I remember all that!!! I used to go there with my family when I was a kid, we loved it. I miss that stuff, now my daughter won't have those cool memories. We used to tailgate with other families and have lots of fun. If I had the money Id renovate it and bring it back to the diamond it was.
@carloscion The site appears to be in VERY usable condition, and is a nice-looking outdoor theatre! Why not re-open? Drive-Ins are back, and here to stay, for good!!! Dave Lounder, CT (Drive-In Theatre Historian and Former Operator)
all you people are funny!..my uncles own this place. we play there in the spring and summer in our chicago soccer leaque thats our home field, the satelite there was for back in the 2001 one days when the thater was open and we had a tv in there, but we usually our family trows party in the fields after the games and cook outs. i quess i have to make a video next year.
hey there! wow, i was actually just in the process of writing a letter to your uncle! I'm extremely interested in leasing this property or lease/purchasing it with the intent of reopening the Hill-Top. I'm a realtor in Channahon ((just West of Joliet)). Do you happen to know if your uncle would be open to this?
Wow BBQ's and soccer??. That just seems weird to me. I'd love to see it refurbished and opened again as a drive-in but I don't think that's ever going to happen...
@ep838 Huh??? Drive-Ins are coming back with a vengeance!!! New ones are being constructed, and closed sites are being refurbished and re-opened in various areas where land isn't at a premium, like it is here in CT. The mid-late 80s demise of outdoor theatres was brutal, but has subsided. The Drive-In Theatres will NEVER die, because they've become nostalgic destinations, not just places to see inexpensive double features under the stars! Dave Lounder (DI Historian / Fmr. DI operator)
@mshockey73 how is it wierd? there is fields in the back? and its never gona open because the city offerd my uncles lots of money to tear it down and build new houses my uncles refuse because thats our only soccer fields where we play at where we dont have to ask permission to play.
No its still there and its owned by a family and they go there to hang out BBQ and play soccer. If you noticed in the video there is a satellite dish mounted on the refreshment center.
I worked here as a security guard in the early 1970's. The screen has several sets of stairs and floors that were used for storage of old movie stuff. The same company that ran the Hilltop also ran the Rialto and Princess theaters back then.
@Loco4Locomotives What a shame...they should have kept the Rialto a movie theater I think. Hey?...remember the Roxy theater in Lockport? It was abandoned for a long time then turned into an X-rated theater and finally burned down. What a crying shame. I live on the west coast here and they restored their little one screen theater. Lockport dropped the ball on that one. It even had the sidewalk that glittered out front. It was magic.
@Loco4Locomotives The Louis Joliet Mall and the Jefferson Street mall killed the downtown theaters. Not that there was anything wrong with the Princess but people just gravitate to the new thing in town. Is the Princess still open?
Hampton Park. That was the other name associated with Romeoville. But I still can't remember the name of the drive-in-theater. Also there was a Valley View development...was the theater "Valley View"?
It's great that you got this on video before it is gone forever. Any of us from that area (I'm from Lockport) have been to the Hilltop. I know the drive-in in Romeoville is completely gone now. I forget the name of that one. Didn't Romeoville have a second village immediatly adjacent...and the area went by a hyphenated name I think...I forget the second name that used to be associated with Romeoville.....but didn't the drive in go by that name?
@JetMechMA Thank you for your comments. I am not familiar with a Drive In in Romeoville but I think there is one in Joliet that might be demolished right now.
I should do some research and maybe if its still standing make a video.
Thanks for your comments, and yes it is quite awesome to be at someplace that is abandoned and there is also a sense of danger that accompanies it. The Hill Top is located at Joliet, Illinois at Route 6 and it is not located at a top of a hill. I don't know how they got that name. I think the owners (of the Hill Top) are mad at me because I made this video and posted, it they own this and use it for recreational purposes.
Beautiful footage. I know from personal experience how cool it is to be at an abandoned drive in theater. When we were taping a segment of the Public access series OUTDOOR MOOVIES, we tried to contact the owners of the HILL TOP but got no reply. Great Video! By the way, was the Hill Top located at the top of a hill? There was also a HILL TOP in Escanaba, Michigan.
no two ways about it...this is cool. i hope to see this open again. i think that there is only two working drive in in ill. i know 1 is in sterling ill. the 1 in sterling really needs work.
@eg838 no sir, i thank you for posting this clip. its funny that no one has thought of this but if you see these new billboards that are on the highway that shows 3-4 different ads per min. thats the item that could bring back the drive in theater. is that a crazy thought? i dont know...
just talk to my uncle and the guy that wanted to rebuild it and rented off my uncle backed out..he has other plans at other drive ins..soo noo goo for the hilltop.stil have the soccer fields in the back...lol
LMAO!...i dont wanna sound mean!..But its not empty! MY uncles Own this LAND. and we are there ever Tuesday and Thursday afternoon from spring till winter starts, playing SOCCER and Home games on the weekends in the fields in the back. and how are the trees creapy? and ITs stupid little kids that come and Graffiti our walls. we Have cook outs there after games NO GANG BANGER HANGOUT GET YOUR FACTS STRIAGHT!
PS. Rumor about re-open the drive in movies soon. if contract goes good.
Hey Carl! Didn't you know soccer is for queers and EuroFems?
Stop slamming this video. The only thing you uncle owns is a stinky dive bar. A tavern to which you seem to have been frequenting so much it's starting to give you alcoholic wet brain. Which may, by the way, be the cause of your absurd dillusional thinking.
I think the harvest moon is in gibson city illinois. I know the word "Gibson" is in the name, i'm not home now but will check later. It's not far from Joliet, further south.
The HILL TOP sure looks like it used to be THE place to be. The narration, when it poped up, was nice. The trees in the field were weird. Yeah, those abandoned drive ins get a bit creepy but I for one am glad you posted the video!
Thank you for your comments. And yes this place is creepy, and probably unsafe to explore at night because I think its a hangout for local gangbangers.
tO EP 838: thank you SO MUCH FOR POSTING! A couple of years ago, I was on a road trip taping for my Public Access TV show OUTDOOR MOOVIES. In a two day period I think we visited about 10 or so drive ins. The HILL TOP was on our list, but, unable to contact the owners we put it on the "hop out and tape" list. Sadly, we ran out of daylight about the time we made it to the HARVEST MOON where our camera died! Thanks for posting a great video, now I know what it looked like. FIVE STARS WEB EMMY!
Haunting, poignant, dreadfully nostalgic. A truly amazing piece of historical commentary.
The only bad part of the footage was that it ended. Yet we know instinctively there are others out there, sadly awaiting your timely exhibition. Please bring them to us, post haste.
I am glad you liked it FaganRoberts. I will do a sequel this spring which will be more detailed perhaps i will put music in the background. Do you have any request that you wish for me to document.
I remember all that!!! I used to go there with my family when I was a kid, we loved it. I miss that stuff, now my daughter won't have those cool memories. We used to tailgate with other families and have lots of fun. If I had the money Id renovate it and bring it back to the diamond it was.
matthewetchie 11 months ago
I banged my first girlfriend there.
coolestdude80 1 year ago
Oh and also it cost money to knock down the wall and scrap all those bricks. its still up if anybody wants to pass by and see it
carloscion 1 year ago
@carloscion The site appears to be in VERY usable condition, and is a nice-looking outdoor theatre! Why not re-open? Drive-Ins are back, and here to stay, for good!!! Dave Lounder, CT (Drive-In Theatre Historian and Former Operator)
davelounder 11 months ago
all you people are funny!..my uncles own this place. we play there in the spring and summer in our chicago soccer leaque thats our home field, the satelite there was for back in the 2001 one days when the thater was open and we had a tv in there, but we usually our family trows party in the fields after the games and cook outs. i quess i have to make a video next year.
carloscion 1 year ago
@carloscion
hey there! wow, i was actually just in the process of writing a letter to your uncle! I'm extremely interested in leasing this property or lease/purchasing it with the intent of reopening the Hill-Top. I'm a realtor in Channahon ((just West of Joliet)). Do you happen to know if your uncle would be open to this?
elisebass2010 7 months ago
i did my music video here..MIKE DA KIDD
MIKEDAKIDDTV 1 year ago
i did my music videi here..MIKE DA KIDD
MIKEDAKIDDTV 1 year ago
Wow BBQ's and soccer??. That just seems weird to me. I'd love to see it refurbished and opened again as a drive-in but I don't think that's ever going to happen...
mshockey73 1 year ago
@mshockey73
I agree with you. Drive-In Movie theaters are now just a glimpse of the past.
ep838 1 year ago
@ep838 Huh??? Drive-Ins are coming back with a vengeance!!! New ones are being constructed, and closed sites are being refurbished and re-opened in various areas where land isn't at a premium, like it is here in CT. The mid-late 80s demise of outdoor theatres was brutal, but has subsided. The Drive-In Theatres will NEVER die, because they've become nostalgic destinations, not just places to see inexpensive double features under the stars! Dave Lounder (DI Historian / Fmr. DI operator)
davelounder 11 months ago
@mshockey73 how is it wierd? there is fields in the back? and its never gona open because the city offerd my uncles lots of money to tear it down and build new houses my uncles refuse because thats our only soccer fields where we play at where we dont have to ask permission to play.
carloscion 1 year ago
I remember the Hill Top very well from childhood. This footage is somewhat haunting. For some reason I thought this drive-in had been demolished.
mshockey73 1 year ago
@mshockey73
No its still there and its owned by a family and they go there to hang out BBQ and play soccer. If you noticed in the video there is a satellite dish mounted on the refreshment center.
ep838 1 year ago
Very interesting. I wonder if the old movie stuff is still there. It give this abandoned place more mystique.
ep838 1 year ago
I worked here as a security guard in the early 1970's. The screen has several sets of stairs and floors that were used for storage of old movie stuff. The same company that ran the Hilltop also ran the Rialto and Princess theaters back then.
Loco4Locomotives 1 year ago
@Loco4Locomotives What a shame...they should have kept the Rialto a movie theater I think. Hey?...remember the Roxy theater in Lockport? It was abandoned for a long time then turned into an X-rated theater and finally burned down. What a crying shame. I live on the west coast here and they restored their little one screen theater. Lockport dropped the ball on that one. It even had the sidewalk that glittered out front. It was magic.
JetMechMA 1 year ago
@Loco4Locomotives The Louis Joliet Mall and the Jefferson Street mall killed the downtown theaters. Not that there was anything wrong with the Princess but people just gravitate to the new thing in town. Is the Princess still open?
JetMechMA 1 year ago
@JetMechMA noppee just the rialto in joliet now
ThePandaThunder 4 months ago
@ThePandaThunder Thanks.
JetMechMA 4 months ago
Is This Place Haunted?
jessicapretty10 1 year ago
@jessicapretty10 No. There is no such entities as ghosts or haunted dwellings. Ghosts only exist in the imaginations of the unimaginative.
FaganRoberts 1 year ago
@jessicapretty10 I don't know but its scary being around there.
ep838 1 year ago
@ep838 What do you mean by it's scary? Like how?
jessicapretty10 1 year ago
@ep838
It looks scary---and definitely looks haunted. No way would I go there...especially after dark!!!
sldl04 1 year ago
@ep838 Down south one doesn't need fear walking about abandoned drive-ins. We just conceal carry a handgun and fear nothing.
FaganRoberts 2 months ago
@jessicapretty10 i used to go there to watch the double feature when i was a kid. :)
riken1 1 year ago
Hampton Park. That was the other name associated with Romeoville. But I still can't remember the name of the drive-in-theater. Also there was a Valley View development...was the theater "Valley View"?
JetMechMA 1 year ago
@JetMechMA It was the Bel-Air Drive in, on Rt 53 near Romeo Rd (135th St)
Loco4Locomotives 1 year ago
@Loco4Locomotives Thanks, cool. Now comes the memories. ;)
JetMechMA 1 year ago
It's great that you got this on video before it is gone forever. Any of us from that area (I'm from Lockport) have been to the Hilltop. I know the drive-in in Romeoville is completely gone now. I forget the name of that one. Didn't Romeoville have a second village immediatly adjacent...and the area went by a hyphenated name I think...I forget the second name that used to be associated with Romeoville.....but didn't the drive in go by that name?
JetMechMA 1 year ago
@JetMechMA Thank you for your comments. I am not familiar with a Drive In in Romeoville but I think there is one in Joliet that might be demolished right now.
I should do some research and maybe if its still standing make a video.
ep838 1 year ago
Thanks for your comments, and yes it is quite awesome to be at someplace that is abandoned and there is also a sense of danger that accompanies it. The Hill Top is located at Joliet, Illinois at Route 6 and it is not located at a top of a hill. I don't know how they got that name. I think the owners (of the Hill Top) are mad at me because I made this video and posted, it they own this and use it for recreational purposes.
ep838 1 year ago
Beautiful footage. I know from personal experience how cool it is to be at an abandoned drive in theater. When we were taping a segment of the Public access series OUTDOOR MOOVIES, we tried to contact the owners of the HILL TOP but got no reply. Great Video! By the way, was the Hill Top located at the top of a hill? There was also a HILL TOP in Escanaba, Michigan.
RQVOutdoorMoovies 1 year ago
is this place still there ?
moviemagicusa12 2 years ago
Yes it is. It is owned by a family and they use it as a place to hang out , picnic and BBQ
ep838 2 years ago
no two ways about it...this is cool. i hope to see this open again. i think that there is only two working drive in in ill. i know 1 is in sterling ill. the 1 in sterling really needs work.
kingpinlwf 2 years ago
@kingpinlwf Thank you. I am glad you liked it.
Actually I have never been in this drive-in while it was in operations. Drive-ins are a dying breed.
ep838 2 years ago
@eg838 no sir, i thank you for posting this clip. its funny that no one has thought of this but if you see these new billboards that are on the highway that shows 3-4 different ads per min. thats the item that could bring back the drive in theater. is that a crazy thought? i dont know...
kingpinlwf 2 years ago
@ep848 hey thanks for getting back to me...how about the possabilities of a flee market to get revenue?
kingpinlwf 2 years ago
That's a great idea Kingpiniwf. Actually the current owners use it to hang out Barbecue and play soccer.
ep838 2 years ago
just talk to my uncle and the guy that wanted to rebuild it and rented off my uncle backed out..he has other plans at other drive ins..soo noo goo for the hilltop.stil have the soccer fields in the back...lol
carloscion 2 years ago
this is still a good video...i apreciate people putting these videos up
moviemagicusa12 2 years ago
LMAO!...i dont wanna sound mean!..But its not empty! MY uncles Own this LAND. and we are there ever Tuesday and Thursday afternoon from spring till winter starts, playing SOCCER and Home games on the weekends in the fields in the back. and how are the trees creapy? and ITs stupid little kids that come and Graffiti our walls. we Have cook outs there after games NO GANG BANGER HANGOUT GET YOUR FACTS STRIAGHT!
PS. Rumor about re-open the drive in movies soon. if contract goes good.
carloscion 2 years ago
liar!
1lhotstuff 2 years ago
Hey Carl! Didn't you know soccer is for queers and EuroFems?
Stop slamming this video. The only thing you uncle owns is a stinky dive bar. A tavern to which you seem to have been frequenting so much it's starting to give you alcoholic wet brain. Which may, by the way, be the cause of your absurd dillusional thinking.
FaganRoberts 2 years ago
@FaganRoberts Soccer is way better and you better watch your balls!
ep838 1 year ago
@ep838 Soccer is better than watching paint dry, that's about it. But at least when you watch paint dry you don't have to worry about your testicles.
FaganRoberts 1 year ago
@FaganRoberts your a fag and your and EMO kid LOL
carloscion 1 year ago
@carloscion Psssst....... your intelligence is showing.
FaganRoberts 1 year ago
is this operating again?
kingpinlwf 2 years ago
I think the harvest moon is in gibson city illinois. I know the word "Gibson" is in the name, i'm not home now but will check later. It's not far from Joliet, further south.
driveinnut61 2 years ago
The HILL TOP sure looks like it used to be THE place to be. The narration, when it poped up, was nice. The trees in the field were weird. Yeah, those abandoned drive ins get a bit creepy but I for one am glad you posted the video!
1minutetilshowtime 2 years ago
Thank you for your comments. And yes this place is creepy, and probably unsafe to explore at night because I think its a hangout for local gangbangers.
ep838 2 years ago
Looking forward to your spring time sequel. Have you ever been to the HARVEST MOON?
driveinnut61 2 years ago
No I haven't. Where is that?
ep838 2 years ago
tO EP 838: thank you SO MUCH FOR POSTING! A couple of years ago, I was on a road trip taping for my Public Access TV show OUTDOOR MOOVIES. In a two day period I think we visited about 10 or so drive ins. The HILL TOP was on our list, but, unable to contact the owners we put it on the "hop out and tape" list. Sadly, we ran out of daylight about the time we made it to the HARVEST MOON where our camera died! Thanks for posting a great video, now I know what it looked like. FIVE STARS WEB EMMY!
driveinnut61 2 years ago
Haunting, poignant, dreadfully nostalgic. A truly amazing piece of historical commentary.
The only bad part of the footage was that it ended. Yet we know instinctively there are others out there, sadly awaiting your timely exhibition. Please bring them to us, post haste.
I met a girl there once, back in '77.......
FaganRoberts 3 years ago
I am glad you liked it FaganRoberts. I will do a sequel this spring which will be more detailed perhaps i will put music in the background. Do you have any request that you wish for me to document.
ep838 3 years ago
WONDERFUL FOOTAGE THANKS FOR SHARING
charlenelovelace2 3 years ago
My pleasure! I had fun doing this one. Glad you enjoyed it.
ep838 3 years ago