Yesterday they knocked down our last drive in theater. It was destroyed so we could have another convenience store or maybe a row of storage buildings. I was remembering the days of old, letting the 57 301 chevy lope along the rows trying to find the right parking spot, the teenage hardbellies that would be with me, the smell of the snack bar with hot dogs and popcorn. All of those are history ,now even taking the grandkids again will be lost also. They say they are looking for another site but realisticly with the prices of commercial real estate I don't think it will happen. It just seems sometimes that progress isn't really progress. Have a nice weekend everyone !
That is sad. I will take my daughters to The Starlite this summer as much as possible while I still can so they will have some cool memories.
I blame Wal-Mart. Fortunately in KC, we still have some drive-ins, and I think 2 still function in the summer.
This sucks BIG TIME. There is a siliver lining. The City has agreed with the company that owned it that another "new" version should be built. They stripped all the speakers so they can be rebuilt. I am hopeful that we will get another one.
When I was a kid we had almost a dozen drive-in theaters in the Albuquerque area, would go at least once a weekend. They tore down the last one around 15 years ago. For the last few years I've been photographing all of them I can find in my travels, figure they'll all be gone soon. Heard they opened a new one around Dallas somewhere last year, supposelly the first new one in a couple decades. Hopefully somebody will figure out how to make them economicaly feasible and bringthem back!
a shame...im fortunate enough to have one 15 min away and 2 more within an hour. while not a big movie goer, i try to go at least once or twice a summer...they are PACKED on the weekends so you know driveins are still popular...
Move to Dallas, Tx. We still have 2 or 3 open year around. One of them has four screens that just opened recently.
Yes they did. Its a few miles south of Dallas actually. My wife and I went and the place was quite busy. Nothing else to do in that part of the country. * I can listen to the audio on my FM. Sound is excellent if you have a nice system. * I don't care if the people next to me are on a cell phone or if I have to take a call. * Doesn't matter how many people walk in front of me to go to the bathroom or snack bar. * I can sit in any kind of chair I bring with me. * If the show is boring, the wife and I can find other things to do with the time. * Kids can play in the back of the car and talk or whatever without disturbing anyone else. * This place is family run I think. The people that work there are friendly and the food prices were very reasonable. * Current movies, double feature, and lower price than other theatres. $6 http://www.galaxydriveintheatre.com/
Guess you'll just have to head up our way to the Starlite Drive-in this summer whenyou get the out door movie itch. On the otherhand, isn't the Council Bluff theater still operating? If not, Neligh's only 3 hours away.
Ours was shut down about 25 years ago and torn down about 20 years ago. Most of the new people in my county, or about 1/2 of the population, don't even know it existed. Worst part of all is the land where it used to sit now houses a state emmissions testing facility. How ironic is that?
up here by detroit we have the ford-wyoming in dearborn, 12 screens in the summer and 6 year round. i doubt it will be gone anytime soon but where i'm originally from in ohio we have none left in that part of the state
I'm going to build one in my back-yard. We've got one here, its all family owned and run. I love going there. I dont see them ever letting anyone else get ahold of it. And I believe there is a few in SLC too.
I'm lucky enough to live not 40 min from a drive in on Whidbey Island. Because of it's unique location on the island, I can't imagine it ever going out of business. I take the kids there nearly every weekend. In fact, we are heading down there tonight... $6 for 2 movies, kids are free. When I used to live in Michigan, I took the kids to the Getty 4 in Muskegon all the time... I love drive ins.
I've been to Whidbey Island when I was out there in the military, and my wife's from out there. Beautiful area to go for a ride. Deception Pass was awesome.
This one is 4 mi from my house, guess they figure it's not worth tearing down the screen. Wheat field now. Shame. That old screen has survived a lot of weather.
I remember going to the drive in. It was before the FM stereo radio drive in audio reception because cars didn't have FM radios, yet. Even if you got there early and got a good location to watch the movie, they didn't turn the sound on in the hang on the window speaker in the corroded aluminum case until about 5 minutes before the movie started so it was a crap shoot as to whether the speaker worked or was all static and half the time you ended up starting your car and frantically searching the few empty spots on the sides or up front with the "families" who would complain and get you kicked out if you even smiled at your date.... The Drive In was a weird phenomenon that saw it's day. I'd feel bad about them tearing down the Los Altos Drive in if I had actually been in it since.. I think the last movie I saw there was "Play Misty For Me" how long ago was that? (most) People just quit going to the drive ins.. they weren't making any money so they're going away! It would have been nice if they (Lowe's/BigKmart/Denny's) left the marquis up though.. It was the oldest and only signage that identified the name of the neighborhood. They could have incorporated it into what they have now... just posted "Now playing, 2+4"s and Cheap Chinese Clothes" at... Whatever it is, I don't even know what their sign looks like now?
A local disenchanted car enthusiast got fed up with not having one locally and built one about 14 miles outside of town. Its great the owner spends a fortune on first run movies, I've talked with him and he is honest about loosing his ass on the cost of the movies (first runs cost close to $100k), he makes some of that back at the concession stand but more than anything he is glad he did it and will keep it going until he runs out of money. I took our son to his first drive in to see "Cars" about 3 weeks after it hit the theatre. On a side note the "city" wouldn't let him put up a billboard for advertising because the property is up a gravel road and its hard to know where to turn, what the showing times are etc etc. So he had 2 pickups built with 10' billboards in the back that he parks in the area to show directions, the movie and the times. The city started ticketing the trucks so now he parks them in town in hotrod shop parking lots along busy streets. The city parking enforcement officer has visited a few of the shops and tried to file ordinance violation to the shop owners.... Why sir the truck is "waiting for parts to come and scheduled for service", go pound sand "meter man". s.
I'm fortunate enough to still have a drive-in six miles from my house. It survived the lean years, and seems to pack 'em in on the summer weekends.
Guess I'm one of the lucky ones to. A fellow club member owns the Judy Drive In just north of Mt. Sterling,KY. Many nights you'll see his 56 Chevy parked beside the concession stand. Our club even hosts a cruise/movie night there once a year. It's important that the owner knows the importance of the people who frequent the theater. He's being interviewed by a lady from the BBC this weekend which I found interesting.
Here is a shot of one East of Ranger TX. We have a fairly new double screen drive in here in Midland.
I went to the GREASERAMA in Kansas city this year, it was held at the boulevard drive in movie theatre. The most fun I have had at a car show in a long time!!! They even showed the ratfink movie! I highly recommend anyone attend if they have the chance this year. Another friend of mine is planning a show at a drive-in in Houston Missouri. No details yet but he's working on it! Chad
I'm about 30 min from a double screen drive in theater in Visalia, Ca. Mooney Drive in. been there many times. I grew up in Visalia. They are super busy in the summer time they show fairly new movies too...I might just have to ask if the wife wants to go tonight... They use the FM stereo set up EDIT: we were going to go to Mooneys Drive in. I looked online for show times and found that it has been demolished. There is a Youtube video at the bottom. I didnt even hear about this. Sucks to see it go. The following article was published in the Visalia Times-Delta on August 17th. There are only 23 days left to catch a double-feature at the Mooney Drive-In Theatre before the lights go out for good. The drive-in will show its last feature on Sept. 7. But a "grand closing" party is planned for Sept. 9 that promises to take moviegoers back to the 1950s and the glory days of drive-in theaters. "I think the theater needs to be closed with dignity," property owner Johnny George said. "We want as many people as possible to share in the festivities." Here's what's on the schedule: 3 p.m. Car show sponsored by the Visalia Vapor Trailers. BBQ tri-tip dinner prepared by New Hope Church Music by The Blue Onyx Musical performance by Tulare County Sheriff Bill Wittman. Movies start at dusk, showing "Grease" starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John and "Viva Las Vegas" starring Elvis Presley. 10:30 p.m. Fireworks finale. George, 71, bought the land the theater occupies and is turning it into an office complex. He said he expects as many as 3,000 people to attend the grand closing, and he's trying to make it as easy as possible by rolling prices back to $5 a carload. He said the theater can hold about 600 cars between the two screens, and if the place fills up, people can walk-up with a lawn chair and pay 99 cents to watch the final show. Overflow parking will be available at the old Lumberjack and Grocery Outlet parking lots. While there may be quite a buzz surrounding the final shows, attendance at the theater has been steadily declining for some time, theater manager Jerry Mann said. "It has fallen off since the Galaxy Theatres opened in Tulare, and it never really came back like it should," Mann said. "People get all teary-eyed but still they don't show up." How old? Mann, 68, said he was born and raised in Tulare, and he remembers going to the drive-in theater when it first opened. Trouble is, he doesn't know if that was 1946 or 1947. Neither does George, even though he lived next door to it for years. Nor does local historian Terry Ommen, who is researching the theater's history. "All I know for sure is that it was the Motor Inn Theatre when it first opened," he said, "and sometime in the mid-60s it changed to the Mooney Theatre." Ommen also wonders if the regular ticket price was a per-person rate and occasionally switched to a car-load rate based on what was playing. "It had to be per person regularly, otherwise why would anyone go in inside the trunk?" he said. Ommen thinks the trunk was the most coveted spot in the car. "I think half the population of Visalia entered that theater in the trunk," Ommen said. But George thinks it was another location. "I think half the population of Visalia was conceived in that theater," he said. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuoj7YvjkkU
I'm fortunate to be within 30 minutes of 3 drive-ins. The wife and I pack the kids up and go as often as we can in the summer months. Lots of good times had at the drive-in, both as a kid with my parents and when I got older on dates
I am truly suprised drive-ins haven't taken back off. Personally, I cannot sit thru a movie anymore. Between the cell phones, the idiots "axing" each other questions loudly thru the whole movie, and the privelege of paying $40 per seat with popcorn and a coke, fawk the movies. Sitting thru one in the privacy of a car is the only way I will find movies relaxing. Because people suck.
Talk about irony, the one in Red Wing was tore down bout 20 years ago then ten years later a CHURCH was built! Went from a place of sin to a holy place! Makes those of us laugh about it.
The one I worked at as a teen got torn down a few years ago. I worked security, one of the funest jobs ever. I use to steal co-workers cars and hide them out on the lot. Ah, good times. Cory
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