By DAVE KOSONIC

Fun times and memories at Etobicoke’s last drive in movie theatre.

One of the last ones to disappear was the Northwest Drive-In Theatre, which if can talk, will relay a lot of stories and many of these tales did not occur on the wide movie screen.

Some South Etobicoke boomers likely chuckle when they recall the Northwest, that was located for almost thirty years at the northwest corner of Hwy. 27 and Dixon Road from 1948 until 1977, when it was demolished to build a hotel.

It had a sister theater in east Toronto named the Northeast Drive-In. That location at Sheppard Avenue East and Victoria Park Avenue operated from 1947 until 1976 before being torn down.  It featured many films including a movie titled Pretty Maids All In A Row that was classified as adult entertainment.

During its heyday the Northwest was a magnet for many South Etobicoke high school students including those attending Alderwood Collegiate Institute or New Toronto Secondary School. Friday and Saturday evenings were the favorite times for these high-schoolers to visit the drive-in.

I attended Silverthorn Collegiate Institute and the Northwest was often dubbed the ‘passion pit’ by some students while they chatted in the halls about where they were planning to go during the upcoming weekend. I went to our local drive-in many times.

Car pooling to the Northwest was common with the high school crowd and sometimes as many as six theater-goers would be jammed into a large 1960s or ‘70s sedan or station wagon.  But some patrons bent the entrance guidelines. Before arriving at the ticket purchase and entrance gates one or a few of them would scramble into a sedan trunk and ‘disappear’ until inside the theater grounds and then they would emerge from their hiding places. They hoped that an usher wasn’t watching.

If a worker at the entrance became suspicious of ‘trunk hiders’ this employee would politely ask for the trunk to be opened.  If some potential theatre-goers were found hiding they would be told to pay the admission fee or leave.  Adult admission in the later 1960s was $1.75.

Parents and their children also enjoyed going to the Northwest for a casual family outing.  During summer the box office was not opened until 8 p.m. and the featured movie did not flicker onto the screen until dusk.

Yet the children could laugh – and – giggle while watching some pre-show cartoons or visiting the snack bar for goodies including popcorn, soft drinks, hamburgers and French fries. The snack bar bustled during intermission attended by uniformed female employees.  During the good weather some customers brought lawn chairs and watched the screen while sitting nears their cars.

But whether it was summer or winter, the neatly groomed and uniformed ushers at the Northwest were the unofficial handymen and watchmen.  Carrying their traditional flashlights with the cylindrical orange cone they would attempt to repair faulty in-vehicle speakers or heaters and assist in re-locating missing children with parents. They also shone their flashlights into cars now-and-then to make sure that everything was appropriate and that no alcohol was being consumed.  All ushers were male.

Most of the urban Toronto area drive-ins were closed by the early 1980s. There are now 16 drive-in movie theaters in Ontario and 37 in Canada.