The Salem Drive-In Theatre opened on June 29, 1948, just North of the main body of the city of Salem. At the time of its opening, the theatre managers and owners were William and Albert Forman, with financial help from Ted Gamble. The only management change found was a temporary managerial position from Frank Schulz in 1953, but it's likely the theatre had several other managers in the years between 1948 and 1953, as well as the years between 1953 and its closing.
In an article about its opening, the Salem Drive-In Theatre promised a better moviegoing experience than other drive-ins of its time. The theatre featured space for 500 vehicles, with room so that any guest could leave at their leisure. The parking spaces themselves were pitched in a way so that any space within the theatre had an eye level view of the screen. The big development that the Salem Drive-In had was that despite the raised speakers by the screen itself, every individual car got its own speaker that could be mounted within the vehicle for higher audio quality.
Opening night for the theatre featured a technicolor short film Soap Box Derby (1942) and the film Red Stallion (1947). The technicolor short films on Fridays were a recurring feature at the Salem Drive-In in addition to cartoons shown up until around 1954. However, Red Stallion did set the tone for the films shown at the theatre for quite some time, where the majority of movies at the theatre were along the lines of action/adventure/western films, with some variety sprinkled in.
Sometime after the year 1953 where the South Salem Drive-In opened and 1955, the Salem Drive-In Threatre became the North Salem Drive-In Theatre. From that point forward, all branding and advertising for the theatre would refer to it as such. Theatre programming did change slightly, as this change is likely what was the end of the cartoons shown in the theatre. Everything else about programming in the theatre stayed about the same until it quietly closed its doors to the public in 1982. Today, there is a landscaping supply store in the place where the theatre used to be.
Aerial photo of the drive-in before it was demolished
Present day photo of where the drive-in used to be
