Holiday Drive-In
9900 Page Boulevard,
Overland,
MO
63132
9900 Page Boulevard,
Overland,
MO
63132
2 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 34 of 34 comments
To be more specific: You will find me downtown at the main library going through microfilmed newspapers on numerous occasions.
A bit more specific, please. I don’t live in St. Louis anymore and can’t really “research” till I back home on vacation…if my $$$ ever turns around.
Chris: The answer is simple…research.
JAlex, where did you get your info for this (and all the other) St. Louis theatres?
Well, OK, to have transition from single-screen to four-screen definitive.
Holiday went to two-screen operation February 6, 1976 and advertised itself as “Now We Are Twins!”
The four-screen operation opened February 27, 1976.
So, indeed, it was a twin screen operation for all of 21 days.
Never let it be said that Komm-Jablonow-Mid-America didn’t know how to milk the market.
Operation was a single-screen until Spring 1976 when it went to a 4-screen operation. (There was no 2-screen in the interim.)
Architectural credit for 1955 design given to Gerhardt Kramer Associates.
I remember those long lines of traffic on Page. I also remember the long lines in the concession stand. Connected to the drive-in concession stand were the Mid-America theater offices….which included the screening room where movies could be ‘screened’ in a comfortable setting.
Correct date of opening is June 5, 1955.
Of all the theatres that have come and gone, this is the one I miss the most (with the Airway D/I in St. Ann, MO coming in a close second)! This drive-in was almost a second home to me during the mid-70’s through to the 80’s. My fondest childhood memories consist of me driving up Page Ave. (not Boulevard) and seeing those stars and rockets…and then driving further down Page to make a U-turn into the very very very long lines on a Friday or Saturday night!
I can still remember the programming format for each screen. They usually showed one of those cheap soft core skin flicks on Screen 1, the blockbuster of the week on Screen 2 (the original field), Action/Horror/Last Week’s Blockbuster on Screens 3 and 4.
They showed the co-feature first followed by the main feature with triple features on weekends. Sometimes they even had “dusk to dawn” marathons. I distinctly remember an all comedy dusk to dawn show here with “Stripes”, “Richard Pryor: Live On The Sunset Strip”, “Cheech & Chong’s Next Movie”, and “The Blues Brothers”. I only made it through the first 10 minutes of the Cheech and Chong flick.
Whenever I go home to St. Louis and drive by here and see office buildings where this magnificent drive-in once stood, it breaks my heart. I’d give anything to have one more night at this place under the stars in its 4 screen glory!