An Associated Press article, published Oct. 5, 1997 in the Springfield IL State Journal-Register, added more details about the drive-in’s restoration. B&B Theaters co-owner Elmer Bills Jr. said that when they were planning the indoor theater, “We went out and looked around the site and the old screen tower was still standing, and we said we might as well put the drive-in back in operation. We sure had plenty of room.”
The drive-in used FM radio for sound and used the indoor theater for snack bar, restrooms, and a second-floor projection room. At the time, Bills believed it was the only hybrid indoor-outdoor theater in the country.
As a rule of thumb, the vast majority of drive-ins with a number in their names are on or near a highway with that number. For example, that’s the reason it’s called the 19 Drive-In in Cuba MO.
Kenmore, while I am not immune from typos and mistakes, that quote is accurate from Page 84. I saw M. A. Harris + the Y Drive-In and put it here. Considering that there are no large Y intersections west of Pryor, my guess is that someone in the BoxOffice editorial chain typed the wrong town name.
Renaming and winterizing notes in a lengthy article from the Oct. 29, 1949 issue of BoxOffice:
LUBBOCK, TEX.—Extensive improvements have been completed for another winter of operation of the drive-in operated here by E. K. Lamb of Lubboclt and Doyle Garrett of Dallas.
Known as the Plains since its completion more than a year ago, the drive-in has been rechristened the Westerner. The name was chosen. Lam said, because it is appropriate and, specifically, as a salute to the football and other competitive teams representing Lubbock High school. The current high school football Westerners are the undefeated, untied favorites for the 1949 Texas championship.
RAMPS ARE PAVED – The most important improvement, Lamb said, was the paving of the ramps. Blueprinted for next spring is an extensive landscaping program which has necessitated drilling a well and installation of a distribution system for irrigation. The total program adds up to a cost estimated at more than $20,000.
All-winter operation will not be an experiment at the Westerner. Lamb and Garrett tried it last winter in the face of warnings that they were inviting bankruptcy. They played to good business throughout the season without missing a performance because of cold weather. The only time lost, aggregating about 20 days, resulted from ramps softened by one of the worst blizzards this area has seen in years.
Lamb expressed confidence that the new paving will be the answer to that problem. The two other operating drive-ins serving Lubbock plan to close around the middle of December. They are the Corral, one of the
Llndsley Theatres, and the Five Points, a Preston E. Smith Enterprises house.
REOPEN TWO IN MARCH – Both said extensive improvements are planned before reopening in March. J. B. Rhea, Llndslev manager, said projected work at the Corral includes further development of elaborate lanscaping, on which considerable progress was made this year. By next
year, expectations are the theatre will be given a park-like setting.
All the operators reported drive-in business this year improved over that of last year.
Smith estimated the increase at the Five Points for comparable periods since he acquired it in June 1948, at about 30 per cent. He spent more than $25,000 in improvements immediately after taking possession.
Looks like the opening was in late 1949, as reported in the Oct. 29 issue of BoxOffice that year: “M. A. Harris has opened a 300-car outdoor theatre three miles west of Pryor. He named it the Y Drive-In.”
Same drive-in? The Oct. 29, 1949 issue of BoxOffice reported, “T&D Jr. Enterprises, which recently opened a drive-in theatre on Route 99E south of Chico, faces a misdemeanor charge brought by the state division of highways of failure to obtain a permit before building the structure.”
The 66 Drive-In opened on June 6, 1952 with Joel McCrea in Cattle Drive and Donald O'Connor in Double Crossbones plus two cartoons. An article in that day’s Daily Illinois State Journal said that its curved screen tower was 80x80 feet, “said to be the largest in the state.” It had 1307 speakers on site, though some of them may have been for the seats “for those who do not wish to remain in their cars.”
The Twin Drive-In Theatre opened on May 10, 1973, showing Snowball Express and The Biscuit Eater on one screen and The Graduate with CC and Company on the other. By 1976, the “Kerasotes Twin” was advertising that it was on Wabash Avenue.
An Aug. 7, 1983 article in the State Journal-Register identified it as the Twin, owned along with the 66 by Kerasotes Theaters.
The Twin appears to have ceased advertising after the 1984 season. By July 7, 1989, it was the “former” Twin in a Journal-Register article about possibilities for the site of Kerasotes' next theater.
The Journal-Register mentioned on Aug. 3, 1991 that by that point, Kerasotes was renting out the old Twin site as a soccer field and using it as a warehouse. I would not want to play soccer on drive-in ramps!
There was a lengthy article about “Tanner’s Drive-In Theater” in the July 16, 1989 edition of Springfield IL’s State Journal-Register. It said the drive-in opened in 1950.
At the time of the article, Tanner’s operated Fridays through Sundays. The manager was Rose Tanner, whose father Harry and uncle Herman built the drive-in.
William Hopkins, secretary of Frisina Enterprises, which owned the Springfield, pleaded guilty on behalf of the corporation on April 27, 1981 to a misdemeanor charge of distributing harmful material. That’s according to the next day’s story in the State Journal-Register. It all started on March 7 when the drive-in was raided by the state’s attorney’s office while it was showing the XXX-rated film Seduction. The drive-in was fined $300 and “agreed to refrain from showing movies as explicit as the movie they showed,” said assistant state’s attorney James Grohne.
Indeed, a sampling of the movie ads in subsequent months shows a mixture of general-release films and hard-R drive-in movies. The last movie ad for the Springfield in the Journal-Register was Oct. 2, 1983 for Alone in the Dark and Zombie, both rated R.
The “Old Springfield Drive-In” advertised its Giant Flea Market through October 1986.
According to an Aug. 3, 1991 article in the Journal-Register, the Springfield’s screen was torn down in Spring 1991 after a wind storm damaged the wood-frame structure. At the time, it was owned by Giuffre Buick, which had used the screen for ads.
The State Journal-Register reported on Aug. 3, 1991 that the old screen caught fire on Aug. 1 and was the be demolished. At that time, the drive-in was owned by Midwest Lodging, the parent company of Super 8 Lodge of Springfield, which was using the screen “to prop up a large, lighted Super 8 Lodge billboard, which could be seen from Interstate 55 and U.S. 36.”
The Drive-In in Springfield held its Grand Opening on Sept. 19, 1947. Its first movie was Smoky, starring Fred MacMurray and Anne Baxter.
On Sept. 24, 1952, the Daily Illinois State Journal reported that the drive-in’s founder, Joseph Sikes, had sold it to the Frisina Amusement Co. of Springfield. By that point, the drive-in had expanded its capacity to “approximately 1200 cars.” Frisina said it planned a new, larger refreshment stand and a larger playground area.
It was scheduled to open on Oct. 15, 1949, based on this article from BoxOffice the following week:
PARAGOULD, ARK. – Construction has started on one of the largest and most unusual drive-in theatres and entertainment centers in Arkansas.
It is the new 516-car drive-in being built by Orris Collins, who operates the Majestic and Paragould theatres here, on Highway 25 South, three-quarters of a mile from Paragould.
Completion date has been set for October 15. John A. Collins, father of Orris Collins, who formerly operated a circuit of theatres in Arkansas, has come out of retirement after ten years to supervise construction of the new theatre.
The elder Collins said “it took something unusual to bring me out of retirement and this is it.”
There are 17 acres in the section under development.
There will be a swimming pool which can be entered from the street by those who just want to swim or by theatre patrons from inside if they want a dip before or after the picture or even while it is going on. There is a miniature golf course in the rear which will be operated as the swimming pool – with entrances from the highway or from the interior of the drive-in.
There will be a playground with a miniature electric train which carries 25 youngsters on a choo-choo ride at the same time. Seats in the playground area will provide a place for parents who want to be near their children while they play and at the same time not miss the picture.
Atop the screen tower there will be a searchlight, revolving, to attract attention to the location.
A 12-foot tower light will be over the box-office. A 17-foot double face attraction board will be out front. A water tower, lighted with colored lights, will be an out-front attraction. All-tile rest rooms are part of the tower building construction.
HERMISTON, ORE. – L. A. Moore has opened Hermiston’s first drive-in theatre. Construction is not complete, but is sufficiently far along to permit operation, Moore said. The drive-in is located one-half mile north of town on a ten-acre tract which the Moore’s purchased nearly ten years ago for the purpose.
The Diane opened in late 1949, probably in October.
The June 4, 1949 issue of BoxOffice hinted at an opening date: “Mrs. Ella Blakeslee and Merval Goodrich are building a 300-car $50,000 drive-in near Lander, Wyo., where they own the Grand.”
The Oct. 22, 1949 issue paid off. “LANDER, WYO. – The 326-car Diane Drive-In Theatre built here by A. M. Goodrich recently was opened with a special dedicatory show at which the mayor and other city officials were speakers. Goodrich also operated the Grand Theatre here.”
And sure enough, a 1949 aerial showed the drive-in looking active. It must have been taken late enough in the year.
Looks like it opened in late 1949. From the Oct. 22, 1949 issue of BoxOffice:
TRINIDAD, COLO. – The Peak Drive-In, first open air theatre to be built here, recently was opened by N. S. Sawaya, who has operated the Strand here several years. Located on Route 350, near the municipal power plant, the new drive-in is equipped with in-car speakers.
The Oct. 22, 1949 issue of BoxOffice reported that Arnoldo Rubio and his brother had painted a 45x65-foot color mural on “the front of the entrance building” of the Vermont. “Rubio painted the figures of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, while his brother worked on backgrounds.” At that time, the Vermont also added a playground with an attendant “on duty at all times”.
FLORA, ILL. – The new drive-in between here and Louisville, Ill., on Route 45 has been playing to good business since its recent opening. It is owned by Harry Jones of Lawrenceville and his business associates, who also operate drive-ins near Robinson and Princeton, Ind.
Hmm. Someone different owned the drive-in in 1949. Or was it a second Socorro drive-in? From the Oct. 8, 1949 issue of BoxOffice:
SOCORRO, N. M. – Owner Jack Wills says that weather conditions and construction difficulty have made it impossible to reopen the local drive-in this season. Three attempts have been made previously to complete remodeling of the theatre.
A July 20, 1980 article in the Southern Illinoisan of Carbondale agreed with the opening year and provided an approximate closing as the end of the 1979 season. “Business was good and owner I. W. Rodgers would open the Anna Drive-In in 1953. … The drive-in didn’t re-open this spring though and its patched screen looks down on a field of headless poles where speakers once hung.”
The Herald and Review of Decatur IL ran a lengthy article on Feb. 27, 1982, profiling the Rustic and its owner, Mike Stephens. It said the Rustic was opened “about 1949” by the Frisina chain, which sold it to Stephens and his wife in late 1980.
“The Rustic was opened quickly, and gravel had to be added later to its parking lot. ‘They had quite a bit of trouble getting the land to settle,’ Stephens recalls, and several customers' automobiles got stuck the first week and had to be pulled out.”
From the Sept. 4, 1948 issue of Motion Picture Herald, “Ralph Lawler, operator of the Peoria Drive-In theatre, and Joseph N. Sikes, who operates the Springfield Drive-In in Illinois, have formed a partnership placing both theatres under their joint management. Mr. Lawler was formerly district manager for Great States in Illinois, and Mr. Sikes is a Waukegan attorney.”
To elaborate on dallasmovietheaters' comments, a Dec. 13, 1980 article in The Pantagraph of Bloomington IL quoted Springfield manager Richard Goyne as saying that his drive-in caters to family movies while school is out but shifts to X-rated films beginning in the fall. “We do tremendous business or we wouldn’t be open,” he said.
The Motion Picture Almanac drive-in list got confused with something in the mid 1960s, dropped the Springfield in 1980, then picked it up again in 1983, presumably after Frisina sold it. Would that indicate a mid-80s revival? MPA mentions:
1950-59: Drive-In, capacity 800, owner Springfield Drive-In Corp.
1960-64: Drive-In, 800, Central States Theatres
1965-66: Drive-In, 800, Central States Theatres AND Springfield Drive-In, 1,100, Frisina
1967-76: Drive-In, 800, AND Springfield Drive-In, 1,100 (no owner info)
1977-79: Springfield Drive-In, 800, Frisina
1980-82: off the list
1983-84: Springfield Drive-In, 1 screen, Mid Am. Thea.
An Associated Press article, published Oct. 5, 1997 in the Springfield IL State Journal-Register, added more details about the drive-in’s restoration. B&B Theaters co-owner Elmer Bills Jr. said that when they were planning the indoor theater, “We went out and looked around the site and the old screen tower was still standing, and we said we might as well put the drive-in back in operation. We sure had plenty of room.”
The drive-in used FM radio for sound and used the indoor theater for snack bar, restrooms, and a second-floor projection room. At the time, Bills believed it was the only hybrid indoor-outdoor theater in the country.
As a rule of thumb, the vast majority of drive-ins with a number in their names are on or near a highway with that number. For example, that’s the reason it’s called the 19 Drive-In in Cuba MO.
Kenmore, while I am not immune from typos and mistakes, that quote is accurate from Page 84. I saw M. A. Harris + the Y Drive-In and put it here. Considering that there are no large Y intersections west of Pryor, my guess is that someone in the BoxOffice editorial chain typed the wrong town name.
Renaming and winterizing notes in a lengthy article from the Oct. 29, 1949 issue of BoxOffice:
LUBBOCK, TEX.—Extensive improvements have been completed for another winter of operation of the drive-in operated here by E. K. Lamb of Lubboclt and Doyle Garrett of Dallas.
Known as the Plains since its completion more than a year ago, the drive-in has been rechristened the Westerner. The name was chosen. Lam said, because it is appropriate and, specifically, as a salute to the football and other competitive teams representing Lubbock High school. The current high school football Westerners are the undefeated, untied favorites for the 1949 Texas championship.
RAMPS ARE PAVED – The most important improvement, Lamb said, was the paving of the ramps. Blueprinted for next spring is an extensive landscaping program which has necessitated drilling a well and installation of a distribution system for irrigation. The total program adds up to a cost estimated at more than $20,000.
All-winter operation will not be an experiment at the Westerner. Lamb and Garrett tried it last winter in the face of warnings that they were inviting bankruptcy. They played to good business throughout the season without missing a performance because of cold weather. The only time lost, aggregating about 20 days, resulted from ramps softened by one of the worst blizzards this area has seen in years.
Lamb expressed confidence that the new paving will be the answer to that problem. The two other operating drive-ins serving Lubbock plan to close around the middle of December. They are the Corral, one of the Llndsley Theatres, and the Five Points, a Preston E. Smith Enterprises house.
REOPEN TWO IN MARCH – Both said extensive improvements are planned before reopening in March. J. B. Rhea, Llndslev manager, said projected work at the Corral includes further development of elaborate lanscaping, on which considerable progress was made this year. By next year, expectations are the theatre will be given a park-like setting.
All the operators reported drive-in business this year improved over that of last year.
Smith estimated the increase at the Five Points for comparable periods since he acquired it in June 1948, at about 30 per cent. He spent more than $25,000 in improvements immediately after taking possession.
Looks like the opening was in late 1949, as reported in the Oct. 29 issue of BoxOffice that year: “M. A. Harris has opened a 300-car outdoor theatre three miles west of Pryor. He named it the Y Drive-In.”
Same drive-in? The Oct. 29, 1949 issue of BoxOffice reported, “T&D Jr. Enterprises, which recently opened a drive-in theatre on Route 99E south of Chico, faces a misdemeanor charge brought by the state division of highways of failure to obtain a permit before building the structure.”
The 66 Drive-In opened on June 6, 1952 with Joel McCrea in Cattle Drive and Donald O'Connor in Double Crossbones plus two cartoons. An article in that day’s Daily Illinois State Journal said that its curved screen tower was 80x80 feet, “said to be the largest in the state.” It had 1307 speakers on site, though some of them may have been for the seats “for those who do not wish to remain in their cars.”
The Twin Drive-In Theatre opened on May 10, 1973, showing Snowball Express and The Biscuit Eater on one screen and The Graduate with CC and Company on the other. By 1976, the “Kerasotes Twin” was advertising that it was on Wabash Avenue.
An Aug. 7, 1983 article in the State Journal-Register identified it as the Twin, owned along with the 66 by Kerasotes Theaters.
The Twin appears to have ceased advertising after the 1984 season. By July 7, 1989, it was the “former” Twin in a Journal-Register article about possibilities for the site of Kerasotes' next theater.
The Journal-Register mentioned on Aug. 3, 1991 that by that point, Kerasotes was renting out the old Twin site as a soccer field and using it as a warehouse. I would not want to play soccer on drive-in ramps!
There was a lengthy article about “Tanner’s Drive-In Theater” in the July 16, 1989 edition of Springfield IL’s State Journal-Register. It said the drive-in opened in 1950.
At the time of the article, Tanner’s operated Fridays through Sundays. The manager was Rose Tanner, whose father Harry and uncle Herman built the drive-in.
William Hopkins, secretary of Frisina Enterprises, which owned the Springfield, pleaded guilty on behalf of the corporation on April 27, 1981 to a misdemeanor charge of distributing harmful material. That’s according to the next day’s story in the State Journal-Register. It all started on March 7 when the drive-in was raided by the state’s attorney’s office while it was showing the XXX-rated film Seduction. The drive-in was fined $300 and “agreed to refrain from showing movies as explicit as the movie they showed,” said assistant state’s attorney James Grohne.
Indeed, a sampling of the movie ads in subsequent months shows a mixture of general-release films and hard-R drive-in movies. The last movie ad for the Springfield in the Journal-Register was Oct. 2, 1983 for Alone in the Dark and Zombie, both rated R.
The “Old Springfield Drive-In” advertised its Giant Flea Market through October 1986.
According to an Aug. 3, 1991 article in the Journal-Register, the Springfield’s screen was torn down in Spring 1991 after a wind storm damaged the wood-frame structure. At the time, it was owned by Giuffre Buick, which had used the screen for ads.
The second screen of the Route 66 opened in Spring 2004.
The State Journal-Register reported on Aug. 3, 1991 that the old screen caught fire on Aug. 1 and was the be demolished. At that time, the drive-in was owned by Midwest Lodging, the parent company of Super 8 Lodge of Springfield, which was using the screen “to prop up a large, lighted Super 8 Lodge billboard, which could be seen from Interstate 55 and U.S. 36.”
The article said that the 66 closed in 1986.
The Drive-In in Springfield held its Grand Opening on Sept. 19, 1947. Its first movie was Smoky, starring Fred MacMurray and Anne Baxter.
On Sept. 24, 1952, the Daily Illinois State Journal reported that the drive-in’s founder, Joseph Sikes, had sold it to the Frisina Amusement Co. of Springfield. By that point, the drive-in had expanded its capacity to “approximately 1200 cars.” Frisina said it planned a new, larger refreshment stand and a larger playground area.
It was scheduled to open on Oct. 15, 1949, based on this article from BoxOffice the following week:
PARAGOULD, ARK. – Construction has started on one of the largest and most unusual drive-in theatres and entertainment centers in Arkansas.
It is the new 516-car drive-in being built by Orris Collins, who operates the Majestic and Paragould theatres here, on Highway 25 South, three-quarters of a mile from Paragould.
Completion date has been set for October 15. John A. Collins, father of Orris Collins, who formerly operated a circuit of theatres in Arkansas, has come out of retirement after ten years to supervise construction of the new theatre.
The elder Collins said “it took something unusual to bring me out of retirement and this is it.”
There are 17 acres in the section under development.
There will be a swimming pool which can be entered from the street by those who just want to swim or by theatre patrons from inside if they want a dip before or after the picture or even while it is going on. There is a miniature golf course in the rear which will be operated as the swimming pool – with entrances from the highway or from the interior of the drive-in.
There will be a playground with a miniature electric train which carries 25 youngsters on a choo-choo ride at the same time. Seats in the playground area will provide a place for parents who want to be near their children while they play and at the same time not miss the picture.
Atop the screen tower there will be a searchlight, revolving, to attract attention to the location.
A 12-foot tower light will be over the box-office. A 17-foot double face attraction board will be out front. A water tower, lighted with colored lights, will be an out-front attraction. All-tile rest rooms are part of the tower building construction.
From the Oct. 22, 1949 issue of BoxOffice:
HERMISTON, ORE. – L. A. Moore has opened Hermiston’s first drive-in theatre. Construction is not complete, but is sufficiently far along to permit operation, Moore said. The drive-in is located one-half mile north of town on a ten-acre tract which the Moore’s purchased nearly ten years ago for the purpose.
The Diane opened in late 1949, probably in October.
The June 4, 1949 issue of BoxOffice hinted at an opening date: “Mrs. Ella Blakeslee and Merval Goodrich are building a 300-car $50,000 drive-in near Lander, Wyo., where they own the Grand.”
The Oct. 22, 1949 issue paid off. “LANDER, WYO. – The 326-car Diane Drive-In Theatre built here by A. M. Goodrich recently was opened with a special dedicatory show at which the mayor and other city officials were speakers. Goodrich also operated the Grand Theatre here.”
And sure enough, a 1949 aerial showed the drive-in looking active. It must have been taken late enough in the year.
Looks like it opened in late 1949. From the Oct. 22, 1949 issue of BoxOffice:
TRINIDAD, COLO. – The Peak Drive-In, first open air theatre to be built here, recently was opened by N. S. Sawaya, who has operated the Strand here several years. Located on Route 350, near the municipal power plant, the new drive-in is equipped with in-car speakers.
The Oct. 22, 1949 issue of BoxOffice reported that Arnoldo Rubio and his brother had painted a 45x65-foot color mural on “the front of the entrance building” of the Vermont. “Rubio painted the figures of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, while his brother worked on backgrounds.” At that time, the Vermont also added a playground with an attendant “on duty at all times”.
An aside from the Oct. 15, 1949 issue of BoxOffice: “Tom Knight has opened a drive-in at Riverton, Wyo., where he already owns a theatre.”
From the Oct. 8, 1949 issue of BoxOffice:
FLORA, ILL. – The new drive-in between here and Louisville, Ill., on Route 45 has been playing to good business since its recent opening. It is owned by Harry Jones of Lawrenceville and his business associates, who also operate drive-ins near Robinson and Princeton, Ind.
Hmm. Someone different owned the drive-in in 1949. Or was it a second Socorro drive-in? From the Oct. 8, 1949 issue of BoxOffice:
SOCORRO, N. M. – Owner Jack Wills says that weather conditions and construction difficulty have made it impossible to reopen the local drive-in this season. Three attempts have been made previously to complete remodeling of the theatre.
A July 20, 1980 article in the Southern Illinoisan of Carbondale agreed with the opening year and provided an approximate closing as the end of the 1979 season. “Business was good and owner I. W. Rodgers would open the Anna Drive-In in 1953. … The drive-in didn’t re-open this spring though and its patched screen looks down on a field of headless poles where speakers once hung.”
The Herald and Review of Decatur IL ran a lengthy article on Feb. 27, 1982, profiling the Rustic and its owner, Mike Stephens. It said the Rustic was opened “about 1949” by the Frisina chain, which sold it to Stephens and his wife in late 1980.
“The Rustic was opened quickly, and gravel had to be added later to its parking lot. ‘They had quite a bit of trouble getting the land to settle,’ Stephens recalls, and several customers' automobiles got stuck the first week and had to be pulled out.”
From the Sept. 4, 1948 issue of Motion Picture Herald, “Ralph Lawler, operator of the Peoria Drive-In theatre, and Joseph N. Sikes, who operates the Springfield Drive-In in Illinois, have formed a partnership placing both theatres under their joint management. Mr. Lawler was formerly district manager for Great States in Illinois, and Mr. Sikes is a Waukegan attorney.”
To elaborate on dallasmovietheaters' comments, a Dec. 13, 1980 article in The Pantagraph of Bloomington IL quoted Springfield manager Richard Goyne as saying that his drive-in caters to family movies while school is out but shifts to X-rated films beginning in the fall. “We do tremendous business or we wouldn’t be open,” he said.
The Motion Picture Almanac drive-in list got confused with something in the mid 1960s, dropped the Springfield in 1980, then picked it up again in 1983, presumably after Frisina sold it. Would that indicate a mid-80s revival? MPA mentions: