarland. p. 182. ISBN 0-89950-752-2. Retrieved 2010-11-02.
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