The Motion Picture Almanac rebooted its drive-in list for its 1977 edition, which included the Del-Mac, still owned by Panero Th. Co., capacity 375 cars. It stayed that way through 1979, then dropped off the 1980 list.
Considering the MPA’s lead time, this suggests that the Del-Mac’s final season may have been 1978.
After reading through old editions of the Coalinga Record (where I couldn’t find any drive-in ads), my guess is that the drive-in opened in 1951. A 1990 retrospective said the opener was “in the early 1950s”, and that Boxoffice note shows it couldn’t have happened any later.
In its final years, Jim Berry owned and ran the drive-in. He failed to reopen in 1986 because of the death of his assistant(?), Vida Sue Scantling. “Vida was my right arm. I could not replace her expertise on short notice, and emotionally I could not handle it alone.” Berry said later.
But Berry reopened the Coalinga for weekends in 1988, probably for just that one season. By the time of that 1990 retrospective, the newspaper wrote that the “Coalinga Drive In Theater is now a derelict that has been an ever worsening eyesore for several years.”
Buckle up, because I’ve got this drive-in’s name changes, all based on listings and ads in the Times of San Mateo.
At first it was consistent, “Starlite Drive-In” through March 1964. On April 1, 1964, the drive-in’s ad was for “Starlite Auto Movie” while the listings cited the “Belmont (Starlite) Automovie”.
On April 4, 1964, the first ad for “Belmont Automovie” appeared. It stayed that way until the summer of 1967, which is missing some editions. By August 1967, the listings had changed to “Starlight Automovie”.
From that point forward, the advertised name was usually Starlite, sometimes Starlight. Drive-In and Automovie appeared about equally often. The Redwood City Tribune of Nov. 27, 1970 referred to it as the “Starlite, a United Artist Automovie,” suggesting what drove the change away from drive-in.
Despite its midlife fling as the Belmont, this drive-in closed the same way it opened, as the Starlite. Whether you want to add an Automovie is up to you.
It looks like United California bought the Tioga in April or May 1955 to shut down its competition with its three other Merced theaters (the Starlight Drive-In, Merced, and Strand).
Looking through back issues of the Merced Sun-Star, the last Tioga ad I could find was for “The Harlem Globetrotters” on Oct. 2, 1954. United California’s other theaters advertised in 1955, but not the Tioga. Although the Motion Picture Almanac’s drive-in list continued to include the Tioga for years, United California’s holdings section did not mention the Tioga.
Boxoffice, Sept. 11, 1948: “Work was completed recently on remodeling the Motor-In Theatre, pioneer ozoner in the northwest area. Improvements made to the drive-in included a new boxoffice, new entrance and exit, new fence and a large neon sign. The boxoffice, finished in sheet aluminum, was constructed by the National Blower and Sheet Metal Co. of Tacoma, according to Tom Jones, manager of the Motor-In.”
It sure looks like this drive-in opened as the Skylite.
The “Skylight” Drive-In, “one mile east of the College of Idaho on Highway 30,” opened on Sat., Aug. 7, 1948, according to a note in the previous day’s Idaho Statesman. J. F. Knuth of Meridian was the manager, and the drive-in was the third of a group of K and K outdoor theaters in the region.
The 1949-50 Theatre Catalog included the Skylite Drive-In, owner J. K. Knuth, capacity 250 cars. In the 1950-51 Catalog (which also included the “Motor View”), the owner changed to Moyle and Goodman. The Catalog’s next edition in 1952 dropped the Skylite, listing only the Motor-Vu and Terrace, owner Virgil Odell, capacity 300.
That lines up with a note in the Statesman on March 14, 1952, which said that Odell had purchased the Chief drive-in “two miles east of Caldwell from Rex and Marjorie Moyle of Star … The drivein will be renamed the Terrace and will open on March 18.” Boxoffice picked up that note a month later, as I posted here years ago.
Boxoffice, Sept. 4, 1948: “Orin J. Sears his wife and his son, have reopened their Apache Theatre at Elida, N. M. They have installed all brand new seats, machines, air conditioners and screen and have remodeled the building since closing July 1 for those repairs. All of the old equipment was sold to Mr. Yarbrough at House N. M. Sears started in business with the Alamente Theatre in Alamogordo in 1927, as an operator and sign writer at the age of 15. He has had the Apache since he returned from the army in September of 1945.”
More names. Boxoffice, Sept. 27, 1952: “James Cannon has bought the Apache, Elide (sic), N. M. from Raymond Keith”
Boxoffice, Aug. 28, 1948: “MISSOULA, MONT. - A 440-car drive-in will be opened here soon, according to Manager Bill Fower. It will be the second drive-in in Montana. The first was built in Billings last June.”
Boxoffice, Aug. 21, 1948: “Cucamonga, Calif. - The town made famous to millions on the air by Jack Benny now claims another distinction - that of being the proud possessor of a genuine open-air theatre. It came about like this: Louis Torres, who used to operate the Lux in Los Angeles, had ambitious plans for the construction of the Cucamonga Theatre here. Then that popular modern plague - material shortages - hit him, hard. He wound up with four walls, but no roof. Undaunted, Torres opened on schedule. Business is just fine, he reports.”
The 1950 Film Daily Year Book listed the Mexico with 300 seats at 547 24th Street. That’s a valid address, but it’s in the middle of a block of single-family houses, so I don’t know.
A June 1921 Paramount ad in the Spokane Spokesman-Review included the Mabton in a list of theaters showing a week of Paramount movies.
The Spokesman-Review wrote in October 1936 that the Mabton theater, “scarcely a year old,” had reopened. Its owner, P. L. Carpenter, had closed it for a week of renovations including dropping the floor and enlarging the stage.
Boxoffice, Aug. 21, 1948: “MABTON, WASH. - Two Yakima valley fire departments were called to fight a fire in the Liberty Theatre here recently, but despite all efforts the theatre was destroyed … The blaze began near the righthand corner of the screen, at 8 p. m. while 20 patrons were attending the show. The Liberty building is owned by Art Work and Vernett Grow, both of Mabton, and the theatre was operated by Bill Carey … Mabton will not be without theatre entertainment long. The new theatre being built by Vern Powell is expected to open within the next two months.”
Lorena Powell, Vern’s wife, told the Sunnyside Sun 29 years later that in 1948, she and her husband “went into hock to build the Mabton Theater which included rentals, private living quarters for the Powells and Doris’s Beauty Salon … The last picture shown in the theater was on the last Saturday of January 1976.”
Boxoffice, Aug. 21, 1948: “HAXTON, COLO. - Mrs. Lucille Campbell of Denver has purchased the Rialto Theatre here from Sam Feinstein, who gave ill health as his reason for selling. Mrs. Campbell will be assisted in the operation of the enterprise by her son Neal.”
Boxoffice, Nov. 3, 1951: “In Haxtun, Colo., the Rialto Theatre booked special programs during the annual corn show and festival. Free admissions prevailed for three hours on a Friday afternoon.”
Boxoffice, July 31, 1948: “DEXTER, N. M. - Joe H. Gray and Belle Hurst have announced the opening of their new theatre here. It is the only house is Dexter and seats 228 people. Gray said programs would be changed four times a week and that matinees would be given every Saturday and Sunday.”
Boxoffice, July 24, 1948: “L. A. Wirtz, manager of the $200,000 Salem Drive-In recently opened here, announced that the theatre was scheduled to operate on a year-around schedule regardless of the weather. The drive-in was developed by Albert and William Forman and Ted and William Gamble of Portland.”
Boxoffice, July 24, 1948: “The Hyland Drive-In, 3670 Highland drive, opened this week to become the fourth outdoor theatre here (in Salt Lake City). It is owned and operated by Golden P. Wright. It was built and equipped by Intermountain Theatre Supply.”
From the July 10, 1948 issue of Boxoffice, which is in the public domain. The original caption:
NEW SAN PEDRO SIGNS - Henry Sorenson of Modern Theatre Equipment Co. of Dallas reports he has equipped the San Pedro Drive at San Antonio complete from signs, marquee, projection and in-car sound equipment to ticket booth accessories. The owners are Al Wolf, former Warner Bros. employe, and Charles Albert, San Antonio businessman. The 500-car airer cost $160,000. The photos show night and day shots of the San Pedro’s huge sign and marquee.
Boxoffice, July 10, 1948: “As many outdoor theatres reported terrific business in this area, another ozoner opened its doors. The 600-car Geneva Drive-In was built north of Provo in the fast-growing Orem district by the Superior Amusement Co., headed by Don Clyde, Maurice Miller and Veigh Cummings. The ozoner has a modernistic boxoffice of glass blocks and a restaurant at the entrance.”
This photo is on the cover of Steve Fitch’s 2025 book, “Screen Towers: The Drive-In Theater in America”.
Since Steve Fitch says he took his photo of the old Fiesta on Jan. 1, 1981, its move to a new location had to have been later than that.
This 1981 photo by Steve Fitch appears in his 2025 book, “Screen Towers: The Drive-In Theater in America.” He still owns its copyright.
This 1983 photo is by Elisa Leonelli, who still owns its copyright.
This 1981 photo by Steve Fitch appears in his 2025 book, “Screen Towers: The Drive-In Theater in America”. He owns its copyright of course.
This 1973 photo by Steve Fitch appears in his 2025 book, “Screen Towers: The Drive-In Theater in America”. He owns its copyright of course.
The Motion Picture Almanac rebooted its drive-in list for its 1977 edition, which included the Del-Mac, still owned by Panero Th. Co., capacity 375 cars. It stayed that way through 1979, then dropped off the 1980 list.
Considering the MPA’s lead time, this suggests that the Del-Mac’s final season may have been 1978.
After reading through old editions of the Coalinga Record (where I couldn’t find any drive-in ads), my guess is that the drive-in opened in 1951. A 1990 retrospective said the opener was “in the early 1950s”, and that Boxoffice note shows it couldn’t have happened any later.
In its final years, Jim Berry owned and ran the drive-in. He failed to reopen in 1986 because of the death of his assistant(?), Vida Sue Scantling. “Vida was my right arm. I could not replace her expertise on short notice, and emotionally I could not handle it alone.” Berry said later.
But Berry reopened the Coalinga for weekends in 1988, probably for just that one season. By the time of that 1990 retrospective, the newspaper wrote that the “Coalinga Drive In Theater is now a derelict that has been an ever worsening eyesore for several years.”
Buckle up, because I’ve got this drive-in’s name changes, all based on listings and ads in the Times of San Mateo.
At first it was consistent, “Starlite Drive-In” through March 1964. On April 1, 1964, the drive-in’s ad was for “Starlite Auto Movie” while the listings cited the “Belmont (Starlite) Automovie”.
On April 4, 1964, the first ad for “Belmont Automovie” appeared. It stayed that way until the summer of 1967, which is missing some editions. By August 1967, the listings had changed to “Starlight Automovie”.
From that point forward, the advertised name was usually Starlite, sometimes Starlight. Drive-In and Automovie appeared about equally often. The Redwood City Tribune of Nov. 27, 1970 referred to it as the “Starlite, a United Artist Automovie,” suggesting what drove the change away from drive-in.
Despite its midlife fling as the Belmont, this drive-in closed the same way it opened, as the Starlite. Whether you want to add an Automovie is up to you.
It looks like United California bought the Tioga in April or May 1955 to shut down its competition with its three other Merced theaters (the Starlight Drive-In, Merced, and Strand).
Looking through back issues of the Merced Sun-Star, the last Tioga ad I could find was for “The Harlem Globetrotters” on Oct. 2, 1954. United California’s other theaters advertised in 1955, but not the Tioga. Although the Motion Picture Almanac’s drive-in list continued to include the Tioga for years, United California’s holdings section did not mention the Tioga.
From the Sept. 25, 1948 issue of Boxoffice, which is in the public domain.
Actually, it appeared in a Wagner display ad I saw in Boxoffice’s Sept. 11, 1948 issue.
Boxoffice, Sept. 11, 1948: “Yakima is enjoying its sister-city’s new theatre, the Selah, located on the highway just south of the city limits.”
Boxoffice, Sept. 11, 1948: “Work was completed recently on remodeling the Motor-In Theatre, pioneer ozoner in the northwest area. Improvements made to the drive-in included a new boxoffice, new entrance and exit, new fence and a large neon sign. The boxoffice, finished in sheet aluminum, was constructed by the National Blower and Sheet Metal Co. of Tacoma, according to Tom Jones, manager of the Motor-In.”
It sure looks like this drive-in opened as the Skylite.
The “Skylight” Drive-In, “one mile east of the College of Idaho on Highway 30,” opened on Sat., Aug. 7, 1948, according to a note in the previous day’s Idaho Statesman. J. F. Knuth of Meridian was the manager, and the drive-in was the third of a group of K and K outdoor theaters in the region.
The 1949-50 Theatre Catalog included the Skylite Drive-In, owner J. K. Knuth, capacity 250 cars. In the 1950-51 Catalog (which also included the “Motor View”), the owner changed to Moyle and Goodman. The Catalog’s next edition in 1952 dropped the Skylite, listing only the Motor-Vu and Terrace, owner Virgil Odell, capacity 300.
That lines up with a note in the Statesman on March 14, 1952, which said that Odell had purchased the Chief drive-in “two miles east of Caldwell from Rex and Marjorie Moyle of Star … The drivein will be renamed the Terrace and will open on March 18.” Boxoffice picked up that note a month later, as I posted here years ago.
Boxoffice, Sept. 4, 1948: “Orin J. Sears his wife and his son, have reopened their Apache Theatre at Elida, N. M. They have installed all brand new seats, machines, air conditioners and screen and have remodeled the building since closing July 1 for those repairs. All of the old equipment was sold to Mr. Yarbrough at House N. M. Sears started in business with the Alamente Theatre in Alamogordo in 1927, as an operator and sign writer at the age of 15. He has had the Apache since he returned from the army in September of 1945.”
More names. Boxoffice, Sept. 27, 1952: “James Cannon has bought the Apache, Elide (sic), N. M. from Raymond Keith”
Boxoffice, Aug. 28, 1948: “MISSOULA, MONT. - A 440-car drive-in will be opened here soon, according to Manager Bill Fower. It will be the second drive-in in Montana. The first was built in Billings last June.”
Boxoffice, Aug. 21, 1948: “Cucamonga, Calif. - The town made famous to millions on the air by Jack Benny now claims another distinction - that of being the proud possessor of a genuine open-air theatre. It came about like this: Louis Torres, who used to operate the Lux in Los Angeles, had ambitious plans for the construction of the Cucamonga Theatre here. Then that popular modern plague - material shortages - hit him, hard. He wound up with four walls, but no roof. Undaunted, Torres opened on schedule. Business is just fine, he reports.”
The 1950 Film Daily Year Book listed the Mexico with 300 seats at 547 24th Street. That’s a valid address, but it’s in the middle of a block of single-family houses, so I don’t know.
A June 1921 Paramount ad in the Spokane Spokesman-Review included the Mabton in a list of theaters showing a week of Paramount movies.
The Spokesman-Review wrote in October 1936 that the Mabton theater, “scarcely a year old,” had reopened. Its owner, P. L. Carpenter, had closed it for a week of renovations including dropping the floor and enlarging the stage.
Boxoffice, Aug. 21, 1948: “MABTON, WASH. - Two Yakima valley fire departments were called to fight a fire in the Liberty Theatre here recently, but despite all efforts the theatre was destroyed … The blaze began near the righthand corner of the screen, at 8 p. m. while 20 patrons were attending the show. The Liberty building is owned by Art Work and Vernett Grow, both of Mabton, and the theatre was operated by Bill Carey … Mabton will not be without theatre entertainment long. The new theatre being built by Vern Powell is expected to open within the next two months.”
Lorena Powell, Vern’s wife, told the Sunnyside Sun 29 years later that in 1948, she and her husband “went into hock to build the Mabton Theater which included rentals, private living quarters for the Powells and Doris’s Beauty Salon … The last picture shown in the theater was on the last Saturday of January 1976.”
Boxoffice, Aug. 21, 1948: “HAXTON, COLO. - Mrs. Lucille Campbell of Denver has purchased the Rialto Theatre here from Sam Feinstein, who gave ill health as his reason for selling. Mrs. Campbell will be assisted in the operation of the enterprise by her son Neal.”
Boxoffice, Nov. 3, 1951: “In Haxtun, Colo., the Rialto Theatre booked special programs during the annual corn show and festival. Free admissions prevailed for three hours on a Friday afternoon.”
Boxoffice, July 31, 1948: “DEXTER, N. M. - Joe H. Gray and Belle Hurst have announced the opening of their new theatre here. It is the only house is Dexter and seats 228 people. Gray said programs would be changed four times a week and that matinees would be given every Saturday and Sunday.”
Boxoffice, July 24, 1948: “L. A. Wirtz, manager of the $200,000 Salem Drive-In recently opened here, announced that the theatre was scheduled to operate on a year-around schedule regardless of the weather. The drive-in was developed by Albert and William Forman and Ted and William Gamble of Portland.”
Boxoffice, July 24, 1948: “The Hyland Drive-In, 3670 Highland drive, opened this week to become the fourth outdoor theatre here (in Salt Lake City). It is owned and operated by Golden P. Wright. It was built and equipped by Intermountain Theatre Supply.”
From the July 10, 1948 issue of Boxoffice, which is in the public domain. The original caption:
NEW SAN PEDRO SIGNS - Henry Sorenson of Modern Theatre Equipment Co. of Dallas reports he has equipped the San Pedro Drive at San Antonio complete from signs, marquee, projection and in-car sound equipment to ticket booth accessories. The owners are Al Wolf, former Warner Bros. employe, and Charles Albert, San Antonio businessman. The 500-car airer cost $160,000. The photos show night and day shots of the San Pedro’s huge sign and marquee.
Boxoffice, July 10, 1948: “As many outdoor theatres reported terrific business in this area, another ozoner opened its doors. The 600-car Geneva Drive-In was built north of Provo in the fast-growing Orem district by the Superior Amusement Co., headed by Don Clyde, Maurice Miller and Veigh Cummings. The ozoner has a modernistic boxoffice of glass blocks and a restaurant at the entrance.”