You roll onto a big lot south of the city, hang a speaker on your window and settle in while a screen the size of a barn wall lights up the dusk. No shushing neighbours, no sticky armrest fight. Just your car and the movie.
That was the Chinook Drive-In, and it opened on May 12, 1949, on McLeod Trail just past the Calgary city limits. It had one screen and room for 600 cars. It ran on gravel, headlights and the promise of a good double feature.
A year later Calgary got a second one. The Sunset Drive-In opened on May 5, 1950 at 3900 2 Street NE, with Gregory Peck in Duel in the Sun on the bill. It was bigger, with space for 750 cars. Two drive-ins in about a year says Calgarians took to the idea fast.
The idea reached Edmonton too. The Starlite, Edmonton’s first drive-in, opened a month after the Chinook in what became the Lynnwood neighbourhood. It had a 50-foot screen and room for 650 cars, and the company behind it, Western Drive-In Theatre Ltd., was started by five Calgary entrepreneurs. So a bit of Calgary business sense helped put Edmonton families in their cars at the movies.
The Chinook closed on September 13, 1958, with a final showing of The Enemy Below, and a shopping centre rose on the land and borrowed its name. Yes, that Chinook. The Sunset ran much longer, until September 14, 1986, and the site now holds a church.
This fits beside what you may already know about Calgary’s neighbourhood and downtown cinemas. Indoor theatres gave the city its glamour. Drive-ins gave it the bring-the-kids, wear-your-slippers version.
To see the Chinook for yourself, look up the Provincial Archives of Alberta photograph on Wikimedia Commons, then picture the headlights coming on.
Sources: Cinema Treasures, Chinook Drive-In; Cinema Treasures, Sunset Drive-In; City Museum Edmonton, Starlite Drive-In.
If this one hooked you, try Fortress Mountain Keeps Turning Up in Big Movies, then Calgary opened a film office before Alberta had a film agency.
Related reading from us: Calgary’s Downtown Lunch Hour Once Came With a Play.
Quick answers
The Chinook Drive In opened on May 12, 1949, on McLeod Trail just past the Calgary city limits. It had one screen and room for 600 cars. It closed on September 13, 1958, with a final showing of The Enemy Below, and a shopping centre took the land.
The Sunset Drive In opened on May 5, 1950, at 3900 2 Street NE, with Gregory Peck in Duel in the Sun on the bill. It had space for 750 cars. It ran until September 14, 1986, and the site now holds a church.
A shopping centre rose on the Chinook Drive In land after the theatre closed on September 13, 1958, and borrowed its name. The Chinook had opened on May 12, 1949, on McLeod Trail just past the Calgary city limits, with one screen and room for 600 cars.
