That Denver Post story linked by CSWalczak said the 88 was built in 1972. “Bill and Margaret Holshue bought the 88 in 1976. The previous owner ran X-rated features”. Which means that someone built a drive-in from scratch just to run adult films? That seems unlikely in retrospect.
Anyway, my 1972 and 1976 IMPAs don’t list the 88, but the 1982 edition does, for whatever that’s worth.
My most recent memory of the 88 is that the concession stand sold unbranded sodas from its fountain. Squeezing a penny or two by using cheaper syrup in an almost pure-profit item left a literal bad taste in my mouth. OTOH, they almost always show triple features and stay open for as many weeks as they can, so I’m grateful that they’re around.
When the Mesa added those two screens, they bought them used from two other Colorado drive-ins that had recently down. One of them was the Lake Estes from Estes Park, and the other was the Pines from Loveland.
There was a great article in The Legend about the South. It told how Glen Cooper built the South in 1947 and the Boot Hill Drive-In about a decade later. Glen also owned drive-ins in Garden City and Hays. When son Ron left military service, he moved to Hays to run that drive-in, and when Glen passed away, he and his family moved to Dodge City. At the time of the article, 2011, he was worried about digital conversion. “We’d need a rich philanthropist who’s in love with drive-ins, or some kind of grant to do that,” he said.
Now look at the United Wireless Communications web site. It says, “In 2012, our region was in danger of losing a real treasure in the South Drive-In Theatre, which just happens to be our neighbor on McArtor Road. … So we bought it from the previous owners, made some upgrades for showing films in digital format, and have been having a ball giving our friends and neighbors a great place to have fun on warm evenings.”
Thanks for your photos, Chris1982, but I’m guessing that if the Coopers are still involved, they’re probably just managing the South.
360Wichita.com has a great article with a lot of photos of the 1974 construction work. My favorite is a blurry photo of the old Rainbow marquee holding the message “watch for the happy event / we’re expecting twins”.
The 1976 IMPA still listed it as the single-screen Rainbow, capacity 500. By 1982, it was updated to the twin-screen Landmark, the name the IMPA kept through its final drive-in list in 1988.
The Getty Drive In was originally a one screen theatre built in 1948 called the NK Drive In.
Loeks Theatres purchased the theatre in 1966 and changed the name to The Getty Drive In.
In 1978, Loeks added three screens making the Getty one of the largest outdoor theatres in the country.
Automobile radio sound was introduced in 1993, allowing movie goers more high-quality sound.
In 2013, the Getty Drive-In converted to DLP® Digital Projection, enhancing the quality and brightness of the picture and extending the life of the Getty for years to come!
When did the I-70 split from one screen to four? It had to be before summer 1992, because that’s when I saw A League of Their Own there (in the rain). The 1988 IMPA still listed it as one screen, for what that’s worth.
My 1969 IMPA erroneously lists the “Twin I & II” under Kansas City MO, capacity 1700. That error persisted through at least the 1976 edition. The 1982 edition was more accurate, listing it in Independence with 2 x 850 capacity.
The Barco Facebook page says it opened as the “Starvu drive-in” but that’s not quite accurate. The Grand Opening “poster” (or newspaper ad) that I uploaded from OzarksAlive.com shows the name as the Barco Starvue.
The 1952 Theater Catalog lists it as the Barco Starvue. The 1955 Catalog and the 1959 and later IMPAs list it as just the Barco, so that Starvue part must have been dropped soon after opening.
Another data point about inaccuracies in the International Motion Picture Almanac series: That Carthage Press article states definitively that the Dickinson theater chain closed the 66 in 1985, but the 1987 IMPA still lists it.
According to the Sunset web site, it was first owned and operated by Ralph Hough Sr. and family, then sold in 1966 to Jesse, Cecil and Clyde Ruble. In 1977, David Marks bought the Sunset from the Rubles.
Fire struck the old wooden screen in 1979; it was replaced with a steel screen for the opening of the 1980 season. Over the years the drive-in has enlarged from 200 to 325 cars. The Sunset upgraded to FM sound in 2001.
I found a great article in the Houston Herald from September 2011. Lots of nice photos, and these timeline clues:
It changed hands “several times over the years”.
Jaretta Lankford owned the drive-in and adjacent indoor theater “for most of the 90s.” The original screen blew down “in the mid-1990s” and was replaced with the screen that endures to at least 2011. That was also when it upgraded to FM sound, keeping a few car speakers too.
It was purchased in February 2010 from someone who “only had it less than a year”.
As of the article, Samantha Thomas owned the Phoenix and ran it with her parents, Richard and Hillary Thomas, and sister Noel.
The 1955 Theatre Catalog and 1959 IMPA list it in Garwood MO (3 miles east of the drive-in) instead of Van Buren (9 miles southwest), but the 21’s Facebook page claims Van Buren. The 1972 IMPA puts the 21 in Ellington (17 miles north).
The 1959 IMPA lists capacity at 250, and the 1955 Catalog had it at 210. By the 1972 IMPA, it’s down to 200. In the 1982 IMPA, it jumps to 800. But when I look at the satellite view, I just don’t see how even 700 cars could fit.
Also, the 21 was still listed (in Ellington!) in the 1987 IMPA, so any closure probably came after that.
The owner of Muni Storage purchased the former Grand-Vu Drive-In Theater and demolished the concessions building earlier this year. On Monday, Gregg Olsen will ask the City Council to annex and rezone the property so he can expand his storage and U-Haul rental business just south of it.
Uh-oh! Sounds like we need to change this one’s status to Closed. From its Facebook post on March 5, 2017:
“I have talked with David Baker on March 4th to ask if the drive in will be opening this year. He informed me that it will not be open this year. He is so sorry to see it not open but just there was just not enough interest in it to keep it going.”
According to an excellent timeline posted on Flickr along with the Grand Opening newspaper ad:
The Watertown opened June 30, 1955, but a flood on Aug. 18 destroyed everything but the screen. It rebuilt and reopened July 1, 1956.
The original owners, Fred Sirica and John Quatrano, sold the Watertown to Jade Theaters in 1973. The LaFlamme family bought it in 1976 and ran it until it closed in 1984. They had added two smaller screens in 1979.
The concession stand was torn down in 2002, and the screens followed in 2004. As of 2006, the State of Connecticut owned the property.
There are many more details in Charlie Crowell’s timeline, so you really should go read it. I’ll close with the last two sentences of that post:
With the exception of a 1965 aerial view, there are no known photographs of the drive-in during its years of operation.
That Denver Post story linked by CSWalczak said the 88 was built in 1972. “Bill and Margaret Holshue bought the 88 in 1976. The previous owner ran X-rated features”. Which means that someone built a drive-in from scratch just to run adult films? That seems unlikely in retrospect.
Anyway, my 1972 and 1976 IMPAs don’t list the 88, but the 1982 edition does, for whatever that’s worth.
My most recent memory of the 88 is that the concession stand sold unbranded sodas from its fountain. Squeezing a penny or two by using cheaper syrup in an almost pure-profit item left a literal bad taste in my mouth. OTOH, they almost always show triple features and stay open for as many weeks as they can, so I’m grateful that they’re around.
After the marquee was tagged with graffiti in January 2017, some Commerce Township folks launched a GoFundMe campaign to try to restore it.
http://www.theoaklandpress.com/general-news/20170420/commerce-township-drive-in-movie-marquee-to-be-rehabilitated-following-years-of-neglect
Video: http://www.wxyz.com/news/growing-push-to-revive-decades-old-marquee-in-commerce-township
The 1972 IMPA listed the Evans as capacity 600 cars “plus 120 seats”.
The 1982 IMPA had it at 500, circuit “Deluxe”. By the 1984 IMPA, it was gone.
When the Mesa added those two screens, they bought them used from two other Colorado drive-ins that had recently down. One of them was the Lake Estes from Estes Park, and the other was the Pines from Loveland.
There was a great article in The Legend about the South. It told how Glen Cooper built the South in 1947 and the Boot Hill Drive-In about a decade later. Glen also owned drive-ins in Garden City and Hays. When son Ron left military service, he moved to Hays to run that drive-in, and when Glen passed away, he and his family moved to Dodge City. At the time of the article, 2011, he was worried about digital conversion. “We’d need a rich philanthropist who’s in love with drive-ins, or some kind of grant to do that,” he said.
Now look at the United Wireless Communications web site. It says, “In 2012, our region was in danger of losing a real treasure in the South Drive-In Theatre, which just happens to be our neighbor on McArtor Road. … So we bought it from the previous owners, made some upgrades for showing films in digital format, and have been having a ball giving our friends and neighbors a great place to have fun on warm evenings.”
Thanks for your photos, Chris1982, but I’m guessing that if the Coopers are still involved, they’re probably just managing the South.
360Wichita.com has a great article with a lot of photos of the 1974 construction work. My favorite is a blurry photo of the old Rainbow marquee holding the message “watch for the happy event / we’re expecting twins”.
The 1976 IMPA still listed it as the single-screen Rainbow, capacity 500. By 1982, it was updated to the twin-screen Landmark, the name the IMPA kept through its final drive-in list in 1988.
A KCTV story from 2013 said the Midway opened in 1953. The 1952 Theatre Catalog didn’t list it, but the 1955 edition did.
All Catalog and IMPA references to the Midway assign it to Osawatomie, but as jwmovies noted, it claims a Paola address.
From the Getty Drive-In web site:
The Getty Drive In – Since 1944 (sic)
The Getty Drive In was originally a one screen theatre built in 1948 called the NK Drive In.
Loeks Theatres purchased the theatre in 1966 and changed the name to The Getty Drive In.
In 1978, Loeks added three screens making the Getty one of the largest outdoor theatres in the country.
Automobile radio sound was introduced in 1993, allowing movie goers more high-quality sound.
In 2013, the Getty Drive-In converted to DLP® Digital Projection, enhancing the quality and brightness of the picture and extending the life of the Getty for years to come!
When did the I-70 split from one screen to four? It had to be before summer 1992, because that’s when I saw A League of Their Own there (in the rain). The 1988 IMPA still listed it as one screen, for what that’s worth.
My 1969 IMPA erroneously lists the “Twin I & II” under Kansas City MO, capacity 1700. That error persisted through at least the 1976 edition. The 1982 edition was more accurate, listing it in Independence with 2 x 850 capacity.
The Barco Facebook page says it opened as the “Starvu drive-in” but that’s not quite accurate. The Grand Opening “poster” (or newspaper ad) that I uploaded from OzarksAlive.com shows the name as the Barco Starvue.
The 1952 Theater Catalog lists it as the Barco Starvue. The 1955 Catalog and the 1959 and later IMPAs list it as just the Barco, so that Starvue part must have been dropped soon after opening.
Another data point about inaccuracies in the International Motion Picture Almanac series: That Carthage Press article states definitively that the Dickinson theater chain closed the 66 in 1985, but the 1987 IMPA still lists it.
According to the Sunset web site, it was first owned and operated by Ralph Hough Sr. and family, then sold in 1966 to Jesse, Cecil and Clyde Ruble. In 1977, David Marks bought the Sunset from the Rubles.
Fire struck the old wooden screen in 1979; it was replaced with a steel screen for the opening of the 1980 season. Over the years the drive-in has enlarged from 200 to 325 cars. The Sunset upgraded to FM sound in 2001.
I found a great article in the Houston Herald from September 2011. Lots of nice photos, and these timeline clues:
It changed hands “several times over the years”.
Jaretta Lankford owned the drive-in and adjacent indoor theater “for most of the 90s.” The original screen blew down “in the mid-1990s” and was replaced with the screen that endures to at least 2011. That was also when it upgraded to FM sound, keeping a few car speakers too.
It was purchased in February 2010 from someone who “only had it less than a year”.
As of the article, Samantha Thomas owned the Phoenix and ran it with her parents, Richard and Hillary Thomas, and sister Noel.
The 1955 Theatre Catalog and 1959 IMPA list it in Garwood MO (3 miles east of the drive-in) instead of Van Buren (9 miles southwest), but the 21’s Facebook page claims Van Buren. The 1972 IMPA puts the 21 in Ellington (17 miles north).
The 1959 IMPA lists capacity at 250, and the 1955 Catalog had it at 210. By the 1972 IMPA, it’s down to 200. In the 1982 IMPA, it jumps to 800. But when I look at the satellite view, I just don’t see how even 700 cars could fit.
Also, the 21 was still listed (in Ellington!) in the 1987 IMPA, so any closure probably came after that.
Opening for the 2017 season on April 14. Per its Facebook page.
Also, the 19 charges just $1.16 (probably $1.25 with tax) for a small popcorn. Know of any theater selling popcorn any cheaper?
The Holiday added a sixth screen for the 2016 season.
From March 27, 2017 MagicValley.com:
The owner of Muni Storage purchased the former Grand-Vu Drive-In Theater and demolished the concessions building earlier this year. On Monday, Gregg Olsen will ask the City Council to annex and rezone the property so he can expand his storage and U-Haul rental business just south of it.
The 1959 IMPA listed it for 380 cars, and it stayed at that number in future editions.
The Hiway was still listed in the 1982 IMPA but was gone by the 1984 edition.
Now if you search “Judy Drive-In” on Google Maps, it maps the right place. As I type, the embedded map here is still wrong for some reason.
It opened for the 2017 season on March 17.
Uh-oh! Sounds like we need to change this one’s status to Closed. From its Facebook post on March 5, 2017:
“I have talked with David Baker on March 4th to ask if the drive in will be opening this year. He informed me that it will not be open this year. He is so sorry to see it not open but just there was just not enough interest in it to keep it going.”
According to an excellent timeline posted on Flickr along with the Grand Opening newspaper ad:
The Watertown opened June 30, 1955, but a flood on Aug. 18 destroyed everything but the screen. It rebuilt and reopened July 1, 1956.
The original owners, Fred Sirica and John Quatrano, sold the Watertown to Jade Theaters in 1973. The LaFlamme family bought it in 1976 and ran it until it closed in 1984. They had added two smaller screens in 1979.
The concession stand was torn down in 2002, and the screens followed in 2004. As of 2006, the State of Connecticut owned the property.
There are many more details in Charlie Crowell’s timeline, so you really should go read it. I’ll close with the last two sentences of that post:
With the exception of a 1965 aerial view, there are no known photographs of the drive-in during its years of operation.
(More information can be found at the “Florence T Crowell Historic Watertown Connecticut Photo Gallery”, only on Facebook.)
Oops! Forgot to add the link to that outstanding timeline, which was part of the original source on Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/53003768@N06/8454555088/