Dedham Tales

It’s the summer of 1948. Athletes from around the world are gathering in London for the first Olympics in 12 years. In the White House, Harry Truman is gearing up for a presidential run in the fall. The Boston Braves are a few months away from their first National League pennant, (and just a few years away from abandoning the city for Milwaukee). Here in Dedham kids are beating the heat at Mother Brook, East Dedham’s Mill Pond, Cox’s Cove on the Charles or down the river at the new day camp at Noble and Greenough School (still going strong after 76 summers!). Midget auto racing is featured at Norwood Arena which just opened on Rte. 1. You can get a new Motorola television set for $49.95 at Henry’s Radio and Electronics (but you’ll only have programming from WBZ-TV, which commenced broadcasting in early June). Movies and quiz contests are being offered at the 21-year-old Community Theater in the square, and, starting on August 11, movie fans will have a second option for viewing as the Dedham Drive-in opens just off the Providence Pike.

Hundreds of cars are lined up along Elm St as selectmen and local business leaders gather with owner and operator Michael Redstone to cut the ceremonial length of movie film stretched across the drive-in’s entrance. Tonight, a double feature of Disney’s Fun and Fancy Free along with the comedy Blondie in the Dough are shown on the “million dollar” drive-in’s 60′ x 42′ screen.

In the fall of 1947, the Board of Selectmen granted Michael Redstone a permit to build an “open air theatre” on 23 acres of land that had at one time been the site of Farquhar’s Nursery, but in recent years had become an eyesore, after gravel and loam was repeatedly removed, creating an unattractive and unsafe moonscape. Redstone, a Boston native, had been successfully operating an outdoor theater on Long Island for ten years, and the Dedham location would be an exact copy.

The drive-in concept was introduced to the world in Camden, New Jersey in 1933 by entrepreneur Richard Hollingshead. Since then, some 800 theaters had been built across the country with the first Massachusetts location opening in Weymouth in 1936. Dedham was about the 20th drive-in theater to be built in the state.

Initially, the drive-in was marketed as a family-friendly place you could take the kids in their pajamas to watch a movie, eat a meal, play on the playground, and enjoy a smoke. Over time, first run movies were replaced by “B” movies that were popular with teens, who probably didn’t really care what movie was playing. Throughout its history, Dedham offered a mix of wholesome entertainment and schlocky horror/beach flicks, as evidenced by the ads below:

The Dedham Drive-in was the first theater in Redstone’s Massachusetts Drive-in empire. The Revere location opened 2 weeks later, followed by Neponset Circle, VFW in West Roxbury, Suffolk Downs, and Natick (a joint venture with another company). Redstone’s sons Edward and Sumner eventually took over management of the company, and Sumner Redstone transformed it from a regional theater operation to a multi-billion-dollar company when he purchased Viacom, Inc. (CBS, Paramount, Nickelodeon, MTV) in the 1980s. Today National Amusements is headquartered in Norwood and operates about 1,500 theaters across the US and Canada. Sumner Redstone passed away on this date in 2020 at the age of 97 leaving an estimated $2.6 billion estate.

One of the traditions at the theater was the annual sunrise Easter service, which began in 1954. The first service was sponsored by the United Christian Youth Movement with 500 in attendance. St. Luke’s Church on East St. began hosting the services in 1961 and continued to do so through at least 1977.

The drive-in was in operation until about 1979; although some sources state it closed in 1982. The Showcase Cinema 1-3 (a Redstone operation) opened next door in 1973. In part 2 of this tale, I will share the one and only time I went to the Dedham drive-in, as well as the controversy that nearly cost the theater its license in 1970. Here are a few more images. Please feel free to share your stories in the comments section!