Sundance Kid Drive-In

The Parkside Drive-In opened on April 27, 1949, featuring “It Had To Be You” starring Ginger Rogers and Cornel Wilde. The second feature playing that evening was “Key Witness”. The drive-in got its name from being located across from Pearson Metropark in Oregon, OH. It opened as a single screen with a 622-car capacity. It was owned by Jim Dempsey who also owned the Telegraph Drive-In.

Ray Searles purchased the Parkside Drive-In and Telegraph Drive-In from Jim Dempsey. Searles built the Star-Lite Drive-In in Sylvania, Ohio, and also operated the Princess Theatre in Toldeo, Ohio. After his death in 1960, his sons Dan & Edward, took ownership of the theatres. The sons also handled the other family businesses which included a greenhouse and a chain of coin-op laundry and dry cleaning stores.

In 1979 a second screen tower was added to the Parkside Drive-In. The Parkside Drive-In was part of the Co-Operative Theatres of Ohio chain and the Jack Armstrong Circuit, until the Great Eastern Theatre Co. took over management of the drive-in.

In 1987 it was renamed Sundance Kid Drive-In. After 63 years of showing movies, the Sundance Kid Drive-In is still going strong. Originally there were eight drive-in theatres in the Toledo area. The Sundance Kid Drive-In is the last one operating in the area and still screens first-run movies on its twin screens.

Recent comments (view all 10 comments)

Chuck1231 on March 14, 2006 at 4:16 pm

Photo of the Sundance AKA Parkside DI circo 1960
View link
Here is the website for the Sundance Kid Drive-In
http://www.sundancekiddrive-in.com/

lostmemory on March 24, 2008 at 7:41 am

Address should be 4500 Navarre Avenue. Phone number 419.691.9668

lostmemory on March 25, 2008 at 9:39 am

Here is a recent photo.

lostmemory on April 21, 2009 at 2:44 pm

Here are some 1983 photos:

Photo1

Photo2

Photo3

And this is a 1982 photo.

michigandriveins on June 21, 2009 at 10:10 am

Thanks for posting the links to the americanclassicimages.com site Lost Memory, there’s some great old shots on that site! Here’s a 1999 shot I took of the original marquee.

kencmcintyre on April 13, 2010 at 3:38 pm

Here is an early 1990s photo:
http://tinyurl.com/y4vas4y

kencmcintyre on April 13, 2010 at 7:12 pm

Here is a 2009 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/y73o363

michigandriveins on January 2, 2011 at 6:56 am

It’s a shame they replaced that beautiful original marquee with an unattractive plastic sign. The Starlite on the other side of Toledo had a very similar marquee, check it out here.

michigandriveins on January 24, 2011 at 4:36 pm

The Parkside Drive-In actually opened 4/27/49. It’s second screen opened in July 1978, and it was renamed the Sundance Kid in 1987. It was advertised alongside the Butch Cassidy Drive-In with similar ads, so I’m assuming they were under the same ownership.

Drive-In 1954 on March 29, 2012 at 5:37 am

Just updated with some Toledo Blade movie section ad’s and pictures of the various marquee’s over the years.