Sundance Kid Drive-In
4550 Navarre Avenue,
Oregon,
OH
43616
4550 Navarre Avenue,
Oregon,
OH
43616
5 people
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Still has not reopened it is April!
It has reported that Sundance AKA Parkside has been saved and will reopen in 2023..
2022 will likely be the last season for the Sundance Drive-In:
Oregon, OH: After 73 Years, Movies Under the Stars May Be Ending in Oregon [Jun 21, 2022]
Hey Earl64 thanks for update on the marquee’s. I did not know that. But I did wonder why the marquee at the Parkside looked good but it looked funny also. I tell people to becareful using theatre catalogs and MPA’s in theatre reseach.
Additionally to my above comment, Jack Armstrong operated Parkside, Starlite, Telegraph, Jesse James, Eastside drive Ins from the early 60’s as well as Princess, Esquire, Valentine, Maumee indoor as well as a few other theaters in the area. Parkside and Telegraph were “PT Theaters Inc” DBA “Armstrong Circuit Inc.” I used to deliver concession supplies to all our theaters along with Bill Herring who was General Manager of Concessions for Armstrong Circuit.
To MichiganDriveins.com The Starlite Drive in Marquee was moved to the Parkside (Sundance Kid Drive In) When the Starlite was closed and torn Down. Ed Searles who owned both drive ins had it moved to his Parkside Drive In and had the “Star and Lite” changed to “Park and Side”. Parkside originally had a smaller marquee located on the bottom front of the screen in front and we continued using that for coming attractions etc. for years until it was taken down later on. Also Mike Kilgore, the capacity of the drive in was 840 plus not 500 as listed in your facts book. I was company supervisor for Armstrong Theaters and managed Parkside when we added the second screen. I have pictures somewhere of the second screen and the truck body used for back projection booth before it was installed in back of theater, plus pictures of the marquee when we had Mr No Leggs (Ted Volrath) appearing in person for his movie. Stupidly I have photos of him chopping a potato off my neck with a sword…LOL
Did it ever screen the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?
Data dump on the Parkside from my Theatre Catalogs and Motion Picture Almanacs. Note that every source listed it in Toledo.
TC 1949-50: Exec: J. Dempsey, capacity 800.
TC 1952-56: J. Dempsey and Cooperative Ths. of Ohio, 622.
MPA 1953-59: Coop. Theatres, Ohio, 500.
MPA 1963: J. Armstrong, 500.
MPA 1969-76: 500.
MPA 1982: Armstrong, 500. (If the second screen was up, it didn’t notice)
MPA 1984-88: “Parkside 1 & 2”, Armstrong.
According to Great Eastern this drive-in has been converted to digital projection.
That is good news!
New screen tower is up!!
The Sundance lost it’s main screen tower during a tornado on November 17, 2013. It is the original screen tower that was put in 1949. Great Eastern Theatres is planning to replace it.
Just updated with some Toledo Blade movie section ad’s and pictures of the various marquee’s over the years.
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.
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.
Here is a 2009 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/y73o363
Here is an early 1990s photo:
http://tinyurl.com/y4vas4y
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.