According to notes in the June 1940 issues of The Exhibitor, the Milford’s second year was delayed by local protests. It opened June 26 that year “with individual amplifiers for cars.”
The May 15, 1940 issue of The Exhibitor reported that the “Strurbridge (sic) Drive-In opened” on May 11, managed by Joseph Mekelburg. Then the May 22, 1940 issue mentioned that “Sturbridge Drive-In opened for its second season under Levenson Brothers.”
The Sabetha Herald wrote in its Memories column for March 20, 1969:
The Nemaha Drive-In Theater will re-open for another season a week from tomorrow, on Friday, Mar. 28, Ernie Block announces. Mr. Block reports that the most noticeable change in the movie industry has been the recent rating system for movies that went into effect last fall.
Here’s a note from the Aug. 8, 1951 issue of The Exhibitor:
Robert D. Sparks, manager, Twin City Drive-In, Sherman, Tex., offered $20 cash for the best name submitted for the gigantic but “friendly” bull painted on the front of that theatre. The Twin City has just completed a big remodeling and redecorating job. Just about the world’s biggest bull was next done in oils on a surface measuring 40 x 50 feet. The scene is lighted up at night with floodlights.
Looks like the Boulevard was open by 1951. And there’s a second drive-in that will need a separate listing in DeLand.
The 1949-50 Theatre Catalog listed the De Land Outdoor Th. as the only drive-in in DeLand at the time. Capacity 300, execs R. E. Hawker and H. W. Alexander.
The first Motion Picture Almanac list in the 1950-51 edition included the “Outdoor Drive-In” in DeLand, owner H. W. Alexander.
The Aug. 8, 1951 issue of The Exhibitor wrote that W. A. “Bill” and Dorothy Tison bought the Deland(sic) Outdoor from E. G. Hawkers.
The 1951-76 MPAs listed both the Outdoor (capacity 300) and the Boulevard (400, owner Leroy Johnson at first, then Floyd Theatres).
The 1952 Catalog listed the Boulevard as DeLand’s only drive-in, capacity 400, exec: LeRoy Johnson.
The 1955-56 Catalog listed both the Boulevard (exec: Carl Floyd) and the Dixie (capacity 260, execs: Eugene Wulfekuhler and Floyd Stowe) for DeLand. Was that Dixie really in some other town?
The 1977 MPA finally dropped the Deland Outdoor, leaving just the Boulevard, then with a capacity of 300. That’s how it stayed through the final MPA drive-in list in 1988.
The Aug. 8, 1951 issue of The Exhibitor said that the Crescent “celebrated its first anniversary with square dancing in the patio.” So it must have opened in the summer of 1950.
According to an April 17, 1961 note in Boxoffice, that’s about when Jim Fraser bought the Red Wing from Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Spiess. Fraser had been a projectionist at a Rapid River MN drive-in and planned to start showing first-run movies at the Red Wing. The note placed the drive-in on US 61 in Wacouta, just east of Red Wing.
“Mr. and Mrs. Spiess, who opened the Red Wing Drive-In in 1955 after operating an indoor theatre in Glenwood City, Wis., plan to move to the west coast on account of his health.”
The Dubuque was destroyed by a fire in the early morning of March 28, 1961, according to an April 17 Boxoffice note. Manager Harley Moore said it was insured, but the “50x80-foot screen” and everything but the concession / projection stand was gone.
A special section of the April 10, 1961 issue of Boxoffice had a photo spread of the playground equipment at the Springfield.
Darrell D. Manes, Commonwealth Theatres city manager, said the Springfield “enjoys the patronage of a very well-to-do clientele. Most of the cars on its ramps are Cadillacs and Chryslers, Manes commented.”
A note in the April 3, 1961 issue of Boxoffice said the Airport was owned by Russell Brehm of Lincoln and Senator Roman Hruska of Omaha, who also owned the 84th and O Drive-In there. Both were equipped with car heaters and stayed open during the winter.
The April 3, 1961 issue of Boxoffice had a note from Sky View manager Jim Schlatter about staying open “all this past winter”. Schlatter said that even with a small crew, his concession did better on several winter nights than on nights the summer before.
Thanks to Joe Vogel for the citation. Here’s the full one-paragraph story from Boxoffice, Aug. 13, 1962, under the Oklahoma City column:
Another little town, Davenport, a few miles east of Chandler, has lost its theatres. Joe E. Stribling and wife, who have operated the Gem Theatre and Rig Drive-In there for years, called it quits and closed both. The drive-in is being dismantled and the equipment stored in the Gem. They have a fine set of CinemaScope lenses and about 50 Simplex speakers, all for sale at a very reasonable price. Stribling was a manager for Griffith Amusement Co. and its successor, Video Independent, for many years, then entered exhibition on his own at the Ritz in Stroud, also in the Chandler area. For several years he has had a job with the telephone company which keeps him out of town during the week, while his wife is busy teaching piano. They admit they have not had time to look after the theatres properly. That and a decline in business caused them to call it quits.
Today, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch marked the 25th anniversary of the destruction of the 66 Park-In’s screen. I added that page to the Internet Archive, so the link should stay alive longer here.
The street address is accurate, but the site is within Oak Lawn IL, just barely. (Across 87th Street to the north is Burbank, and across S. Cicero Street to the east is Hometown.)
The Twin Open Air was still visible in a 1962 aerial photo but already replaced by the shopping center in the 1965 topo map.
The Bel-Air debuted in the 1949-50 Theatre Catalog, listed with exec: T. I. Wagner. The 1952 Catalog added the capacity of 1000 and changed the owner to H. and E. Balaban Ct.
The Motion Picture Almanac usually listed the “Belair” under Joliet. It was included in the MPA’s first drive-in list, for the 1950-51 edition, capacity 1000, owner Bel Aire Theatre Co.
The MPA showed the Bel Air on Romeoville Road in Lockport for a while, but included it through its final drive-in list in the 1988 edition.
Based on its absence in the Theatre Catalog the year before, there’s a decent chance that this drive-in opened in 1949. The “Hilltop” debuted in the 1949-50 Theatre Catalog, exec: Rube Levine. By the 1952 edition, the name had changed to two words and the exec had changed to H. and E. Balaban Ct.
In its first drive-in list, for the 1950-51 edition, the Motion Picture Almanac listed three drive-ins in Joliet: the Belair (capacity 1000); the Hamilton, capacity “500-600”, owner Hiltop(sic?) Drive-In Theatre, Inc.; and the Hill Top, no owner or capacity mentioned.
Both the Hamilton and Hill Top (capacity 500) were listed in the 1952-53 edition’s drive-in list as owned by H. & E. Balaban Circuit. But the theatre circuit listing for Balaban, H. & E. Corp. showed the “Hilltop” as its only drive-in. I wonder what confused the MPA into thinking there had been a Hamilton Drive-In, and based on the Theatre Catalog listings, I doubt that the Hamilton ever existed.
Checking the borders with Google Maps, it seems clear that the former Falcon site is in Collinsville. Also, I get a better result on Google Maps with 7798 Collinsville Road.
My guess is that the Pontiac became the Star Chief, possibly after changing hands or being enlarged. What are two Cinema Treasures listings as of this writing should merge under the Star Chief.
The Pontiac was first listed in the 1949-50 Theatre Catalog, owner Kenneth Murray. The 1952 Theatre Catalog, added a capacity (264) and changed the owner to T. E. Lally. The 1955-56 Catalog changed the owner again, this time to Ken Phillips.
That’s probably the same Ken Phillips who sold the Star Chief to Kerasotes Theatres in 1958.
The Pontiac was in the first Motion Picture Almanac list in the 1950-51 edition, showing a capacity of just 100, owner Martin Murray. Then came a period of overlap where the ever-fallible MPA listed the tiny Pontiac next to an improbably same-named drive-in with the same capacity as the later Star Chief.
Total MPA list mentions for Pontiac IL:
1950: Pontiac, capacity 100, owner Martin Murray
1951-54: Pontiac, 100, Martin Murray; AND Pontiac, 275, J. E. Lally
1955: Pontiac, 275, L. O. Hewitt
1956-59: Star Chief, 275, Kenneth Phillips
1960-64: Star Chief, 275, George Kerasotes
1965-66: Star Chief, 250, George Kerasotes
1969-76: Star Chief, 250
1977-83: Starchief, Kerasotes
(Of course, we have excellent evidence that the Star Chief ceased operations after the 1981 season.)
The Motion Picture Almanac first listed this as “Drive-In” in its 1951-52 edition, capacity 400, owners Steve Bennis, Gus Constan. The name changed to Auto-Vue (with hyphen) in 1952-53, and the capacity changed to 500 in 1953-54. In the 1955 edition, Constan was dropped, and that’s the way it stayed until 1977, when the owner changed to W. Bennis and the name changed to Bennis Auto Vue. The listing stayed that way through the final MPA drive-in list in its 1988 edition.
Strangely, the Theatre Catalog seems to have got it right from the first. Its 1952 drive-in list had the Bennis Auto Vue, owner Steve Bennis, though the capacity was 300.
The Winter 1996 issue of Our Times (Logan County IL) wrote that “Bennis was in the process of building the Auto-Vue … when the Lincoln Drive-In opened … in 1950.” Sounds like it opened in 1951.
An Aug. 5, 1988 article in The Pantagraph of Bloomington IL lamented that the Bennis Auto Vue was one of many central Illinois drive-ins no longer in operation. The last movie listing I could find in The Pantagraph for the drive-in was Aug. 28, 1982.
Amplifying JAlex’s note, the best Google Maps address I could find is 1190 Chain of Rocks Road, Pontoon Beach, IL 62040. (That marks the point where the old entrance ramp, now Bel Air Drive, connected with old Route 66.) Pontoon Beach has some weird borders, but the old Bel-Air ramps are visible within the city limits, albeit a literal stone’s throw from Granite City.
The first ad I can find in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for the Bel-Air (with hyphen) is on March 29, 1954. A Jan. 2, 1955 article there reported that the The Bel-Air Drive-In, owned and operated by the Jablonow-Komm Theaters, “is reported to be the first drive-in theater in this area to provide in-car heaters and an air-conditioned Ramp House for patrons who prefer theater-type seating.”
A Jan. 21, 1971 Post-Dispatch profile of Louis and Julius Jablonow said that “in 1953 (Louis) built the Bel-Air Drive-In in Granite City.” He said he thought it was the first outdoor theater with “in-car heaters, an enclosed seating area, and an elaborate cafeteria style concession building.”
Throughout the 1970s and 80s, the Post-Dispatch’s drive-in round-up ads would use hyphens for the Bel-Air inconsistently, without more often than with. Considering those editorial uses above, I would still vote hyphen.
Motion Picture Almanacs placed the “Bel Air” in Mitchell from its first appearance in the 1955 edition and never included a hyphen through its final list in 1988. All MPA drive-in list mentions:
1955-66: capacity 600, owner Sam Kamm Theatres
1969-76: capacity 600, no owner info
1977-82: capacity 700, owner Mid Am. Thea.
1983-84: 1 screen, owner Mid Am. Thea.
1985-88: Bel Air Twin, 1 screen(sic), owner BAC Theas.
According to notes in the June 1940 issues of The Exhibitor, the Milford’s second year was delayed by local protests. It opened June 26 that year “with individual amplifiers for cars.”
The May 15, 1940 issue of The Exhibitor reported that the “Strurbridge (sic) Drive-In opened” on May 11, managed by Joseph Mekelburg. Then the May 22, 1940 issue mentioned that “Sturbridge Drive-In opened for its second season under Levenson Brothers.”
The Sabetha Herald wrote in its Memories column for March 20, 1969:
The Nemaha Drive-In Theater will re-open for another season a week from tomorrow, on Friday, Mar. 28, Ernie Block announces. Mr. Block reports that the most noticeable change in the movie industry has been the recent rating system for movies that went into effect last fall.
Here’s a note from the Aug. 8, 1951 issue of The Exhibitor:
Robert D. Sparks, manager, Twin City Drive-In, Sherman, Tex., offered $20 cash for the best name submitted for the gigantic but “friendly” bull painted on the front of that theatre. The Twin City has just completed a big remodeling and redecorating job. Just about the world’s biggest bull was next done in oils on a surface measuring 40 x 50 feet. The scene is lighted up at night with floodlights.
The August 8, 1951 issue of The Exhibitor reported that Al Tribbett was named manager of the Fort Drive-In, Macomb, Ill. So it was probably open then.
The Aug. 8, 1951 issue of The Exhibitor reported that “The Arkansas Amusement Company opened its Pine(sic) Drive-In, Little Rock, Ark.”
Motion Picture Almanac mentions:
Looks like the Boulevard was open by 1951. And there’s a second drive-in that will need a separate listing in DeLand.
The 1949-50 Theatre Catalog listed the De Land Outdoor Th. as the only drive-in in DeLand at the time. Capacity 300, execs R. E. Hawker and H. W. Alexander.
The first Motion Picture Almanac list in the 1950-51 edition included the “Outdoor Drive-In” in DeLand, owner H. W. Alexander.
The Aug. 8, 1951 issue of The Exhibitor wrote that W. A. “Bill” and Dorothy Tison bought the Deland(sic) Outdoor from E. G. Hawkers.
The 1951-76 MPAs listed both the Outdoor (capacity 300) and the Boulevard (400, owner Leroy Johnson at first, then Floyd Theatres).
The 1952 Catalog listed the Boulevard as DeLand’s only drive-in, capacity 400, exec: LeRoy Johnson.
The 1955-56 Catalog listed both the Boulevard (exec: Carl Floyd) and the Dixie (capacity 260, execs: Eugene Wulfekuhler and Floyd Stowe) for DeLand. Was that Dixie really in some other town?
The 1977 MPA finally dropped the Deland Outdoor, leaving just the Boulevard, then with a capacity of 300. That’s how it stayed through the final MPA drive-in list in 1988.
The Aug. 8, 1951 issue of The Exhibitor said that the Crescent “celebrated its first anniversary with square dancing in the patio.” So it must have opened in the summer of 1950.
The Exhibitor of Aug. 8, 1951 noted that Saxton Theatrical Service would handle buying and booking for the Tower.
According to an April 17, 1961 note in Boxoffice, that’s about when Jim Fraser bought the Red Wing from Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Spiess. Fraser had been a projectionist at a Rapid River MN drive-in and planned to start showing first-run movies at the Red Wing. The note placed the drive-in on US 61 in Wacouta, just east of Red Wing.
“Mr. and Mrs. Spiess, who opened the Red Wing Drive-In in 1955 after operating an indoor theatre in Glenwood City, Wis., plan to move to the west coast on account of his health.”
The Dubuque was destroyed by a fire in the early morning of March 28, 1961, according to an April 17 Boxoffice note. Manager Harley Moore said it was insured, but the “50x80-foot screen” and everything but the concession / projection stand was gone.
A special section of the April 10, 1961 issue of Boxoffice had a photo spread of the playground equipment at the Springfield.
Darrell D. Manes, Commonwealth Theatres city manager, said the Springfield “enjoys the patronage of a very well-to-do clientele. Most of the cars on its ramps are Cadillacs and Chryslers, Manes commented.”
https://archive.org/details/boxofficeaprjun179boxo/page/n75
A note in the April 3, 1961 issue of Boxoffice said the Airport was owned by Russell Brehm of Lincoln and Senator Roman Hruska of Omaha, who also owned the 84th and O Drive-In there. Both were equipped with car heaters and stayed open during the winter.
The April 3, 1961 issue of Boxoffice had a note from Sky View manager Jim Schlatter about staying open “all this past winter”. Schlatter said that even with a small crew, his concession did better on several winter nights than on nights the summer before.
Thanks to Joe Vogel for the citation. Here’s the full one-paragraph story from Boxoffice, Aug. 13, 1962, under the Oklahoma City column:
Another little town, Davenport, a few miles east of Chandler, has lost its theatres. Joe E. Stribling and wife, who have operated the Gem Theatre and Rig Drive-In there for years, called it quits and closed both. The drive-in is being dismantled and the equipment stored in the Gem. They have a fine set of CinemaScope lenses and about 50 Simplex speakers, all for sale at a very reasonable price. Stribling was a manager for Griffith Amusement Co. and its successor, Video Independent, for many years, then entered exhibition on his own at the Ritz in Stroud, also in the Chandler area. For several years he has had a job with the telephone company which keeps him out of town during the week, while his wife is busy teaching piano. They admit they have not had time to look after the theatres properly. That and a decline in business caused them to call it quits.
Today, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch marked the 25th anniversary of the destruction of the 66 Park-In’s screen. I added that page to the Internet Archive, so the link should stay alive longer here.
The street address is accurate, but the site is within Oak Lawn IL, just barely. (Across 87th Street to the north is Burbank, and across S. Cicero Street to the east is Hometown.)
The Twin Open Air was still visible in a 1962 aerial photo but already replaced by the shopping center in the 1965 topo map.
The most recent ad in the Chicago Tribune for the Double Drive-In that I could find was Sept. 7, 1995.
The Bel-Air debuted in the 1949-50 Theatre Catalog, listed with exec: T. I. Wagner. The 1952 Catalog added the capacity of 1000 and changed the owner to H. and E. Balaban Ct.
The Motion Picture Almanac usually listed the “Belair” under Joliet. It was included in the MPA’s first drive-in list, for the 1950-51 edition, capacity 1000, owner Bel Aire Theatre Co.
The MPA showed the Bel Air on Romeoville Road in Lockport for a while, but included it through its final drive-in list in the 1988 edition.
Based on its absence in the Theatre Catalog the year before, there’s a decent chance that this drive-in opened in 1949. The “Hilltop” debuted in the 1949-50 Theatre Catalog, exec: Rube Levine. By the 1952 edition, the name had changed to two words and the exec had changed to H. and E. Balaban Ct.
In its first drive-in list, for the 1950-51 edition, the Motion Picture Almanac listed three drive-ins in Joliet: the Belair (capacity 1000); the Hamilton, capacity “500-600”, owner Hiltop(sic?) Drive-In Theatre, Inc.; and the Hill Top, no owner or capacity mentioned.
Both the Hamilton and Hill Top (capacity 500) were listed in the 1952-53 edition’s drive-in list as owned by H. & E. Balaban Circuit. But the theatre circuit listing for Balaban, H. & E. Corp. showed the “Hilltop” as its only drive-in. I wonder what confused the MPA into thinking there had been a Hamilton Drive-In, and based on the Theatre Catalog listings, I doubt that the Hamilton ever existed.
Checking the borders with Google Maps, it seems clear that the former Falcon site is in Collinsville. Also, I get a better result on Google Maps with 7798 Collinsville Road.
My guess is that the Pontiac became the Star Chief, possibly after changing hands or being enlarged. What are two Cinema Treasures listings as of this writing should merge under the Star Chief.
The Pontiac was first listed in the 1949-50 Theatre Catalog, owner Kenneth Murray. The 1952 Theatre Catalog, added a capacity (264) and changed the owner to T. E. Lally. The 1955-56 Catalog changed the owner again, this time to Ken Phillips.
That’s probably the same Ken Phillips who sold the Star Chief to Kerasotes Theatres in 1958.
The Pontiac was in the first Motion Picture Almanac list in the 1950-51 edition, showing a capacity of just 100, owner Martin Murray. Then came a period of overlap where the ever-fallible MPA listed the tiny Pontiac next to an improbably same-named drive-in with the same capacity as the later Star Chief.
Total MPA list mentions for Pontiac IL:
(Of course, we have excellent evidence that the Star Chief ceased operations after the 1981 season.)
The Motion Picture Almanac first listed this as “Drive-In” in its 1951-52 edition, capacity 400, owners Steve Bennis, Gus Constan. The name changed to Auto-Vue (with hyphen) in 1952-53, and the capacity changed to 500 in 1953-54. In the 1955 edition, Constan was dropped, and that’s the way it stayed until 1977, when the owner changed to W. Bennis and the name changed to Bennis Auto Vue. The listing stayed that way through the final MPA drive-in list in its 1988 edition.
Strangely, the Theatre Catalog seems to have got it right from the first. Its 1952 drive-in list had the Bennis Auto Vue, owner Steve Bennis, though the capacity was 300.
The Winter 1996 issue of Our Times (Logan County IL) wrote that “Bennis was in the process of building the Auto-Vue … when the Lincoln Drive-In opened … in 1950.” Sounds like it opened in 1951.
An Aug. 5, 1988 article in The Pantagraph of Bloomington IL lamented that the Bennis Auto Vue was one of many central Illinois drive-ins no longer in operation. The last movie listing I could find in The Pantagraph for the drive-in was Aug. 28, 1982.
Amplifying JAlex’s note, the best Google Maps address I could find is 1190 Chain of Rocks Road, Pontoon Beach, IL 62040. (That marks the point where the old entrance ramp, now Bel Air Drive, connected with old Route 66.) Pontoon Beach has some weird borders, but the old Bel-Air ramps are visible within the city limits, albeit a literal stone’s throw from Granite City.
The first ad I can find in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for the Bel-Air (with hyphen) is on March 29, 1954. A Jan. 2, 1955 article there reported that the The Bel-Air Drive-In, owned and operated by the Jablonow-Komm Theaters, “is reported to be the first drive-in theater in this area to provide in-car heaters and an air-conditioned Ramp House for patrons who prefer theater-type seating.”
A Jan. 21, 1971 Post-Dispatch profile of Louis and Julius Jablonow said that “in 1953 (Louis) built the Bel-Air Drive-In in Granite City.” He said he thought it was the first outdoor theater with “in-car heaters, an enclosed seating area, and an elaborate cafeteria style concession building.”
Throughout the 1970s and 80s, the Post-Dispatch’s drive-in round-up ads would use hyphens for the Bel-Air inconsistently, without more often than with. Considering those editorial uses above, I would still vote hyphen.
Motion Picture Almanacs placed the “Bel Air” in Mitchell from its first appearance in the 1955 edition and never included a hyphen through its final list in 1988. All MPA drive-in list mentions: