The closest Google Maps address I could find for the former Hwy 13 (now 80) and ‘N’ is 9348 N Cth, Marshfield, WI 54449. By a 1980 aerial photo, it appeared that pasture land had already reclaimed the former drive-in site, and I could find no trace today.
Walter Maxwell started building his drive-in, probably next to his hay fields, in August 1951. It used “blast type” loudspeakers, which caused the Industrial Commission of Wisconsin to shut it down as of June 29, 1953. (The commission’s code required in-car speakers.) A Sept. 20, 1955 letter to the editor in the Marshfield News-Herald lamented that the drive-in was closed because of that order.
He might have violated that order. In November 1955, the State of Wisconsin charged that Maxwell had done so “on 10 occasions in 1953 and 1954” and asked Wood County Circuit Court to issue a fine and require him to upgrade his screen supports, toilet facilites and the loudspeaker system. Maxwell fixed everything except adding in-car speakers, saying “they might soon be obsolete,” and got the commission’s permission to reopen in August 1956.
In March 1958, Maxwell was again charged “for failure to equip his establishment with an individual speaker for each car.” In January 1959, Maxwell won the case when the judge ruled that the commission had overstepped its authority by trying to regulate speakers. That year, the drive-in resumed advertising as “Maxwell’s Parkway.” By 1962, its ads were simply “Maxwell’s.” The last News-Herald ad I could find was in August 1964.
In August 1999, an Associated Press article described the Sky-Vue, apparently in its first season, as being in Weston WI. “The Sky-Vue is on a 6 ½-acre spread with space for 300 vehicles,” it wrote. Todd Gress was the enthusiastic owner.
In June 2000, the Sky-Vue was advertising in the Wausau Daily Herald with a note “Now 2 Screens”. Its address was listed as 6615 County Road J, Schofield, and as “8 miles East of Hwy 51, 29E & Hwy J Interchange”.
The Sky-Vue’s 2002 ad described its location as “the intersection of Hwy 29E and Hwy J, Weston”. The last ad I could find for the drive-in was on Sept. 28, 2002.
The Daily Herald wrote in May 2003 that the Sky-Vue was about to be torn down. “The 6½-acre gravel-filled lot … was vacated at the end of last summer by Tim Suick, who was leasing the property after the Bank of Wausau foreclosed in 2001 on the original owner of the drive-in. The bank sold the property and equipment last fall, Suick said … Todd Gress, the original drive-in owner, bought the property in 1999 to
provide inexpensive showings in an open-air setting.” In September 2003, the property owners donated the concession building to move it to nearby Kennedy Park for Weston’s recreation and park department.
The Herald-Palladium (St. Joseph MI), Sept. 22, 2014: “The Evergreen’s grand opening was June 29, 1950, with a showing of “Johnny Holiday” … An advertisement touted the theater’s capacity of over 300 cars, a giant screen 50 feet tall and 45 feet wide … By 1971, the Evergreen - like other drive-ins in some rural areas nationwide - had begun showing a mixture of mainstream and increasingly more X-rated movies … The last movies shown at the Evergreen were on Aug. 31, 1986, and were “Sex Play” and “Punk Rock,” both rated XXX."
The Herald-Palladium (St. Joseph MI), Sept. 22, 2014: “In 1987, the once-mighty Airport Drive-In Theatre also closed after final showings of “Roxanne” and “The Untouchables” on Sept. 6(, 1987). One month later, (its owner, the Drive-In Theatre Corp.) sold the projection building, screen and entrance booth appraised at $40,000 for $20,000 to Marquette County. The county had leased 28 acres to the theater company since 1954 and it razed the drive-in for expanded development of an industrial park at the old airport … Today the Airport and Evergreen drive-in properties remain undeveloped, with … the concession building still standing at the Airport."
The Herald-Palladium (St. Joseph MI), Sept. 22, 2014: “Evergreen Theatres Inc. - the same company operating the Evergreen Theatre west of Ishpeming - opened the Marquette Outdoor Theatre on Aug. 20, 1954. The movie playing that night was the 1953 western thriller "Arrowhead” starring Charlton Heston and Jack Palance … The Marquette Outdoor Theatre was built on 10 acres with room for 500 cars, a capacity that would rival Escanaba’s Hilltop Drive-In for tops in the U.P. … the Marquette Outdoor Theatre … quietly closed … on Sept. 23, 1956, just over two years since it opened … Today, the place where the theater stood is in the area of businesses along U.S. 41 that includes Tractor Supply Co. and Charter Communications."
1979 photo by John Margolies, part of the Library of Congress’s John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive, and is effectively in the public domain.
Boxoffice, Dec. 16, 1950: “Storm clouds have apparently gathered for some of the newer drive-in theatres in Ontario. The Ontario Gazette, official publication of the provincial government, contains notice of application for the winding up of four automobile theatres, with a liquidator to be appointed in each case. The four are located at St. Thomas, Sudbury, Cornwall and Pembroke. The erection of further drive-ins in Canada has been halted by the federal emergency order, effective January 1, which prohibits the use of steel in structures for amusement purposes.”
Ronald Dalziel, who had purchased the St. Thomas Drive-In the year before, leased the Capitol from Famous Players in January 1977, according to an article in the March 28, 1977 issue of Boxoffice.
Oshawa native Ronald Dalziel, then age 26, was the guy who bought the St. Thomas in 1976 and converted it into a dual theatre, according to an article in the March 28, 1977 issue of Boxoffice.
The Saint Thomas Drive-In’s first appearance in the Motion Picture Almanac series was in the 1950-51 edition, with a capacity of 400 cars, and the owner listed as B. Herman. The capacity stayed the same for the rest of its run in the MPA drive-in list. Ownership changes:
1980 photo by John Margolies, part of the Library of Congress’s John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive and effectively in the public domain.
1980 photo by John Margolies, part of the Library of Congress’s John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive and effectively in the public domain.
1980 photo by John Margolies, part of the Library of Congress’s John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive and effectively in the public domain.
1977 photo by John Margolies, part of the Library of Congress’s John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive and effectively in the public domain.
1977 photo by John Margolies, part of the Library of Congress’s John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive and effectively in the public domain.
I enjoy being proven wrong, but I don’t believe this one. I’ve done a lot of research in Holbrook, and I’ve had some help from the Navajo County Historial Society. Despite hard digging into back issues of the Holbrook Tribune News, we have found zero evidence of any drive-ins other than the two that briefly battled it out in 1955 - the 66 and the Western Star.
It’s difficult to prove a negative, but I would point you to Holbrook’s 1957 topo map, viewable at HistoricAerials.com. That map shows outlines for the then-operating 66 and the closed Western Star, but no drive-ins on Iowa Street.
As the guy who wrote the book, twice, of the history of every drive-in that ever existed on Route 66, I’ve seen plenty of erratic, random mentions of drive-ins that were really just ideas, or that were built somewhere else. I would appreciate learning the sources for the belief that Holbrook had a third drive-in.
422nd Place is/was the road from Highway 210 to the cemeteries, so it’s possible that it was referred to as the cemetery road, just as the highway to a neighboring town was often called the “That-Town Highway”.
Another data point that the Lantern probably opened in September 1953. Independent Film Journal, Oct. 16, 1954: “The Lantern Drive-In at Denton, N.C. celebrated its first anniversary with a week of special events.”
And supporting the Theatre Catalog’s spelling over the MPA’s, the Raleigh News and Observer mentioned on Aug. 13, 1953 that “Jack H. Foust of Lexington” had been appointed a notary public.
In the 1955-56 Theatre Catalog, the only drive-in listed in Zapata was the Ramos, owner Felix Ramos, capacity 200. Same drive-in?
The closest Google Maps address I could find for the former Hwy 13 (now 80) and ‘N’ is 9348 N Cth, Marshfield, WI 54449. By a 1980 aerial photo, it appeared that pasture land had already reclaimed the former drive-in site, and I could find no trace today.
Walter Maxwell started building his drive-in, probably next to his hay fields, in August 1951. It used “blast type” loudspeakers, which caused the Industrial Commission of Wisconsin to shut it down as of June 29, 1953. (The commission’s code required in-car speakers.) A Sept. 20, 1955 letter to the editor in the Marshfield News-Herald lamented that the drive-in was closed because of that order.
He might have violated that order. In November 1955, the State of Wisconsin charged that Maxwell had done so “on 10 occasions in 1953 and 1954” and asked Wood County Circuit Court to issue a fine and require him to upgrade his screen supports, toilet facilites and the loudspeaker system. Maxwell fixed everything except adding in-car speakers, saying “they might soon be obsolete,” and got the commission’s permission to reopen in August 1956.
In March 1958, Maxwell was again charged “for failure to equip his establishment with an individual speaker for each car.” In January 1959, Maxwell won the case when the judge ruled that the commission had overstepped its authority by trying to regulate speakers. That year, the drive-in resumed advertising as “Maxwell’s Parkway.” By 1962, its ads were simply “Maxwell’s.” The last News-Herald ad I could find was in August 1964.
That’s a gorgeous Photoshop based on the original photo that Bill Huelbig uploaded here earlier. I love the twilight colors and neon restoration.
In August 1999, an Associated Press article described the Sky-Vue, apparently in its first season, as being in Weston WI. “The Sky-Vue is on a 6 ½-acre spread with space for 300 vehicles,” it wrote. Todd Gress was the enthusiastic owner.
In June 2000, the Sky-Vue was advertising in the Wausau Daily Herald with a note “Now 2 Screens”. Its address was listed as 6615 County Road J, Schofield, and as “8 miles East of Hwy 51, 29E & Hwy J Interchange”.
The Sky-Vue’s 2002 ad described its location as “the intersection of Hwy 29E and Hwy J, Weston”. The last ad I could find for the drive-in was on Sept. 28, 2002.
The Daily Herald wrote in May 2003 that the Sky-Vue was about to be torn down. “The 6½-acre gravel-filled lot … was vacated at the end of last summer by Tim Suick, who was leasing the property after the Bank of Wausau foreclosed in 2001 on the original owner of the drive-in. The bank sold the property and equipment last fall, Suick said … Todd Gress, the original drive-in owner, bought the property in 1999 to provide inexpensive showings in an open-air setting.” In September 2003, the property owners donated the concession building to move it to nearby Kennedy Park for Weston’s recreation and park department.
The Herald-Palladium (St. Joseph MI), Sept. 22, 2014: “The Evergreen’s grand opening was June 29, 1950, with a showing of “Johnny Holiday” … An advertisement touted the theater’s capacity of over 300 cars, a giant screen 50 feet tall and 45 feet wide … By 1971, the Evergreen - like other drive-ins in some rural areas nationwide - had begun showing a mixture of mainstream and increasingly more X-rated movies … The last movies shown at the Evergreen were on Aug. 31, 1986, and were “Sex Play” and “Punk Rock,” both rated XXX."
The Herald-Palladium (St. Joseph MI), Sept. 22, 2014: “In 1987, the once-mighty Airport Drive-In Theatre also closed after final showings of “Roxanne” and “The Untouchables” on Sept. 6(, 1987). One month later, (its owner, the Drive-In Theatre Corp.) sold the projection building, screen and entrance booth appraised at $40,000 for $20,000 to Marquette County. The county had leased 28 acres to the theater company since 1954 and it razed the drive-in for expanded development of an industrial park at the old airport … Today the Airport and Evergreen drive-in properties remain undeveloped, with … the concession building still standing at the Airport."
The Herald-Palladium (St. Joseph MI), Sept. 22, 2014: “Evergreen Theatres Inc. - the same company operating the Evergreen Theatre west of Ishpeming - opened the Marquette Outdoor Theatre on Aug. 20, 1954. The movie playing that night was the 1953 western thriller "Arrowhead” starring Charlton Heston and Jack Palance … The Marquette Outdoor Theatre was built on 10 acres with room for 500 cars, a capacity that would rival Escanaba’s Hilltop Drive-In for tops in the U.P. … the Marquette Outdoor Theatre … quietly closed … on Sept. 23, 1956, just over two years since it opened … Today, the place where the theater stood is in the area of businesses along U.S. 41 that includes Tractor Supply Co. and Charter Communications."
1973 photo by Steve Fitch, for sale here
I found this one in the collections of The Henry Ford in Michigan, of all places. It said the photo was taken in 1951.
1979 photo by John Margolies, part of the Library of Congress’s John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive, and is effectively in the public domain.
It’s part of the Library of Congress’s John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive, and is effectively in the public domain.
Boxoffice, Dec. 16, 1950: “Storm clouds have apparently gathered for some of the newer drive-in theatres in Ontario. The Ontario Gazette, official publication of the provincial government, contains notice of application for the winding up of four automobile theatres, with a liquidator to be appointed in each case. The four are located at St. Thomas, Sudbury, Cornwall and Pembroke. The erection of further drive-ins in Canada has been halted by the federal emergency order, effective January 1, which prohibits the use of steel in structures for amusement purposes.”
This drive-in must have opened by 1950.
Boxoffice, Dec. 16, 1950: “Jack Marion, in charge of the Oshawa Drive-In last season, has been installed as manager of the Columbia at St. Thomas”
Ronald Dalziel, who had purchased the St. Thomas Drive-In the year before, leased the Capitol from Famous Players in January 1977, according to an article in the March 28, 1977 issue of Boxoffice.
Oshawa native Ronald Dalziel, then age 26, was the guy who bought the St. Thomas in 1976 and converted it into a dual theatre, according to an article in the March 28, 1977 issue of Boxoffice.
The Saint Thomas Drive-In’s first appearance in the Motion Picture Almanac series was in the 1950-51 edition, with a capacity of 400 cars, and the owner listed as B. Herman. The capacity stayed the same for the rest of its run in the MPA drive-in list. Ownership changes:
1952-53 edition: Twinex 1960 edition: Moonlight Drive-In 1964 edition: Twinex (again)
1980 photo by John Margolies, part of the Library of Congress’s John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive and effectively in the public domain.
1980 photo by John Margolies, part of the Library of Congress’s John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive and effectively in the public domain.
1980 photo by John Margolies, part of the Library of Congress’s John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive and effectively in the public domain.
1977 photo by John Margolies, part of the Library of Congress’s John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive and effectively in the public domain.
1977 photo by John Margolies, part of the Library of Congress’s John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive and effectively in the public domain.
I enjoy being proven wrong, but I don’t believe this one. I’ve done a lot of research in Holbrook, and I’ve had some help from the Navajo County Historial Society. Despite hard digging into back issues of the Holbrook Tribune News, we have found zero evidence of any drive-ins other than the two that briefly battled it out in 1955 - the 66 and the Western Star.
It’s difficult to prove a negative, but I would point you to Holbrook’s 1957 topo map, viewable at HistoricAerials.com. That map shows outlines for the then-operating 66 and the closed Western Star, but no drive-ins on Iowa Street.
As the guy who wrote the book, twice, of the history of every drive-in that ever existed on Route 66, I’ve seen plenty of erratic, random mentions of drive-ins that were really just ideas, or that were built somewhere else. I would appreciate learning the sources for the belief that Holbrook had a third drive-in.
422nd Place is/was the road from Highway 210 to the cemeteries, so it’s possible that it was referred to as the cemetery road, just as the highway to a neighboring town was often called the “That-Town Highway”.
Another data point that the Lantern probably opened in September 1953. Independent Film Journal, Oct. 16, 1954: “The Lantern Drive-In at Denton, N.C. celebrated its first anniversary with a week of special events.”
And supporting the Theatre Catalog’s spelling over the MPA’s, the Raleigh News and Observer mentioned on Aug. 13, 1953 that “Jack H. Foust of Lexington” had been appointed a notary public.