There was a weird little article in the Sept. 12, 2003 issue of Steamboat Today (Steamboat Springs CO) that mostly listed “Colorado drive-in theatres within mud season driving distance”. We know it’s not 100% accurate because it included the Sunset of Canon City, and we have a 1999 aerial to prove that it was gone by then. But its note for the Big Sky in Delta added:
Playing this weekend: “Open Range”.
When: 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
That really was a 2003 movie, so Steamboat Today didn’t pick up an old listing. Why did its writer believe the Big Sky was open and showing that movie twice per night?
The Delwood’s 1956 topo map showed a wide screen along the northeast side. An aerial photo from 1952, like all later aerials, showed only a screen in the southeast corner of the lot, but the 1952 photo more clearly showed something that looked like a couple of screen supports where the topo marked it.
The point here is not that the topo was wrong or slow to update (the latter was much more common), but that the Delwood might have switched screens within a couple of months of opening.
The top part of the old Starlite sign is “on display” in front of Media Station Design Works in Bozeman, according to a note posted by the local radio station. I put that in quotes because the photo with the story showed the sign fragments resting in the grass supported only by leaning against a building, which I would characterize as merely “visible” rather than on display. Anyway, some moron stole the “lite” part, but the cops later found it. A happy ending.
It appears that the Sky View’s original screen tower was destroyed (or fatally damaged) by a tornado on Aug. 10, 1974. The National Weather Service described it as follows: “Tornado first observed 2.5 miles S of Litchfield and moved NE approximately 2.75 miles. Observers described the funnel as 50-100 feet wide, 500-800 feet long, white to grayish white and debris apparently corn stalks. At 1:49 pm, the tornado touched down E of U.S. Highway 66 destroying a brick garage, a chicken house, uprooted a tree while passing through a cemetery, and blew lawn chairs and tree limbs into a house.”
That would account for the large screen tower’s presence in a 1973 aerial photo but its skinny replacement by 1993. The only odd thing about the description is that I’d think it would mention something big such as a 50-foot screen tower getting hurt that badly.
The 1952 Theatre Catalog included the Basin Drive-In, capacity 340, owner T. R. Knox. For the 1955-56 edition, it had changed to the Knox.
The Basin’s first appearance in the Motion Picture Almanac series was the 1951-52 edition, capacity 350, owner Knox-Trosper Invest Co. That continued until 1955, when it changed to the Knox. By 1959, the Knox’s owner had changed to Knox Theatres. In 1960-61, the drive-in changed to the Bell, capacity 350, owned by Tom Wade. In 1962-66, the owner changed to John A. Wade. The Bell continued in the IMPA through 1976 (a period when the directory noticed few changes), then fell off the list in 1977.
KIRO radio’s MyNorthwest ran an article celebrating the Blue Fox’s 60th birthday. For folks who care about these things, its first movie was April Love with Pat Boone and Shirley Jones. The article also included co-owner Darrell Bratt’s elaboration of SteveFratelli’s naming story.
“The reason it’s called the Blue Fox, from what I understand from the original owner, was when he built the place in ’59 he didn’t have a name for it,” Bratt recalled. “He contacted a sign company to build a sign for him. The maker of the sign says, ‘I’ve got a deal for you if you’re not picky on your name.’ He had a sign that was the Blue Fox Drive-In, you know the old drive-in restaurants. He goes, ‘It’s a repossessed sign, so if you call it that I can make you a heck of a deal on a sign!’ That’s how it got the name of the Blue Fox drive-in.”
Since the Internet Archive is having trouble saving the Auto Drive-In’s official history page, (which happens to be one of the best official drive-in histories that I’ve read), here’s what it says as I type:
The Drive In, with only its original screen, opened for its first season in 1945 and played until 1955 under the eyes of Olin Turner. Pete Zouras took over in 1955 and replaced the screen with a new state-of-the-art Screen Tower. Just in time to play Walking Tall! Pete stayed until the mid 1980’s. It’s a point of pride to us to know that Pete never played an “X” rated movie at this drive in, and instead chose to close with a showing of King Kong. The Screen remained dark until the summer of 1999 when it ran for 4 or 5 weeks. The highlight of that run was a showing of Will Smith’s Wild Wild West. Unfortunately, the drive in went dark again after that.
Then, along came Tommy and Carolyn (Mom and Pop). They had been in the restaurant business for 27 years when on the way to work in 2007, they noticed some profanity sprayed onto the sign. After covering up the profanity, they saw what terrible condition the drive in was in, and decided to call the owners to see what the trouble was! The owner came over and after a ten cent tour they went on about their day, but a dream had planted its seed in their minds. 3 months later, the renovation began, and went on for almost a year. In 2009 the drive in opened again and has been playing movies ever since. In 2011, the second screen was added. In 2014, the drive in successfully managed to convert to digital projection and sound! In 2015, we added a third screen! In 2017, we put the patio over the concessions stand. In 2018, we expanded the women’s bathroom to double its previous capacity! This year, we’ve begun work on sprucing up the men’s restrooms.
The obituary for Richard “Dick” Fox in the Reading Eagle implied that the Fox Theatres chain started with the Sinking Spring in 1957. “It was fate that brought Dick to Reading, where he built one of the largest independent movie theater empires and raised a family. Dick was living in Buffalo, N.Y., and drove a delivery truck for his father-in-law, Leo Katz, who had concession and drive-in movie theater businesses. In 1957, Dick jumped at the opportunity to run the Sinking Spring Drive-In.”
On the Starlite 14’s Facebook page, Bill & Lisa Muth wrote that they are retiring and will soon put the Starlite 14 up for sale. If no one buys it, the drive-in won’t reopen in 2020. WMTV ran a short video clip about the possible closing last night.
And by the way, it’s called the Starlite 14 because it’s adjacent to US Highway 14.
Poor Dick Crumpler. “A tornado in eastern Oklahoma demolished Dick Crumpler’s 69 Drive-In, Checotah. Dick also operates the downtown Gentry and is serving as city manager of Checotah. We have not learned whether he will be able to reopen the 69 Drive-In this season.” — Boxoffic, Aug. 8, 1960
Same drive-in? From the June 24, 1939 issue of Motion Picture Herald: “A new drive-in theatre has been opened in Fort Wayne, Ind., by Roy Gordon, managing director of Allen Theatres, Inc. Mr. Gordon plans to open a similar house for colored patronage.”
The first appearance of a Fort Wayne drive-in the the Film Daily Year Book was the 1947 edition as simply “Drive-In”.
As described in a two-page spread in the July 9, 1962 issue of Boxoffice, the Oasis had a straight 500-foot driveway from the highway to the boxoffice. But when traffic was heavy, they’d reroute cars through a 350-foot hairpin driveway to then pass through the same boxoffice in the other direction.
The May 7, 1962 issue of Boxoffice did its best to clear up the confusion:
Construction is under way of a new twin drive-in theatre in Little Rock, Ark., by the Arkansas Amusement Co. (Rowley United). The theatre is build on Cantrell Road at the site of the present Riverside Drive-In which was closed for the winter.
To be called the Twin-Razorback, the theatre will replace the Riverside and the present Razorback. Lease on the ground at the present Razorback in the east end of the city has been released to the school board for construction of a new junior high school.
The new theatre will have space for a total of 800 to 1,000 cars.
The April 9, 1962 issue of Boxoffice ran a small photo of three booms (I’d call them cranes) lifting and moving the 90x65-foot screen tower. Here’s the story that went with it:
Roadbuilding projects in Dallas, Tex., created some problems for Jack Weisenburg of the Kaufman Pike Drive-In Theatre, chief of which was the moving of the screen tower which was literally lifted and moved 250 feet.
The U.S. highway is being enlarged to a six-land thoroughfare and this took a good-sized piece off one section of the drive-in area, and there is to be an overpass over Jim Miller Road making it necessary to take another section of the land.
It appears that the Fox opened on July 14, 1960, based on a short story in the Aug. 1 issue of Boxoffice: “The gala opening of the new Fox Drive-In on old Statesville road was celebrated Thursday (14). The driver of each car was admitted free and many prizes were provided for patrons attending the initial screen program. The double feature opener bracketed Alan Ladd and Ernest Borgnine in "The Badlanders” and Frank Sinatra in “Never So Few.”
The Aug. 1, 1960 issue of Boxoffice reported that one Saturday evening, a car slammed into the box office, breaking the leg of the off-duty police officer working there and trapping manager Bill Corbell inside. Corbell worked through the pain to finish selling tickets for the night, and later x-rays revealed that he had suffered a fractured pelvis. At the time of the article, the policeman was still in the hospital but Corbell had been released.
“Could you take a nice 500-pound bear or two into your home or drive-in zoo? You can get one or both free of charge. One is named Louis, age 6, and the other is slightly younger. They are now on display at the South Twin Drive-In in St. Louis County, a unit of the Fred Wehrenberg circuit. The bears were brought to St. Louis from Minnesota as cubs by Fred Krueger, president of the circuit. Ed Spradlin, manager of the drive-in, will gladly show the bears, who will make nice pets, to any prospective adoptive owners. Call Spradlin at VIctor 3-9675 after 5:00 p.m.” —Boxoffice, May 16, 1960
The happy ending was reported in the Aug. 1, 1960 Boxoffice. Spradlin placed the bears, Louie and Suzy, with a small zoo in Hayti MO.
There was a weird little article in the Sept. 12, 2003 issue of Steamboat Today (Steamboat Springs CO) that mostly listed “Colorado drive-in theatres within mud season driving distance”. We know it’s not 100% accurate because it included the Sunset of Canon City, and we have a 1999 aerial to prove that it was gone by then. But its note for the Big Sky in Delta added:
Playing this weekend: “Open Range”.
When: 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
That really was a 2003 movie, so Steamboat Today didn’t pick up an old listing. Why did its writer believe the Big Sky was open and showing that movie twice per night?
The Delwood’s 1956 topo map showed a wide screen along the northeast side. An aerial photo from 1952, like all later aerials, showed only a screen in the southeast corner of the lot, but the 1952 photo more clearly showed something that looked like a couple of screen supports where the topo marked it.
The point here is not that the topo was wrong or slow to update (the latter was much more common), but that the Delwood might have switched screens within a couple of months of opening.
The 66postcards web site credits Tulsa City-County Library.
The top part of the old Starlite sign is “on display” in front of Media Station Design Works in Bozeman, according to a note posted by the local radio station. I put that in quotes because the photo with the story showed the sign fragments resting in the grass supported only by leaning against a building, which I would characterize as merely “visible” rather than on display. Anyway, some moron stole the “lite” part, but the cops later found it. A happy ending.
It appears that the Sky View’s original screen tower was destroyed (or fatally damaged) by a tornado on Aug. 10, 1974. The National Weather Service described it as follows: “Tornado first observed 2.5 miles S of Litchfield and moved NE approximately 2.75 miles. Observers described the funnel as 50-100 feet wide, 500-800 feet long, white to grayish white and debris apparently corn stalks. At 1:49 pm, the tornado touched down E of U.S. Highway 66 destroying a brick garage, a chicken house, uprooted a tree while passing through a cemetery, and blew lawn chairs and tree limbs into a house.”
That would account for the large screen tower’s presence in a 1973 aerial photo but its skinny replacement by 1993. The only odd thing about the description is that I’d think it would mention something big such as a 50-foot screen tower getting hurt that badly.
The 1952 Theatre Catalog included the Basin Drive-In, capacity 340, owner T. R. Knox. For the 1955-56 edition, it had changed to the Knox.
The Basin’s first appearance in the Motion Picture Almanac series was the 1951-52 edition, capacity 350, owner Knox-Trosper Invest Co. That continued until 1955, when it changed to the Knox. By 1959, the Knox’s owner had changed to Knox Theatres. In 1960-61, the drive-in changed to the Bell, capacity 350, owned by Tom Wade. In 1962-66, the owner changed to John A. Wade. The Bell continued in the IMPA through 1976 (a period when the directory noticed few changes), then fell off the list in 1977.
KIRO radio’s MyNorthwest ran an article celebrating the Blue Fox’s 60th birthday. For folks who care about these things, its first movie was April Love with Pat Boone and Shirley Jones. The article also included co-owner Darrell Bratt’s elaboration of SteveFratelli’s naming story.
“The reason it’s called the Blue Fox, from what I understand from the original owner, was when he built the place in ’59 he didn’t have a name for it,” Bratt recalled. “He contacted a sign company to build a sign for him. The maker of the sign says, ‘I’ve got a deal for you if you’re not picky on your name.’ He had a sign that was the Blue Fox Drive-In, you know the old drive-in restaurants. He goes, ‘It’s a repossessed sign, so if you call it that I can make you a heck of a deal on a sign!’ That’s how it got the name of the Blue Fox drive-in.”
According to the Cape Cod Chronicle, it was Charles Zehnder and Don Jentz who opened the Wellfleet in 1957.
Since the Internet Archive is having trouble saving the Auto Drive-In’s official history page, (which happens to be one of the best official drive-in histories that I’ve read), here’s what it says as I type:
The Drive In, with only its original screen, opened for its first season in 1945 and played until 1955 under the eyes of Olin Turner. Pete Zouras took over in 1955 and replaced the screen with a new state-of-the-art Screen Tower. Just in time to play Walking Tall! Pete stayed until the mid 1980’s. It’s a point of pride to us to know that Pete never played an “X” rated movie at this drive in, and instead chose to close with a showing of King Kong. The Screen remained dark until the summer of 1999 when it ran for 4 or 5 weeks. The highlight of that run was a showing of Will Smith’s Wild Wild West. Unfortunately, the drive in went dark again after that.
Then, along came Tommy and Carolyn (Mom and Pop). They had been in the restaurant business for 27 years when on the way to work in 2007, they noticed some profanity sprayed onto the sign. After covering up the profanity, they saw what terrible condition the drive in was in, and decided to call the owners to see what the trouble was! The owner came over and after a ten cent tour they went on about their day, but a dream had planted its seed in their minds. 3 months later, the renovation began, and went on for almost a year. In 2009 the drive in opened again and has been playing movies ever since. In 2011, the second screen was added. In 2014, the drive in successfully managed to convert to digital projection and sound! In 2015, we added a third screen! In 2017, we put the patio over the concessions stand. In 2018, we expanded the women’s bathroom to double its previous capacity! This year, we’ve begun work on sprucing up the men’s restrooms.
The obituary for Richard “Dick” Fox in the Reading Eagle implied that the Fox Theatres chain started with the Sinking Spring in 1957. “It was fate that brought Dick to Reading, where he built one of the largest independent movie theater empires and raised a family. Dick was living in Buffalo, N.Y., and drove a delivery truck for his father-in-law, Leo Katz, who had concession and drive-in movie theater businesses. In 1957, Dick jumped at the opportunity to run the Sinking Spring Drive-In.”
On the Starlite 14’s Facebook page, Bill & Lisa Muth wrote that they are retiring and will soon put the Starlite 14 up for sale. If no one buys it, the drive-in won’t reopen in 2020. WMTV ran a short video clip about the possible closing last night.
And by the way, it’s called the Starlite 14 because it’s adjacent to US Highway 14.
Poor Dick Crumpler. “A tornado in eastern Oklahoma demolished Dick Crumpler’s 69 Drive-In, Checotah. Dick also operates the downtown Gentry and is serving as city manager of Checotah. We have not learned whether he will be able to reopen the 69 Drive-In this season.” — Boxoffic, Aug. 8, 1960
The first appearance of the East 30 in the Film Daily Year Book was the 1951 edition, which implies a 1950 opening.
Same drive-in? From the June 24, 1939 issue of Motion Picture Herald: “A new drive-in theatre has been opened in Fort Wayne, Ind., by Roy Gordon, managing director of Allen Theatres, Inc. Mr. Gordon plans to open a similar house for colored patronage.”
The first appearance of a Fort Wayne drive-in the the Film Daily Year Book was the 1947 edition as simply “Drive-In”.
As described in a two-page spread in the July 9, 1962 issue of Boxoffice, the Oasis had a straight 500-foot driveway from the highway to the boxoffice. But when traffic was heavy, they’d reroute cars through a 350-foot hairpin driveway to then pass through the same boxoffice in the other direction.
Thanks for uploading this. It’s part of a three-page spread mostly about the Hiawatha in the June 4, 1962 Boxoffice.
From a three-page spread about the Twin in the June 4, 1962 issue of Boxoffice.
The May 7, 1962 issue of Boxoffice did its best to clear up the confusion:
Construction is under way of a new twin drive-in theatre in Little Rock, Ark., by the Arkansas Amusement Co. (Rowley United). The theatre is build on Cantrell Road at the site of the present Riverside Drive-In which was closed for the winter.
To be called the Twin-Razorback, the theatre will replace the Riverside and the present Razorback. Lease on the ground at the present Razorback in the east end of the city has been released to the school board for construction of a new junior high school.
The new theatre will have space for a total of 800 to 1,000 cars.
From the April 9, 1962 issue of Boxoffice.
The April 9, 1962 issue of Boxoffice ran a small photo of three booms (I’d call them cranes) lifting and moving the 90x65-foot screen tower. Here’s the story that went with it:
Roadbuilding projects in Dallas, Tex., created some problems for Jack Weisenburg of the Kaufman Pike Drive-In Theatre, chief of which was the moving of the screen tower which was literally lifted and moved 250 feet.
The U.S. highway is being enlarged to a six-land thoroughfare and this took a good-sized piece off one section of the drive-in area, and there is to be an overpass over Jim Miller Road making it necessary to take another section of the land.
This photo is from a four-page spread on the Oasis in the July 3, 1961 issue of Boxoffice, which should be in the public domain.
It appears that the Fox opened on July 14, 1960, based on a short story in the Aug. 1 issue of Boxoffice: “The gala opening of the new Fox Drive-In on old Statesville road was celebrated Thursday (14). The driver of each car was admitted free and many prizes were provided for patrons attending the initial screen program. The double feature opener bracketed Alan Ladd and Ernest Borgnine in "The Badlanders” and Frank Sinatra in “Never So Few.”
The Aug. 1, 1960 issue of Boxoffice reported that one Saturday evening, a car slammed into the box office, breaking the leg of the off-duty police officer working there and trapping manager Bill Corbell inside. Corbell worked through the pain to finish selling tickets for the night, and later x-rays revealed that he had suffered a fractured pelvis. At the time of the article, the policeman was still in the hospital but Corbell had been released.
“The Mount Vernon (Indiana) Drive-In, which has been closed for some time, is to be opened the second week in August.” — Boxoffice, Aug. 1, 1960
“Could you take a nice 500-pound bear or two into your home or drive-in zoo? You can get one or both free of charge. One is named Louis, age 6, and the other is slightly younger. They are now on display at the South Twin Drive-In in St. Louis County, a unit of the Fred Wehrenberg circuit. The bears were brought to St. Louis from Minnesota as cubs by Fred Krueger, president of the circuit. Ed Spradlin, manager of the drive-in, will gladly show the bears, who will make nice pets, to any prospective adoptive owners. Call Spradlin at VIctor 3-9675 after 5:00 p.m.” —Boxoffice, May 16, 1960
The happy ending was reported in the Aug. 1, 1960 Boxoffice. Spradlin placed the bears, Louie and Suzy, with a small zoo in Hayti MO.