Long Drive-In
24257 Riverside Drive,
Long Prairie,
MN
56347
24257 Riverside Drive,
Long Prairie,
MN
56347
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The Long Drive-In opened its gates on June 15, 1956 with Richard Widmark in “Backlash” (unknown if extras added).
The original owner of the Long Drive-In, Mrs. Tillie Smith of Sauk Centre, who also previously operated the Stanley Theatre in Stanley, Wisconsin, and the Park Theatre in Braham, Minnesota, was later notable for surviving brutal temperatures in her vehicle after a three-month vacation in Alaska between January and April 1957. At one time between Tok Junction in Alaska and the Yukon Territory of Canada, she drove her car on the highway in -74 DEGREES BELOW ZERO FAHRENHEIT! No joke! It did say that on the front page of the Long Prairie Leader. She also crossed through 93 moose along with a 120-mile strip of Alaskan highway. It took ten days to get there and eight days to come back, with an unbelievable grand total of 4000 miles in total.
The 86x60ft screen was once destroyed by high winds on July 17, 2017, and was rebuilt afterward.
Per a 2014 story in the Dairyland Peach, Laurel Meier and her husband bought the Long in 1985, and sold it to her daughter Michelle Claseman and her family in 2013. That’s when they switched to digital projection.
large clear photo of marquee:
http://www.mnfilm.org/fun/mn_long.asp