BLAIRSVILLE — There was once a rural Hamilton County drive-in theater owned and operated by Estell (locally known as ”Bug”) Drew, according to local resident Gene Endicott.
The theater was located just east of Blairsville.
“The folding chairs for seating, the rustic ‘snack shack’ and improvised screen really capture the ambience of the good ol’ do-it-yourself craftiness of the era,” Endicott says of the photo taken in May 1952. “In a later era, it also reminds one of ‘redneck engineering.’
“In practice, it helped bring a small local group of neighbors together to appreciate a sense of community.”
The woman on the left in the photo, standing in front of what appears to be the theater’s ticket booth, is Endicott’s mother, Lucile Endicott; the woman on the right is JoAnn Endicott, Gene’s wife of 59 years.
The Endicotts still live about two miles south of Blairsville, he said.
