Southern Spaces wrote “In 1977, original owner Sonny Stevenson sold the Moon-Glo to the Lyle family, who renamed the theater after its location.”
The Washington Post wrote that Jim and Megan Kopp leased the Raleigh Road in 2006. But Viral Memories and everyone else said they bought it on eBay for $22,000 in 2006.
There’s a short documentary about the Raleigh Road from 2008, featuring Kopp, on YouTube.
The Fay Observer wrote that Mark and Jennifer Frank “bought the place in December 2011. Previously, they owned and operated a drive-in movie theater in Keysville, Virginia, but they sold it to focus on the old facility on the outskirts of Henderson in Vance County.”
The 1949-50 Theatre Catalog had the Moon-Glo owned by Ben Strozier, capacity 200. In the 1952-56 Catalogs, the owner was S. S. Stevenson and the capacity had grown to 360.
The 1952-53 Motion Picture Almanac matched the Catalogs' owner and capacity. S.S. Stevenson and 360 stayed through the 1976 edition. The 1978 edition called it the Moonglow, capacity 300, still owned by S. Stevenson.
The MPA registered the name change to the Raleigh Road Outdoor in its 1980-88 editions, owner N. T. Lyles.
So the Badin Road was open in mid to late 1948. The first Theatre Catalog drive-in list, in the 1948-49 edition, listed one drive-in in Albemarle as simply “Drive-In.” The 1949-56 Theatre Catalogs had two drive-ins in Albemarle, the Badin Road (by the last edition, capacity 400) and the Albemarle (300), both owned by G. L. Faw.
The 1952-53 Motion Picture Almanac also had both Albemarle drive-ins. Its difference is that it kept the original half-sized capacities (Badin Road 200, Albemarle 150) through at least 1969. By the 1972 edition, it was Badin Road 600, Albemarle 300.
When owner info returned in the 1978-82 MPAs, both drive-ins listed Exhibitors, and the capacities were down a bit (Badin Road 500, Albemarle 250). Both were owned by Piedmont in the 1984 edition. For 1986-88, the Albemarle was the only one on the list, owned by Piedmont.
The Drive-In Theatre Owners Associate site says the the Badin Road reopened in 1994, which indicates that it was closed before that.
According to The Stanley News and Press, The theater was built by Gilbert Faw and son Raymond. Ethel Faw, Raymond’s wife, said she thought the drive-in first opened in the late 1940s or early 1950s.
“That’s the best I can remember,” Faw said. “Raymond ran the theater until 1966, then he leased it out.”
Faw said after the lease ran out, the theater closed down for a few years.
“My husband passed away in 1991,” Faw said. “I was able to lease the drive-in again in 1993 or 1994.”
In the late ’90s, Martin Murray operated the theater until (David and Judy) Robinson bought it in February 2003.
Roy Speights lives across from the drive-in and remembers when it was first built.
“We moved in our house June 1948,” Speights said. “I remember they were grading for the parking then. The theater must have opened later that summer or fall.”
Georgann Eubanks' wrote in her book Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont: A Guidebook: R.S. (Sam) Gwynn … was born in Eden in 1948. His father ran the drive-in when Gwynn was growing up.
The Theatre Catalogs listed the drive-in under Leaksville. It was in the first list, the 1948-49 edition, as simply Drive-In, Exec: D. L. Craddock, capacity 150. For 1949-50, it was the Eden, the exec was D. E. Gwynn, and capacity grew to 200. In the 1952-56 editions, it was joined in town by the Leaksville Drive-In, also owned by D. E. Gwynn with a capacity of 300.
The 1952-53 Motion Picture Almanac listed both drive-ins for Leaksville – the Eden, capacity 282, owned by Eden Theatres Inc.; and the New Leaksville Drive-In, capacity 200, owned by D. E. Gwynn. They both stayed that way through the 1959 edition. In 1961-66 the New Leaksville was owned by Doug Craddock.
When ownership notes resumed in the 1978 MPA, the Eden was listed under the town of Eden and was owned by Consolidate, and that was how it stayed through its last list in 1988. (The New Leaksville dropped out of the MPA after 1976.)
Tim Robertson and his parents, David and Judy, owned the Eden Drive-In, although David passed away in January 2017. Tim told Business North Carolina just last month that his family bought the closed drive-in in 1994 and renovated it.
Over at DailyNetworks.com, Mark Daily writes that “the current Eden Drive-In was originally the Leakesville (sic) Drive-In. A second drive-in previously located near the current Eden Mall site was home of the original Eden Drive-In.”
That would explain how it could handle over 800 cars on a three-night weekend. But I’m not convinced about where the original Eden was; looking at Historic Aerials' old photos and topo maps of the future Eden Mall site, I can’t find anything that looks like a drive-in nearby, except for what’s now the Eden far away on the west side of town.
Apparently this was the location of the old Park Drive-In, which Virginia.org says was open 1954-1983.
The 1955-56 Theatre Catalog lists the Park, Exec: William MacKenzie Jr., capacity 200.
The 1955-66 International Motion Picture Almanacs listed the owner as W. Mackenzie, eventually adding the capacity of 200. The Park fell off the IMPA list after 1976 and did not return.
Jerry Harmon opened the Park Place on the site of the old Park in 2000 and still owns the complex today.
The Skyview’s first appearance in the Theatre Catalog was the 1949-50 edition, Exec: Moir Branscome and Howard Chitwood, no capacity number. For the 1952 edition, the exec was just W. Branscome, capacity 280. In the 1955-56 edition, the exec changed to H. C. Chitwood.
The 1952-55 Motion Picture Almanacs listed it owned by Chitwook (sic) & Branscome, capacity 281. In 1956 it was corrected to Chitwood & Branscome, and it stayed that way through at least 1961. In 1963-66, the owner was Independent Theatres Inc.
The drive-in’s name changed to Skyvue, at least in all the MPA listings after 1976. In the 1978 edition, it was owned by Indep. Thea., capacity 100. The owner in 1980-82 was Shenandoah. The owner in 1984-88 was T. S. Davidson.
The Pipestem opened in September or October 1972. There’s a “Watch for the opening date” ad in the Sept. 21 Beckley Post-Herald, then on Sept. 30 there’s an ad for the triple feature that “starts Thursday, Oct. 5” of Le Mans (G), Lawman (GP), and Southern Comfort (X). It advertised through at least Dec. 17 that year with “free in car heaters”.
The Raleigh Register of July 5, 1973 identified Ronald Warden of MacArthur as the owner of the Pineville and Pipestem drive-ins as part of a discussion of the legality of X-rated movies. Warden said recent Supreme Court ruling hadn’t changed his plans. “It’s not for the money involved,” he said. “It’s not what we like – it’s what the public pays to see. I don’t want to quit a good thing until I have to. Every time I don’t have an X-rated show, business drops off.” He stressed that he always showed X-rated movies as the third feature.
Its first appearance on my shelf of International Motion Picture Almanacs was the 1978 edition. (It wasn’t in 1976, and I don’t have 1977.) The Pipe Stem (sic) was owned by R. Warden and had a capacity of 285. That’s how it stayed through the last IMPA list in 1988.
WTRF wrote in 2015 that (then-?)current owner Kenneth Woody bought the business in 2007 “from the original owner”. … “Woody, the owner of three other Mercer County businesses, said he depends solely on regular customers and word-of-mouth and does no advertising.”
A comment on a Flickr photo said that it “closed for a while” after the early 1980s. That’s the only mention I’ve seen of any downtime; the WTRF report said Woody bought the Pipestem “because he did not want to see it shut down.”
Who owns the Pipestem now? Karen Woody wrote on the drive-in’s semi-official web site that her family owns the Pipestem. The WV Secretary of State shows that Pipestem Drive-In Theater, Inc. was incorporated in 2007, has filed reports through 2017, and its only officers are Kenneth and Barbara Woody. But I’ve seen several business sources online that claim the Pipestem Drive-Inn Theatre is owned by Jimmy Warden, and that its president is Patricia Warden.
In the 1955-56 Theatre Catalog, the only one in Meadow Bridge WV is the N And R D. I., capacity 125, exec N. Garten. That would be Ned Garten, according to a 2013 article in The Register-Herald, copied on the drive-in’s web site.
The 1955-59 Motion Picture Almanacs also called it the N & R, capacity 125, owner Ned Garten. Garten was trying to sell it in June 1958 (see uploaded newspaper ad), which might be why it dropped out of the 1961-76 editions. The drive-in returned by the 1978 edition as the Meadowbridge (sic), owned by B. Hartley, capacity 180. In the 1980-82 editions, the owner changed to L. Thomas. In 1984, it was J. Boyd. By the 1986 edition, the owner was (Howard) McClanahan, who still owns it today.
The 2013 article covered that period as follows. After Garten’s tenure, it was run by Thomas Theaters. “Then one of the shareholders purchased the location outright. Word on the street was that the theater was going to turn X-rated because its screen faced away from the road. That’s when McClanahan stepped in and decided to make an offer.”
The Meadow Bridge converted to digital in 2013, and McClanahan said the new projector cost more than he paid for the drive-in.
Hull’s is such a wonderful story of a saved drive-in, and that might be one reason why its origins get such a cursory mention. The excellent history page at Hull’s includes: “The theatre was built by W.C. Atkins in 1950, and operated as the Lee Drive-In on land leased from the Hostetter family. Sebert W. Hull purchased the business and lease in 1957.”
Drive-Ins.org said that “local residents Waddy and Virginia Atkins, who earlier had founded what became Hull’s Drive-In in Lexington” owned the Riverside Drive-In in Roanoke from 1958 until its closing.
A detailed if sometimes contradictory history on the Hull’s page on Weebly said “a couple from Roanoke owned the business, a Mr. and Mrs. Atkins, and they’d drive back and forth from Roanoke every night.” Which would explain why they eventually swapped the Lee for the Riverside in their backyard. Also, Mr. Mason Hostetter was a farmer who owned the land behind the Lee.
In the 1952-56 Theatre Catalogs, R. Perdue was listed as the owner of the Lee, capacity 220. Who was this Perdue?
For some reason, the 1952-54 Motion Picture Almanacs didn’t include the Lee. The 1955-59 editions listed W. C. Adkins (sic) as the owner, capacity 250.
It’s strange that the summary here, at least partially written by “D. Edward Vogal”, spells that last name consistently with an A. Every other reference I can find, including CNN, the Baltimore Sun, his signature at the end of a lengthy complaint about the Baltimore Sun, and even the Whois record for Bengies.com – they all spell that name Vogel with an E.
FWIW, its first appearance in the International Motion Picture Almanac was the 1957 edition, in which it was listed in Middle River, spelled as Bengie’s, capacity 585, owner Frog Mortar Corp. That listing stayed the same through 1966.
During the period (at least 1969-76) when the IMPA didn’t include owners, it became Bengies (no apostrophe) in Baltimore, capacity 750. In 1978-88, the listing returned to Middle River, owner Vogel, capacity 600.
The Hi-Way was built and owned by brothers Morris and Raphael Klein. (It included “the latest in open air movie furniture”.) The 1952-56 Theatre Catalogs listed the exec as Mrs. Frieda Klein. The 1952-66 Motion Picture Almanacs listed the owner as the Klein brothers.
The Daily Freeman Lifestyle wrote that Roger and Sharon Babcock bought the Hi-Way from Morris Klein in 1996. However, over at EnjoyYourIntermission.com (a superb documentary short about the Hi-Way and its workers), it says they purchased the drive-in “in 1976 after having worked there for several years prior.”
The 1978-82 MPAs listed M. Klein as the owner. By the 1984 edition, the Hi-Way had fallen off the MPA list.
From the old GreenvilleDriveIn.net About Us page in 2014, now stored at the Internet Archive:
In April 1959, Peter Carelas owner of Carelas Restaurant and Grill, began construction on The Greenville Drive-in. The theatre was originally designed to hold 400 cars, was fitted with the latest in projection and sound equipment and was one of 6200 theatres across the country. (The capacity was 550 in the International Motion Picture Almanac.)
… Our screen measures 85 feet wide and stands 5 stories tall which gives everyone a great view of the action. The Drive-in thrived through the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s …
In 1988, local business owner Mark Wilcox and 10 others formed what is now known as the Greenville 11. … The Greenville 11 jointly purchased the Drive-in and saved it from land development.
Mark Wilcox operated and managed the Drive-in through the 2006 season. During Mark’s time in operations, the drive in saw the switch from wired speakers to FM sound …
2007 was a year of sadness, after 38 consecutive seasons the Greenville Drive-in closed. In 2009, Don Brown and Patricia Creigh reopened the Drive-in for the season. Due to an extreme amount of rainy days and nights, the Drive-in was only open a few weekends. The Drive-in was again closed for the 2010 and 2011 seasons.
In 2012, Jim Gatehouse and Family took over the operations of the Greenville Drive-in. … The Drive-in stands today (2014) 1 of only 400 left in the country.
Sounds like maybe that 1988 crisis was when Ed Caro left. As mentioned above, the Greenville was closed all of 2014.
Current owners Leigh Van Swall and Dwight Grimm ran a modest but successful Kickstarter campaign in 2015. Grimm told Catskill Eats, “We’re trying not to be so much a straight-up movie theater, but more of an event venue with movie-showing capabilities.” They finished their 2017 season in mid-October.
When they listed it at all, the International Motion Picture Almanacs listed the Jericho under Bethlehem, the town of which Glenmont is a hamlet. For at least 1961-76, the Jericho’s movies were booked by Brandt Theatres of New York City, its capacity was listed as 520 cars, and in 1961-66, its owner was Morris Klein. The drive-in didn’t appear in the 1959 IMPA and fell off the list by 1978.
Oval Pike wrote in 2012, “The Jericho opened in 1955, after two brothers bought the land from the physician who lived across the road.” DriveInMovie.com says those brothers were Morris and Raphael Klein, and the first corporation papers for Jericho & 9-W Drive-In Theater, Inc. were filed on Sept. 16, 1955. But everyone else agrees that the grand opening was on Flag Day, June 14, 1957.
Spotlight News wrote this year that current owners Mike and Lisa Chenette bought the place in 1995.
That photo, taken in 2015, ran with an article in The Daily Star of Oneonta on May 22, 2016. It’s one of the best drive-in histories I’ve ever seen in a newspaper.
This is where I like to list the full history of the drive-in,
but the The Daily Star of Oneonta beat me to it in an article on May 22, 2016. After noting that the Unadilla opened on Tuesday, May 29, 1956, it quoted the positive remarks of The Unadilla Times of June 1: “(G)ood public relations on the part of Mr. (John) Gardner and Mr. (Al) LaFamme would seem to insure another successful Unadilla enterprise.”
Then The Daily Star quoted its Aug. 22, 1986 article when “Michael and Beatrice Chonka were determined to keep their drive-in open, as they had for the last 17 years.” That put the purchase date around 1969.
“Chonka, a Binghamton native, started in the business almost two decades ago when Al LaFamme, who built the Unadilla theater, asked him to come to work. … when LaFamme wanted to sell some time later, Chonka bought the theater.”
Michael Chonka passed away in August 1994, and the theater closed earlier than usual. Trevor Ladner and Thomas Owens
bought the Unadilla from his widow and re-opened it in late May 1995.
I’ll close with the article’s fuzziest paragraph. The Wilson family bought the Unadilla “(a)round 2000” It noted that the drive-in had updated to digital projection, but didn’t mention when. Also, “By an act of nature in recent years, specifically a windstorm, the old wooden screen that was knocked down got replaced by a steel structure.”
A long story in the July 15, 2016 PressConnects.com filled in a few details. “Unadilla’s current owners are Eric and Marcia Wilson, who bought the property in 2000”. The old screen went down “three years ago”. The Wilsons' children work there now, and Rob Tracey is the general manager.
The Daily Star’s article is a much better history than most newspapers ever see, and it matched the International Motion Picture Almanacs pretty well. The Unadilla made its first appearance in the IMPAs in its 1957 edition. It had a capacity of 400 cars and was owned by John W. Gardner and A. O. La Flamme (sic). They were both still there in 1959, although the listed capacity had grown to 500. In the 1961-66 editions, Gardner stood alone – a little odd considering the narrative above.
After the IMPA resumed listing owners, the 1978 edition listed “Chonka”, and that’s the way it stayed through the final IMPA list in 1988.
The Circle web site says the drive-in was built in 1945, but its first appearance in the Theatre Catalogs was in the 1949-50 edition, owner Albert Frangel, capacity 700 cars. That’s pretty much how it stayed through the 1955-56 edition. (There was an Albert Frengel of Frengel Motor Car company in New Castle PA at the time. Same guy?)
The owner listed in the 1952-53 Motion Picture Almanac was E. Hollander (Allied Circuit). It switched to just the Allied Circuit in the 1955-59 editions. Milgrim Bkg. Serv. was the “owner or booker” in 1961-66. The MPAs showed a capacity of 500.
The 1978-84 MPAs listed the Circle in Scranton, owner M. J. (Michael) Delfino, capacity 600. The locale switched to Carbondale in the 1986-88 editions.
The Warwick’s web site has an excellent, updated history on its About Us page. Its early details match up with the 1950s Theatre Catalogs. The second screen went up in 1982, and the third must have been just before 1995.
Although the drive-in’s old web site (seen at Archive.org) claimed the Mahoning opened in 1948, that’s just wrong. The March 26, 1949 Billboard magazine said that Max Korr “in association with Mitchell Rappeport and others” was building a drive-in in Mahoning Valley. The first time it was mentioned in The Morning Call of Allentown was April 18, 1949 when it wrote that “the theatre has been completed” and that it “will bring to this section one of the nation’s finest theatres.” And there was a later interview with a guy “who witnessed the theater’s opening in 1949”.
The Mahoning’s first appearance in the Theatre Catalog series was the 1949-50 edition; the listed “Exec” was Max Korr, and its capacity was 500. In the 1952 TC, the exec/owner was “A. M. Ellis Th. Ct.” and the capacity was bumped to 600. In the 1955-56 edition, the exec/owner was James Humphries.
The Morning Call wrote on May 23, 1952 that Mitchell Rapaport, president of the Mahoning Corporation, had sued the drive-in and A. M. Ellis Theatres Co. Separately, the drive-in had sued Ellis Theatres for interfering with operations. It was a complicated, long story of loans, intertwined businesses, and hiring Max M. Korr Enterprises two weeks earlier to buy and book films.
An auction notice for the drive-in (725 car capacity), its lease, equipment, and name was in the Oct. 4 Philadelphia Inquirer. Five days later, The Morning Call wrote it was sold at auction by the Ellis Theater Company to Dr. Joseph J. Humphries and R. C. H. Becker Sr. “Both men had been associated with the operation of the theatre,” wrote the Mauch Chunk Times-News.
Amazingly, it gets more confusing. The Nov. 15, 1952 issue of Billboard magazine said the Mahoning was sold at auction to Max Korr and associates.
Despite the sale, the Motion Picture Almanacs continued to list Ellis Theatres as the owner through the 1961 edition. At first the capacity was 500, then in 1956, the capacity dropped to 450, where it stayed. The owner for at least the 1963-66 editions was Claude Reinhard, who had founded Palmerton TV Signal Corporation, an early cable TV company.
The MPAs didn’t list owners for at least 1969-76. After that, the editions on my shelf list the Mahoning’s owner as:
1978: Riant Entp.
1980-82: J. Morgan.
1984-88: J. Farruggio.
The Morning Call wrote on Aug 23, 1992 that Amos Theaters Inc. (owned by Joseph Farruggio) had owned the Mahoning since 1981. Its manager was described as “an employee of the Palmerton Telephone Company”.
On Aug. 22, 1997 The Morning Call wrote about Farruggio preparing to show adult movies and trying not to run afoul of the Carbon County DA. “He’s shown no movies this year, but now says he’ll play the explicit films two weeks to maintain the drive-in’s 49 years of continuous operation, then close again.” Farruggio said he needed the proceeds to pay overdue taxes. (He eventually backed down and showed Mimic and Copland instead.) He had been battling “for five years” to get permits to add three screens. The drive-in is adjacent to an airport (then Carbon County, now Jake Arner Memorial) so the FAA was involved.
In 1998, the Mahoning opened for only a few weeks because health permits “require the facility to be open at least one night a year.”
I’m not sure when Mike and Deb Danchak came in, or there were other owners in between. In 2013, as the digital conversion loomed, the drive-in had a misadventure starring a guy who said he fixed up drive-ins but never told me which ones. My story and that guy’s comment can be found here.
The Morning Call called Jeff Mattox “a new owner” on October 23, 2014. He joined with two former Temple University film students, Virgil Cardamone and Matthew McClanahan, to embrace the 35mm nostalgia factor and keep the Mahoning running film even today.
davidcoppock, the drive-in is within Mahoning Township. The screen is less than 1200 feet from Mahoning Drive (AKA PA Route 902). The town of New Mahoning is about 2½ miles west of the drive-in, and the Mahoning Valley Speedway and Mahoning Valley Farmers Market are about a mile east.
Of those possibilities, I’m not sure which is the inspiration for the drive-in’s name.
Based on the 1952 issues of The Mountain Echo, a weekly newspaper in Shickshinny PA, the Gardens Drive-In Theatre (named for Hunlock Gardens) opened between June 27 (an “opening soon” note) and July 11 (its first advertisement). It was said to have room for 325 cars. It became the singular Garden in February 1954.
The drive-in was built by Gardens Amusement Company, but that was apparently Theodore Roosevelt Cragle, who died of a heart attack in December 1955. His son Arthur took over the Garden.
More details emerge from Ronald Hontz’s sweeping History of Sweet Valley PA, written around 2003. Arthur Cragle ran the drive-in until 1986, when he sold it to Nelson and Diane Fey. They operated it until 1990 and passed it down to their daughter, Kimberly Barbacci, and her husband Doug. They’re still the owners in 2017.
Current (2017) manager David Hudzik had been the Garden’s projectionist since 1979, “and he has been the source for most of the info you read herein.” In 1986 the drive-in converted from in-car speakers to AM radio; they added FM in 1990.
Adjacent to the Susquehanna River, the Garden floods frequently. In June 1972, Hurricane Agnes caused extensive damage with water over the roof of the concession stand. “Following that event, Hudzik has gotten the removal of equipment down to a science. A team of five guys can now remove all the valuable items in three hours.”
Hontz continues by noting the Garden added a second screen on the southeastern corner of its property in 2002. “The main screen features parking for approximately 450 cars and another 250 or so can view the second screen.”
A side note about Elmira attorney LeRoy Stein. When the project was first announced on April 21, 1947, he was called the president of the Elmira Drive-In Theater Co. On June 4, 1948, as construction was about to commence, he was called its secretary / treasurer. When groundbreaking was reported on June 21, 1948, he was down to just secretary. Stein’s 1964 obituary mentioned that he was a member of the Elmira Symphony Orchestra but said nothing about the drive-in.
More recently:
Southern Spaces wrote “In 1977, original owner Sonny Stevenson sold the Moon-Glo to the Lyle family, who renamed the theater after its location.”
The Washington Post wrote that Jim and Megan Kopp leased the Raleigh Road in 2006. But Viral Memories and everyone else said they bought it on eBay for $22,000 in 2006.
There’s a short documentary about the Raleigh Road from 2008, featuring Kopp, on YouTube.
The Fay Observer wrote that Mark and Jennifer Frank “bought the place in December 2011. Previously, they owned and operated a drive-in movie theater in Keysville, Virginia, but they sold it to focus on the old facility on the outskirts of Henderson in Vance County.”
The 1949-50 Theatre Catalog had the Moon-Glo owned by Ben Strozier, capacity 200. In the 1952-56 Catalogs, the owner was S. S. Stevenson and the capacity had grown to 360.
The 1952-53 Motion Picture Almanac matched the Catalogs' owner and capacity. S.S. Stevenson and 360 stayed through the 1976 edition. The 1978 edition called it the Moonglow, capacity 300, still owned by S. Stevenson.
The MPA registered the name change to the Raleigh Road Outdoor in its 1980-88 editions, owner N. T. Lyles.
So the Badin Road was open in mid to late 1948. The first Theatre Catalog drive-in list, in the 1948-49 edition, listed one drive-in in Albemarle as simply “Drive-In.” The 1949-56 Theatre Catalogs had two drive-ins in Albemarle, the Badin Road (by the last edition, capacity 400) and the Albemarle (300), both owned by G. L. Faw.
The 1952-53 Motion Picture Almanac also had both Albemarle drive-ins. Its difference is that it kept the original half-sized capacities (Badin Road 200, Albemarle 150) through at least 1969. By the 1972 edition, it was Badin Road 600, Albemarle 300.
When owner info returned in the 1978-82 MPAs, both drive-ins listed Exhibitors, and the capacities were down a bit (Badin Road 500, Albemarle 250). Both were owned by Piedmont in the 1984 edition. For 1986-88, the Albemarle was the only one on the list, owned by Piedmont.
The Drive-In Theatre Owners Associate site says the the Badin Road reopened in 1994, which indicates that it was closed before that.
According to The Stanley News and Press, The theater was built by Gilbert Faw and son Raymond. Ethel Faw, Raymond’s wife, said she thought the drive-in first opened in the late 1940s or early 1950s.
“That’s the best I can remember,” Faw said. “Raymond ran the theater until 1966, then he leased it out.”
Faw said after the lease ran out, the theater closed down for a few years.
“My husband passed away in 1991,” Faw said. “I was able to lease the drive-in again in 1993 or 1994.”
In the late ’90s, Martin Murray operated the theater until (David and Judy) Robinson bought it in February 2003.
Roy Speights lives across from the drive-in and remembers when it was first built.
“We moved in our house June 1948,” Speights said. “I remember they were grading for the parking then. The theater must have opened later that summer or fall.”
Georgann Eubanks' wrote in her book Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont: A Guidebook: R.S. (Sam) Gwynn … was born in Eden in 1948. His father ran the drive-in when Gwynn was growing up.
The Theatre Catalogs listed the drive-in under Leaksville. It was in the first list, the 1948-49 edition, as simply Drive-In, Exec: D. L. Craddock, capacity 150. For 1949-50, it was the Eden, the exec was D. E. Gwynn, and capacity grew to 200. In the 1952-56 editions, it was joined in town by the Leaksville Drive-In, also owned by D. E. Gwynn with a capacity of 300.
The 1952-53 Motion Picture Almanac listed both drive-ins for Leaksville – the Eden, capacity 282, owned by Eden Theatres Inc.; and the New Leaksville Drive-In, capacity 200, owned by D. E. Gwynn. They both stayed that way through the 1959 edition. In 1961-66 the New Leaksville was owned by Doug Craddock.
When ownership notes resumed in the 1978 MPA, the Eden was listed under the town of Eden and was owned by Consolidate, and that was how it stayed through its last list in 1988. (The New Leaksville dropped out of the MPA after 1976.)
Tim Robertson and his parents, David and Judy, owned the Eden Drive-In, although David passed away in January 2017. Tim told Business North Carolina just last month that his family bought the closed drive-in in 1994 and renovated it.
Over at DailyNetworks.com, Mark Daily writes that “the current Eden Drive-In was originally the Leakesville (sic) Drive-In. A second drive-in previously located near the current Eden Mall site was home of the original Eden Drive-In.”
That would explain how it could handle over 800 cars on a three-night weekend. But I’m not convinced about where the original Eden was; looking at Historic Aerials' old photos and topo maps of the future Eden Mall site, I can’t find anything that looks like a drive-in nearby, except for what’s now the Eden far away on the west side of town.
Apparently this was the location of the old Park Drive-In, which Virginia.org says was open 1954-1983.
The 1955-56 Theatre Catalog lists the Park, Exec: William MacKenzie Jr., capacity 200.
The 1955-66 International Motion Picture Almanacs listed the owner as W. Mackenzie, eventually adding the capacity of 200. The Park fell off the IMPA list after 1976 and did not return.
Jerry Harmon opened the Park Place on the site of the old Park in 2000 and still owns the complex today.
The Skyview’s first appearance in the Theatre Catalog was the 1949-50 edition, Exec: Moir Branscome and Howard Chitwood, no capacity number. For the 1952 edition, the exec was just W. Branscome, capacity 280. In the 1955-56 edition, the exec changed to H. C. Chitwood.
The 1952-55 Motion Picture Almanacs listed it owned by Chitwook (sic) & Branscome, capacity 281. In 1956 it was corrected to Chitwood & Branscome, and it stayed that way through at least 1961. In 1963-66, the owner was Independent Theatres Inc.
The drive-in’s name changed to Skyvue, at least in all the MPA listings after 1976. In the 1978 edition, it was owned by Indep. Thea., capacity 100. The owner in 1980-82 was Shenandoah. The owner in 1984-88 was T. S. Davidson.
The Pipestem opened in September or October 1972. There’s a “Watch for the opening date” ad in the Sept. 21 Beckley Post-Herald, then on Sept. 30 there’s an ad for the triple feature that “starts Thursday, Oct. 5” of Le Mans (G), Lawman (GP), and Southern Comfort (X). It advertised through at least Dec. 17 that year with “free in car heaters”.
The Raleigh Register of July 5, 1973 identified Ronald Warden of MacArthur as the owner of the Pineville and Pipestem drive-ins as part of a discussion of the legality of X-rated movies. Warden said recent Supreme Court ruling hadn’t changed his plans. “It’s not for the money involved,” he said. “It’s not what we like – it’s what the public pays to see. I don’t want to quit a good thing until I have to. Every time I don’t have an X-rated show, business drops off.” He stressed that he always showed X-rated movies as the third feature.
Its first appearance on my shelf of International Motion Picture Almanacs was the 1978 edition. (It wasn’t in 1976, and I don’t have 1977.) The Pipe Stem (sic) was owned by R. Warden and had a capacity of 285. That’s how it stayed through the last IMPA list in 1988.
WTRF wrote in 2015 that (then-?)current owner Kenneth Woody bought the business in 2007 “from the original owner”. … “Woody, the owner of three other Mercer County businesses, said he depends solely on regular customers and word-of-mouth and does no advertising.”
A comment on a Flickr photo said that it “closed for a while” after the early 1980s. That’s the only mention I’ve seen of any downtime; the WTRF report said Woody bought the Pipestem “because he did not want to see it shut down.”
Who owns the Pipestem now? Karen Woody wrote on the drive-in’s semi-official web site that her family owns the Pipestem. The WV Secretary of State shows that Pipestem Drive-In Theater, Inc. was incorporated in 2007, has filed reports through 2017, and its only officers are Kenneth and Barbara Woody. But I’ve seen several business sources online that claim the Pipestem Drive-Inn Theatre is owned by Jimmy Warden, and that its president is Patricia Warden.
In the 1955-56 Theatre Catalog, the only one in Meadow Bridge WV is the N And R D. I., capacity 125, exec N. Garten. That would be Ned Garten, according to a 2013 article in The Register-Herald, copied on the drive-in’s web site.
The 1955-59 Motion Picture Almanacs also called it the N & R, capacity 125, owner Ned Garten. Garten was trying to sell it in June 1958 (see uploaded newspaper ad), which might be why it dropped out of the 1961-76 editions. The drive-in returned by the 1978 edition as the Meadowbridge (sic), owned by B. Hartley, capacity 180. In the 1980-82 editions, the owner changed to L. Thomas. In 1984, it was J. Boyd. By the 1986 edition, the owner was (Howard) McClanahan, who still owns it today.
The 2013 article covered that period as follows. After Garten’s tenure, it was run by Thomas Theaters. “Then one of the shareholders purchased the location outright. Word on the street was that the theater was going to turn X-rated because its screen faced away from the road. That’s when McClanahan stepped in and decided to make an offer.”
The Meadow Bridge converted to digital in 2013, and McClanahan said the new projector cost more than he paid for the drive-in.
Hull’s is such a wonderful story of a saved drive-in, and that might be one reason why its origins get such a cursory mention. The excellent history page at Hull’s includes: “The theatre was built by W.C. Atkins in 1950, and operated as the Lee Drive-In on land leased from the Hostetter family. Sebert W. Hull purchased the business and lease in 1957.”
Drive-Ins.org said that “local residents Waddy and Virginia Atkins, who earlier had founded what became Hull’s Drive-In in Lexington” owned the Riverside Drive-In in Roanoke from 1958 until its closing.
A detailed if sometimes contradictory history on the Hull’s page on Weebly said “a couple from Roanoke owned the business, a Mr. and Mrs. Atkins, and they’d drive back and forth from Roanoke every night.” Which would explain why they eventually swapped the Lee for the Riverside in their backyard. Also, Mr. Mason Hostetter was a farmer who owned the land behind the Lee.
In the 1952-56 Theatre Catalogs, R. Perdue was listed as the owner of the Lee, capacity 220. Who was this Perdue?
For some reason, the 1952-54 Motion Picture Almanacs didn’t include the Lee. The 1955-59 editions listed W. C. Adkins (sic) as the owner, capacity 250.
It’s strange that the summary here, at least partially written by “D. Edward Vogal”, spells that last name consistently with an A. Every other reference I can find, including CNN, the Baltimore Sun, his signature at the end of a lengthy complaint about the Baltimore Sun, and even the Whois record for Bengies.com – they all spell that name Vogel with an E.
FWIW, its first appearance in the International Motion Picture Almanac was the 1957 edition, in which it was listed in Middle River, spelled as Bengie’s, capacity 585, owner Frog Mortar Corp. That listing stayed the same through 1966.
During the period (at least 1969-76) when the IMPA didn’t include owners, it became Bengies (no apostrophe) in Baltimore, capacity 750. In 1978-88, the listing returned to Middle River, owner Vogel, capacity 600.
The Hi-Way was built and owned by brothers Morris and Raphael Klein. (It included “the latest in open air movie furniture”.) The 1952-56 Theatre Catalogs listed the exec as Mrs. Frieda Klein. The 1952-66 Motion Picture Almanacs listed the owner as the Klein brothers.
The Daily Freeman Lifestyle wrote that Roger and Sharon Babcock bought the Hi-Way from Morris Klein in 1996. However, over at EnjoyYourIntermission.com (a superb documentary short about the Hi-Way and its workers), it says they purchased the drive-in “in 1976 after having worked there for several years prior.”
The 1978-82 MPAs listed M. Klein as the owner. By the 1984 edition, the Hi-Way had fallen off the MPA list.
From the old GreenvilleDriveIn.net About Us page in 2014, now stored at the Internet Archive:
In April 1959, Peter Carelas owner of Carelas Restaurant and Grill, began construction on The Greenville Drive-in. The theatre was originally designed to hold 400 cars, was fitted with the latest in projection and sound equipment and was one of 6200 theatres across the country. (The capacity was 550 in the International Motion Picture Almanac.)
… Our screen measures 85 feet wide and stands 5 stories tall which gives everyone a great view of the action. The Drive-in thrived through the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s …
In 1988, local business owner Mark Wilcox and 10 others formed what is now known as the Greenville 11. … The Greenville 11 jointly purchased the Drive-in and saved it from land development.
Mark Wilcox operated and managed the Drive-in through the 2006 season. During Mark’s time in operations, the drive in saw the switch from wired speakers to FM sound …
2007 was a year of sadness, after 38 consecutive seasons the Greenville Drive-in closed. In 2009, Don Brown and Patricia Creigh reopened the Drive-in for the season. Due to an extreme amount of rainy days and nights, the Drive-in was only open a few weekends. The Drive-in was again closed for the 2010 and 2011 seasons.
In 2012, Jim Gatehouse and Family took over the operations of the Greenville Drive-in. … The Drive-in stands today (2014) 1 of only 400 left in the country.
Sounds like maybe that 1988 crisis was when Ed Caro left. As mentioned above, the Greenville was closed all of 2014.
Current owners Leigh Van Swall and Dwight Grimm ran a modest but successful Kickstarter campaign in 2015. Grimm told Catskill Eats, “We’re trying not to be so much a straight-up movie theater, but more of an event venue with movie-showing capabilities.” They finished their 2017 season in mid-October.
When they listed it at all, the International Motion Picture Almanacs listed the Jericho under Bethlehem, the town of which Glenmont is a hamlet. For at least 1961-76, the Jericho’s movies were booked by Brandt Theatres of New York City, its capacity was listed as 520 cars, and in 1961-66, its owner was Morris Klein. The drive-in didn’t appear in the 1959 IMPA and fell off the list by 1978.
Oval Pike wrote in 2012, “The Jericho opened in 1955, after two brothers bought the land from the physician who lived across the road.” DriveInMovie.com says those brothers were Morris and Raphael Klein, and the first corporation papers for Jericho & 9-W Drive-In Theater, Inc. were filed on Sept. 16, 1955. But everyone else agrees that the grand opening was on Flag Day, June 14, 1957.
Spotlight News wrote this year that current owners Mike and Lisa Chenette bought the place in 1995.
Its former manager, Al LaFamme (or was it LaFlamme?), was one of the owners of the Unadilla Drive-In when it opened in 1956.
Its former operator, John Gardner, was one of the owners of the Unadilla Drive-In when it opened in 1956.
That photo, taken in 2015, ran with an article in The Daily Star of Oneonta on May 22, 2016. It’s one of the best drive-in histories I’ve ever seen in a newspaper.
This is where I like to list the full history of the drive-in, but the The Daily Star of Oneonta beat me to it in an article on May 22, 2016. After noting that the Unadilla opened on Tuesday, May 29, 1956, it quoted the positive remarks of The Unadilla Times of June 1: “(G)ood public relations on the part of Mr. (John) Gardner and Mr. (Al) LaFamme would seem to insure another successful Unadilla enterprise.”
Then The Daily Star quoted its Aug. 22, 1986 article when “Michael and Beatrice Chonka were determined to keep their drive-in open, as they had for the last 17 years.” That put the purchase date around 1969.
“Chonka, a Binghamton native, started in the business almost two decades ago when Al LaFamme, who built the Unadilla theater, asked him to come to work. … when LaFamme wanted to sell some time later, Chonka bought the theater.”
Michael Chonka passed away in August 1994, and the theater closed earlier than usual. Trevor Ladner and Thomas Owens bought the Unadilla from his widow and re-opened it in late May 1995.
I’ll close with the article’s fuzziest paragraph. The Wilson family bought the Unadilla “(a)round 2000” It noted that the drive-in had updated to digital projection, but didn’t mention when. Also, “By an act of nature in recent years, specifically a windstorm, the old wooden screen that was knocked down got replaced by a steel structure.”
A long story in the July 15, 2016 PressConnects.com filled in a few details. “Unadilla’s current owners are Eric and Marcia Wilson, who bought the property in 2000”. The old screen went down “three years ago”. The Wilsons' children work there now, and Rob Tracey is the general manager.
The Daily Star’s article is a much better history than most newspapers ever see, and it matched the International Motion Picture Almanacs pretty well. The Unadilla made its first appearance in the IMPAs in its 1957 edition. It had a capacity of 400 cars and was owned by John W. Gardner and A. O. La Flamme (sic). They were both still there in 1959, although the listed capacity had grown to 500. In the 1961-66 editions, Gardner stood alone – a little odd considering the narrative above.
After the IMPA resumed listing owners, the 1978 edition listed “Chonka”, and that’s the way it stayed through the final IMPA list in 1988.
The Circle web site says the drive-in was built in 1945, but its first appearance in the Theatre Catalogs was in the 1949-50 edition, owner Albert Frangel, capacity 700 cars. That’s pretty much how it stayed through the 1955-56 edition. (There was an Albert Frengel of Frengel Motor Car company in New Castle PA at the time. Same guy?)
The owner listed in the 1952-53 Motion Picture Almanac was E. Hollander (Allied Circuit). It switched to just the Allied Circuit in the 1955-59 editions. Milgrim Bkg. Serv. was the “owner or booker” in 1961-66. The MPAs showed a capacity of 500.
The 1978-84 MPAs listed the Circle in Scranton, owner M. J. (Michael) Delfino, capacity 600. The locale switched to Carbondale in the 1986-88 editions.
The Warwick’s web site has an excellent, updated history on its About Us page. Its early details match up with the 1950s Theatre Catalogs. The second screen went up in 1982, and the third must have been just before 1995.
Although the drive-in’s old web site (seen at Archive.org) claimed the Mahoning opened in 1948, that’s just wrong. The March 26, 1949 Billboard magazine said that Max Korr “in association with Mitchell Rappeport and others” was building a drive-in in Mahoning Valley. The first time it was mentioned in The Morning Call of Allentown was April 18, 1949 when it wrote that “the theatre has been completed” and that it “will bring to this section one of the nation’s finest theatres.” And there was a later interview with a guy “who witnessed the theater’s opening in 1949”.
The Mahoning’s first appearance in the Theatre Catalog series was the 1949-50 edition; the listed “Exec” was Max Korr, and its capacity was 500. In the 1952 TC, the exec/owner was “A. M. Ellis Th. Ct.” and the capacity was bumped to 600. In the 1955-56 edition, the exec/owner was James Humphries.
The Morning Call wrote on May 23, 1952 that Mitchell Rapaport, president of the Mahoning Corporation, had sued the drive-in and A. M. Ellis Theatres Co. Separately, the drive-in had sued Ellis Theatres for interfering with operations. It was a complicated, long story of loans, intertwined businesses, and hiring Max M. Korr Enterprises two weeks earlier to buy and book films.
An auction notice for the drive-in (725 car capacity), its lease, equipment, and name was in the Oct. 4 Philadelphia Inquirer. Five days later, The Morning Call wrote it was sold at auction by the Ellis Theater Company to Dr. Joseph J. Humphries and R. C. H. Becker Sr. “Both men had been associated with the operation of the theatre,” wrote the Mauch Chunk Times-News.
Amazingly, it gets more confusing. The Nov. 15, 1952 issue of Billboard magazine said the Mahoning was sold at auction to Max Korr and associates.
Despite the sale, the Motion Picture Almanacs continued to list Ellis Theatres as the owner through the 1961 edition. At first the capacity was 500, then in 1956, the capacity dropped to 450, where it stayed. The owner for at least the 1963-66 editions was Claude Reinhard, who had founded Palmerton TV Signal Corporation, an early cable TV company.
The MPAs didn’t list owners for at least 1969-76. After that, the editions on my shelf list the Mahoning’s owner as: 1978: Riant Entp. 1980-82: J. Morgan. 1984-88: J. Farruggio.
The Morning Call wrote on Aug 23, 1992 that Amos Theaters Inc. (owned by Joseph Farruggio) had owned the Mahoning since 1981. Its manager was described as “an employee of the Palmerton Telephone Company”.
On Aug. 22, 1997 The Morning Call wrote about Farruggio preparing to show adult movies and trying not to run afoul of the Carbon County DA. “He’s shown no movies this year, but now says he’ll play the explicit films two weeks to maintain the drive-in’s 49 years of continuous operation, then close again.” Farruggio said he needed the proceeds to pay overdue taxes. (He eventually backed down and showed Mimic and Copland instead.) He had been battling “for five years” to get permits to add three screens. The drive-in is adjacent to an airport (then Carbon County, now Jake Arner Memorial) so the FAA was involved.
In 1998, the Mahoning opened for only a few weeks because health permits “require the facility to be open at least one night a year.”
I’m not sure when Mike and Deb Danchak came in, or there were other owners in between. In 2013, as the digital conversion loomed, the drive-in had a misadventure starring a guy who said he fixed up drive-ins but never told me which ones. My story and that guy’s comment can be found here.
The Morning Call called Jeff Mattox “a new owner” on October 23, 2014. He joined with two former Temple University film students, Virgil Cardamone and Matthew McClanahan, to embrace the 35mm nostalgia factor and keep the Mahoning running film even today.
davidcoppock, the drive-in is within Mahoning Township. The screen is less than 1200 feet from Mahoning Drive (AKA PA Route 902). The town of New Mahoning is about 2½ miles west of the drive-in, and the Mahoning Valley Speedway and Mahoning Valley Farmers Market are about a mile east.
Of those possibilities, I’m not sure which is the inspiration for the drive-in’s name.
Based on the 1952 issues of The Mountain Echo, a weekly newspaper in Shickshinny PA, the Gardens Drive-In Theatre (named for Hunlock Gardens) opened between June 27 (an “opening soon” note) and July 11 (its first advertisement). It was said to have room for 325 cars. It became the singular Garden in February 1954.
The drive-in was built by Gardens Amusement Company, but that was apparently Theodore Roosevelt Cragle, who died of a heart attack in December 1955. His son Arthur took over the Garden.
More details emerge from Ronald Hontz’s sweeping History of Sweet Valley PA, written around 2003. Arthur Cragle ran the drive-in until 1986, when he sold it to Nelson and Diane Fey. They operated it until 1990 and passed it down to their daughter, Kimberly Barbacci, and her husband Doug. They’re still the owners in 2017.
Current (2017) manager David Hudzik had been the Garden’s projectionist since 1979, “and he has been the source for most of the info you read herein.” In 1986 the drive-in converted from in-car speakers to AM radio; they added FM in 1990.
Adjacent to the Susquehanna River, the Garden floods frequently. In June 1972, Hurricane Agnes caused extensive damage with water over the roof of the concession stand. “Following that event, Hudzik has gotten the removal of equipment down to a science. A team of five guys can now remove all the valuable items in three hours.”
Hontz continues by noting the Garden added a second screen on the southeastern corner of its property in 2002. “The main screen features parking for approximately 450 cars and another 250 or so can view the second screen.”
A side note about Elmira attorney LeRoy Stein. When the project was first announced on April 21, 1947, he was called the president of the Elmira Drive-In Theater Co. On June 4, 1948, as construction was about to commence, he was called its secretary / treasurer. When groundbreaking was reported on June 21, 1948, he was down to just secretary. Stein’s 1964 obituary mentioned that he was a member of the Elmira Symphony Orchestra but said nothing about the drive-in.