Some kind of drive-in was open in Cortez in 1949. Did it become the Arroyo? From the Nov. 12, 1949 issue of BoxOffice: “CORTEZ, COLO. – The Independent Drive-In Theatre near here has been closed for the season, according to Phillip Belt, owner.”
The Arroyo debuted in the 1951 Film Daily Year Book.
The 1952 Theatre Catalog listed the Arroyo, capacity 500, “Exec: Owen Maxey, Mgr.” The 1955-56 Catalog lowered the capacity to 300 and changed the Exec to Mr. and Mrs. Torenzio Gai.
Motion Picture Almanac appearances for the Arroyo:
1953-66: capacity 300, owner E. H. Davison
1967-76: 300 (no owner info)
1977-82: 350, Allen Ths.
1983-88: 1 screen, Allen Theas.
The Arroyo was not included in Allen Theatres' holdings in the circuits section of the 1977-82 MPAs, but arrived in the 1983 edition. Maybe for once the drive-in list guy knew more than the circuit list guy?
Another view of that renaming came the following week in the Nov. 5, issue. “LUBBOCK – The Lone Star Theatres, Inc., has changed the name of the Plains Drive-In here to the Westerner, to eliminate difficulties arising from the duplication of the name Plains. There is a Plains Theatre here, owned by P. E. Smith and the names have caused considerable confusion among bookers, shippers and cashiers.”
The drive-in was across the street from what is now an auto repair shop at 23705 Elk Rd, Chanute, KS 66720. Back then, the street was US Highway 169; now it’s just Elk Road.
The Nov. 5, 1949 issue of BoxOffice took care of the naming question:
CHANUTE, KAS. – Neocha, a combination of the first three letters of Neosho and Chanute, was the name selected for the new drive-in north of here by Ray Walsh and Dan Payton. W. R. Hill was winner of the $25 naming contest award. About 175 entries were received and each entrant will receive a complimentary ticket to the theatre when it opens next springs.
The Sept. 3, 1949 issue of BoxOffice reported an optimistic opening date. “William Bradfield of the Roxy, Carthage, Mo., was (in Kansas City) for several days buying and booking films for the Roxy and his new 66 Drive-In, one mile west of Carthage, which will open September 11. Friends in the industry have been invited to attend the opening.”
And the Nov. 5 issue told of a problem overcome. “CARTHAGE, MO. – Mechanical difficulties handicapped the opening of the 66 Drive-In west of Municipal park here recently. One of the sound amplifiers went out and a short in the arc furnishing light to one of the projectors caused faint images on the screen. Bill Bradfield, one of the owners, said the troubles were corrected the following day and shows went off as scheduled.”
One last transaction. The Springfield Journal-Register reported on Oct. 14, 1981 that the Springfield Drive-In had been sold along with 25 other Frisina theaters to Mid America Theaters of Sharon Springs KS.
Mid America’s co-owner Craig Stout said the drive-in would gradually move to family-oriented movies. “For the remainder of this season, we definitely will have no X-movies,” Stout said, “but we might have some ‘hard R’ films.”
There was a lengthy Associated Press article about the Egyptian and owner Alene Smith published in the July 14, 1985 issue of the Springfield IL State Journal-Register.
Smith would pick up the microphone and tell the patrons listening to the drive-in’s AM/FM feed that its screen “is the largest in the world – nine stories high and 200 feet wide”. She would also plug the “Charlie Burger” named after local gangster Charlie Birger, the last man hanged for murder in Illinois.
The News Tribune of Tacoma published a short video yesterday of a crew preparing to demolish the Star-Lite screen tower to make way for a distribution center.
A lengthy Copley News Service article, published in the Aug. 12, 2005 issue of the Springfield IL State Journal-Register, provided more details. Justin West, then 41, opened the Galva Autovue and was the projectionist. The screens were 20x48 feet.
An Associated Press article, published Oct. 5, 1997 in the Springfield IL State Journal-Register, added more details about the drive-in’s restoration. B&B Theaters co-owner Elmer Bills Jr. said that when they were planning the indoor theater, “We went out and looked around the site and the old screen tower was still standing, and we said we might as well put the drive-in back in operation. We sure had plenty of room.”
The drive-in used FM radio for sound and used the indoor theater for snack bar, restrooms, and a second-floor projection room. At the time, Bills believed it was the only hybrid indoor-outdoor theater in the country.
As a rule of thumb, the vast majority of drive-ins with a number in their names are on or near a highway with that number. For example, that’s the reason it’s called the 19 Drive-In in Cuba MO.
Kenmore, while I am not immune from typos and mistakes, that quote is accurate from Page 84. I saw M. A. Harris + the Y Drive-In and put it here. Considering that there are no large Y intersections west of Pryor, my guess is that someone in the BoxOffice editorial chain typed the wrong town name.
Renaming and winterizing notes in a lengthy article from the Oct. 29, 1949 issue of BoxOffice:
LUBBOCK, TEX.—Extensive improvements have been completed for another winter of operation of the drive-in operated here by E. K. Lamb of Lubboclt and Doyle Garrett of Dallas.
Known as the Plains since its completion more than a year ago, the drive-in has been rechristened the Westerner. The name was chosen. Lam said, because it is appropriate and, specifically, as a salute to the football and other competitive teams representing Lubbock High school. The current high school football Westerners are the undefeated, untied favorites for the 1949 Texas championship.
RAMPS ARE PAVED – The most important improvement, Lamb said, was the paving of the ramps. Blueprinted for next spring is an extensive landscaping program which has necessitated drilling a well and installation of a distribution system for irrigation. The total program adds up to a cost estimated at more than $20,000.
All-winter operation will not be an experiment at the Westerner. Lamb and Garrett tried it last winter in the face of warnings that they were inviting bankruptcy. They played to good business throughout the season without missing a performance because of cold weather. The only time lost, aggregating about 20 days, resulted from ramps softened by one of the worst blizzards this area has seen in years.
Lamb expressed confidence that the new paving will be the answer to that problem. The two other operating drive-ins serving Lubbock plan to close around the middle of December. They are the Corral, one of the
Llndsley Theatres, and the Five Points, a Preston E. Smith Enterprises house.
REOPEN TWO IN MARCH – Both said extensive improvements are planned before reopening in March. J. B. Rhea, Llndslev manager, said projected work at the Corral includes further development of elaborate lanscaping, on which considerable progress was made this year. By next
year, expectations are the theatre will be given a park-like setting.
All the operators reported drive-in business this year improved over that of last year.
Smith estimated the increase at the Five Points for comparable periods since he acquired it in June 1948, at about 30 per cent. He spent more than $25,000 in improvements immediately after taking possession.
Looks like the opening was in late 1949, as reported in the Oct. 29 issue of BoxOffice that year: “M. A. Harris has opened a 300-car outdoor theatre three miles west of Pryor. He named it the Y Drive-In.”
Same drive-in? The Oct. 29, 1949 issue of BoxOffice reported, “T&D Jr. Enterprises, which recently opened a drive-in theatre on Route 99E south of Chico, faces a misdemeanor charge brought by the state division of highways of failure to obtain a permit before building the structure.”
The 66 Drive-In opened on June 6, 1952 with Joel McCrea in Cattle Drive and Donald O'Connor in Double Crossbones plus two cartoons. An article in that day’s Daily Illinois State Journal said that its curved screen tower was 80x80 feet, “said to be the largest in the state.” It had 1307 speakers on site, though some of them may have been for the seats “for those who do not wish to remain in their cars.”
The Twin Drive-In Theatre opened on May 10, 1973, showing Snowball Express and The Biscuit Eater on one screen and The Graduate with CC and Company on the other. By 1976, the “Kerasotes Twin” was advertising that it was on Wabash Avenue.
An Aug. 7, 1983 article in the State Journal-Register identified it as the Twin, owned along with the 66 by Kerasotes Theaters.
The Twin appears to have ceased advertising after the 1984 season. By July 7, 1989, it was the “former” Twin in a Journal-Register article about possibilities for the site of Kerasotes' next theater.
The Journal-Register mentioned on Aug. 3, 1991 that by that point, Kerasotes was renting out the old Twin site as a soccer field and using it as a warehouse. I would not want to play soccer on drive-in ramps!
There was a lengthy article about “Tanner’s Drive-In Theater” in the July 16, 1989 edition of Springfield IL’s State Journal-Register. It said the drive-in opened in 1950.
At the time of the article, Tanner’s operated Fridays through Sundays. The manager was Rose Tanner, whose father Harry and uncle Herman built the drive-in.
William Hopkins, secretary of Frisina Enterprises, which owned the Springfield, pleaded guilty on behalf of the corporation on April 27, 1981 to a misdemeanor charge of distributing harmful material. That’s according to the next day’s story in the State Journal-Register. It all started on March 7 when the drive-in was raided by the state’s attorney’s office while it was showing the XXX-rated film Seduction. The drive-in was fined $300 and “agreed to refrain from showing movies as explicit as the movie they showed,” said assistant state’s attorney James Grohne.
Indeed, a sampling of the movie ads in subsequent months shows a mixture of general-release films and hard-R drive-in movies. The last movie ad for the Springfield in the Journal-Register was Oct. 2, 1983 for Alone in the Dark and Zombie, both rated R.
The “Old Springfield Drive-In” advertised its Giant Flea Market through October 1986.
According to an Aug. 3, 1991 article in the Journal-Register, the Springfield’s screen was torn down in Spring 1991 after a wind storm damaged the wood-frame structure. At the time, it was owned by Giuffre Buick, which had used the screen for ads.
The State Journal-Register reported on Aug. 3, 1991 that the old screen caught fire on Aug. 1 and was the be demolished. At that time, the drive-in was owned by Midwest Lodging, the parent company of Super 8 Lodge of Springfield, which was using the screen “to prop up a large, lighted Super 8 Lodge billboard, which could be seen from Interstate 55 and U.S. 36.”
The Drive-In in Springfield held its Grand Opening on Sept. 19, 1947. Its first movie was Smoky, starring Fred MacMurray and Anne Baxter.
On Sept. 24, 1952, the Daily Illinois State Journal reported that the drive-in’s founder, Joseph Sikes, had sold it to the Frisina Amusement Co. of Springfield. By that point, the drive-in had expanded its capacity to “approximately 1200 cars.” Frisina said it planned a new, larger refreshment stand and a larger playground area.
It was scheduled to open on Oct. 15, 1949, based on this article from BoxOffice the following week:
PARAGOULD, ARK. – Construction has started on one of the largest and most unusual drive-in theatres and entertainment centers in Arkansas.
It is the new 516-car drive-in being built by Orris Collins, who operates the Majestic and Paragould theatres here, on Highway 25 South, three-quarters of a mile from Paragould.
Completion date has been set for October 15. John A. Collins, father of Orris Collins, who formerly operated a circuit of theatres in Arkansas, has come out of retirement after ten years to supervise construction of the new theatre.
The elder Collins said “it took something unusual to bring me out of retirement and this is it.”
There are 17 acres in the section under development.
There will be a swimming pool which can be entered from the street by those who just want to swim or by theatre patrons from inside if they want a dip before or after the picture or even while it is going on. There is a miniature golf course in the rear which will be operated as the swimming pool – with entrances from the highway or from the interior of the drive-in.
There will be a playground with a miniature electric train which carries 25 youngsters on a choo-choo ride at the same time. Seats in the playground area will provide a place for parents who want to be near their children while they play and at the same time not miss the picture.
Atop the screen tower there will be a searchlight, revolving, to attract attention to the location.
A 12-foot tower light will be over the box-office. A 17-foot double face attraction board will be out front. A water tower, lighted with colored lights, will be an out-front attraction. All-tile rest rooms are part of the tower building construction.
HERMISTON, ORE. – L. A. Moore has opened Hermiston’s first drive-in theatre. Construction is not complete, but is sufficiently far along to permit operation, Moore said. The drive-in is located one-half mile north of town on a ten-acre tract which the Moore’s purchased nearly ten years ago for the purpose.
Some kind of drive-in was open in Cortez in 1949. Did it become the Arroyo? From the Nov. 12, 1949 issue of BoxOffice: “CORTEZ, COLO. – The Independent Drive-In Theatre near here has been closed for the season, according to Phillip Belt, owner.”
The Arroyo debuted in the 1951 Film Daily Year Book.
The 1952 Theatre Catalog listed the Arroyo, capacity 500, “Exec: Owen Maxey, Mgr.” The 1955-56 Catalog lowered the capacity to 300 and changed the Exec to Mr. and Mrs. Torenzio Gai.
Motion Picture Almanac appearances for the Arroyo:
The Arroyo was not included in Allen Theatres' holdings in the circuits section of the 1977-82 MPAs, but arrived in the 1983 edition. Maybe for once the drive-in list guy knew more than the circuit list guy?
Another view of that renaming came the following week in the Nov. 5, issue. “LUBBOCK – The Lone Star Theatres, Inc., has changed the name of the Plains Drive-In here to the Westerner, to eliminate difficulties arising from the duplication of the name Plains. There is a Plains Theatre here, owned by P. E. Smith and the names have caused considerable confusion among bookers, shippers and cashiers.”
The drive-in was across the street from what is now an auto repair shop at 23705 Elk Rd, Chanute, KS 66720. Back then, the street was US Highway 169; now it’s just Elk Road.
The Nov. 5, 1949 issue of BoxOffice took care of the naming question:
CHANUTE, KAS. – Neocha, a combination of the first three letters of Neosho and Chanute, was the name selected for the new drive-in north of here by Ray Walsh and Dan Payton. W. R. Hill was winner of the $25 naming contest award. About 175 entries were received and each entrant will receive a complimentary ticket to the theatre when it opens next springs.
The Sept. 3, 1949 issue of BoxOffice reported an optimistic opening date. “William Bradfield of the Roxy, Carthage, Mo., was (in Kansas City) for several days buying and booking films for the Roxy and his new 66 Drive-In, one mile west of Carthage, which will open September 11. Friends in the industry have been invited to attend the opening.”
And the Nov. 5 issue told of a problem overcome. “CARTHAGE, MO. – Mechanical difficulties handicapped the opening of the 66 Drive-In west of Municipal park here recently. One of the sound amplifiers went out and a short in the arc furnishing light to one of the projectors caused faint images on the screen. Bill Bradfield, one of the owners, said the troubles were corrected the following day and shows went off as scheduled.”
One last transaction. The Springfield Journal-Register reported on Oct. 14, 1981 that the Springfield Drive-In had been sold along with 25 other Frisina theaters to Mid America Theaters of Sharon Springs KS.
Mid America’s co-owner Craig Stout said the drive-in would gradually move to family-oriented movies. “For the remainder of this season, we definitely will have no X-movies,” Stout said, “but we might have some ‘hard R’ films.”
There was a lengthy Associated Press article about the Egyptian and owner Alene Smith published in the July 14, 1985 issue of the Springfield IL State Journal-Register.
Smith would pick up the microphone and tell the patrons listening to the drive-in’s AM/FM feed that its screen “is the largest in the world – nine stories high and 200 feet wide”. She would also plug the “Charlie Burger” named after local gangster Charlie Birger, the last man hanged for murder in Illinois.
The News Tribune of Tacoma published a short video yesterday of a crew preparing to demolish the Star-Lite screen tower to make way for a distribution center.
A lengthy Copley News Service article, published in the Aug. 12, 2005 issue of the Springfield IL State Journal-Register, provided more details. Justin West, then 41, opened the Galva Autovue and was the projectionist. The screens were 20x48 feet.
An Associated Press article, published Oct. 5, 1997 in the Springfield IL State Journal-Register, added more details about the drive-in’s restoration. B&B Theaters co-owner Elmer Bills Jr. said that when they were planning the indoor theater, “We went out and looked around the site and the old screen tower was still standing, and we said we might as well put the drive-in back in operation. We sure had plenty of room.”
The drive-in used FM radio for sound and used the indoor theater for snack bar, restrooms, and a second-floor projection room. At the time, Bills believed it was the only hybrid indoor-outdoor theater in the country.
As a rule of thumb, the vast majority of drive-ins with a number in their names are on or near a highway with that number. For example, that’s the reason it’s called the 19 Drive-In in Cuba MO.
Kenmore, while I am not immune from typos and mistakes, that quote is accurate from Page 84. I saw M. A. Harris + the Y Drive-In and put it here. Considering that there are no large Y intersections west of Pryor, my guess is that someone in the BoxOffice editorial chain typed the wrong town name.
Renaming and winterizing notes in a lengthy article from the Oct. 29, 1949 issue of BoxOffice:
LUBBOCK, TEX.—Extensive improvements have been completed for another winter of operation of the drive-in operated here by E. K. Lamb of Lubboclt and Doyle Garrett of Dallas.
Known as the Plains since its completion more than a year ago, the drive-in has been rechristened the Westerner. The name was chosen. Lam said, because it is appropriate and, specifically, as a salute to the football and other competitive teams representing Lubbock High school. The current high school football Westerners are the undefeated, untied favorites for the 1949 Texas championship.
RAMPS ARE PAVED – The most important improvement, Lamb said, was the paving of the ramps. Blueprinted for next spring is an extensive landscaping program which has necessitated drilling a well and installation of a distribution system for irrigation. The total program adds up to a cost estimated at more than $20,000.
All-winter operation will not be an experiment at the Westerner. Lamb and Garrett tried it last winter in the face of warnings that they were inviting bankruptcy. They played to good business throughout the season without missing a performance because of cold weather. The only time lost, aggregating about 20 days, resulted from ramps softened by one of the worst blizzards this area has seen in years.
Lamb expressed confidence that the new paving will be the answer to that problem. The two other operating drive-ins serving Lubbock plan to close around the middle of December. They are the Corral, one of the Llndsley Theatres, and the Five Points, a Preston E. Smith Enterprises house.
REOPEN TWO IN MARCH – Both said extensive improvements are planned before reopening in March. J. B. Rhea, Llndslev manager, said projected work at the Corral includes further development of elaborate lanscaping, on which considerable progress was made this year. By next year, expectations are the theatre will be given a park-like setting.
All the operators reported drive-in business this year improved over that of last year.
Smith estimated the increase at the Five Points for comparable periods since he acquired it in June 1948, at about 30 per cent. He spent more than $25,000 in improvements immediately after taking possession.
Looks like the opening was in late 1949, as reported in the Oct. 29 issue of BoxOffice that year: “M. A. Harris has opened a 300-car outdoor theatre three miles west of Pryor. He named it the Y Drive-In.”
Same drive-in? The Oct. 29, 1949 issue of BoxOffice reported, “T&D Jr. Enterprises, which recently opened a drive-in theatre on Route 99E south of Chico, faces a misdemeanor charge brought by the state division of highways of failure to obtain a permit before building the structure.”
The 66 Drive-In opened on June 6, 1952 with Joel McCrea in Cattle Drive and Donald O'Connor in Double Crossbones plus two cartoons. An article in that day’s Daily Illinois State Journal said that its curved screen tower was 80x80 feet, “said to be the largest in the state.” It had 1307 speakers on site, though some of them may have been for the seats “for those who do not wish to remain in their cars.”
The Twin Drive-In Theatre opened on May 10, 1973, showing Snowball Express and The Biscuit Eater on one screen and The Graduate with CC and Company on the other. By 1976, the “Kerasotes Twin” was advertising that it was on Wabash Avenue.
An Aug. 7, 1983 article in the State Journal-Register identified it as the Twin, owned along with the 66 by Kerasotes Theaters.
The Twin appears to have ceased advertising after the 1984 season. By July 7, 1989, it was the “former” Twin in a Journal-Register article about possibilities for the site of Kerasotes' next theater.
The Journal-Register mentioned on Aug. 3, 1991 that by that point, Kerasotes was renting out the old Twin site as a soccer field and using it as a warehouse. I would not want to play soccer on drive-in ramps!
There was a lengthy article about “Tanner’s Drive-In Theater” in the July 16, 1989 edition of Springfield IL’s State Journal-Register. It said the drive-in opened in 1950.
At the time of the article, Tanner’s operated Fridays through Sundays. The manager was Rose Tanner, whose father Harry and uncle Herman built the drive-in.
William Hopkins, secretary of Frisina Enterprises, which owned the Springfield, pleaded guilty on behalf of the corporation on April 27, 1981 to a misdemeanor charge of distributing harmful material. That’s according to the next day’s story in the State Journal-Register. It all started on March 7 when the drive-in was raided by the state’s attorney’s office while it was showing the XXX-rated film Seduction. The drive-in was fined $300 and “agreed to refrain from showing movies as explicit as the movie they showed,” said assistant state’s attorney James Grohne.
Indeed, a sampling of the movie ads in subsequent months shows a mixture of general-release films and hard-R drive-in movies. The last movie ad for the Springfield in the Journal-Register was Oct. 2, 1983 for Alone in the Dark and Zombie, both rated R.
The “Old Springfield Drive-In” advertised its Giant Flea Market through October 1986.
According to an Aug. 3, 1991 article in the Journal-Register, the Springfield’s screen was torn down in Spring 1991 after a wind storm damaged the wood-frame structure. At the time, it was owned by Giuffre Buick, which had used the screen for ads.
The second screen of the Route 66 opened in Spring 2004.
The State Journal-Register reported on Aug. 3, 1991 that the old screen caught fire on Aug. 1 and was the be demolished. At that time, the drive-in was owned by Midwest Lodging, the parent company of Super 8 Lodge of Springfield, which was using the screen “to prop up a large, lighted Super 8 Lodge billboard, which could be seen from Interstate 55 and U.S. 36.”
The article said that the 66 closed in 1986.
The Drive-In in Springfield held its Grand Opening on Sept. 19, 1947. Its first movie was Smoky, starring Fred MacMurray and Anne Baxter.
On Sept. 24, 1952, the Daily Illinois State Journal reported that the drive-in’s founder, Joseph Sikes, had sold it to the Frisina Amusement Co. of Springfield. By that point, the drive-in had expanded its capacity to “approximately 1200 cars.” Frisina said it planned a new, larger refreshment stand and a larger playground area.
It was scheduled to open on Oct. 15, 1949, based on this article from BoxOffice the following week:
PARAGOULD, ARK. – Construction has started on one of the largest and most unusual drive-in theatres and entertainment centers in Arkansas.
It is the new 516-car drive-in being built by Orris Collins, who operates the Majestic and Paragould theatres here, on Highway 25 South, three-quarters of a mile from Paragould.
Completion date has been set for October 15. John A. Collins, father of Orris Collins, who formerly operated a circuit of theatres in Arkansas, has come out of retirement after ten years to supervise construction of the new theatre.
The elder Collins said “it took something unusual to bring me out of retirement and this is it.”
There are 17 acres in the section under development.
There will be a swimming pool which can be entered from the street by those who just want to swim or by theatre patrons from inside if they want a dip before or after the picture or even while it is going on. There is a miniature golf course in the rear which will be operated as the swimming pool – with entrances from the highway or from the interior of the drive-in.
There will be a playground with a miniature electric train which carries 25 youngsters on a choo-choo ride at the same time. Seats in the playground area will provide a place for parents who want to be near their children while they play and at the same time not miss the picture.
Atop the screen tower there will be a searchlight, revolving, to attract attention to the location.
A 12-foot tower light will be over the box-office. A 17-foot double face attraction board will be out front. A water tower, lighted with colored lights, will be an out-front attraction. All-tile rest rooms are part of the tower building construction.
From the Oct. 22, 1949 issue of BoxOffice:
HERMISTON, ORE. – L. A. Moore has opened Hermiston’s first drive-in theatre. Construction is not complete, but is sufficiently far along to permit operation, Moore said. The drive-in is located one-half mile north of town on a ten-acre tract which the Moore’s purchased nearly ten years ago for the purpose.