Drove by the location of the old Crab Orchard drive-in today, and noticed that the concrete foundation for the snack bar or projection booth was still there! Will have to stop soon and look and see if their are any more remains to be found!
Sadly, the Miles should be changed to demolished. Roadsidepeek.com states that the drive in was razed in the summer of 2006 for “redevelopment” (i.e. Walmart lol)
Another memory I have watching movies there was the terrible sound, definatey no THX or even surround sound (it may have crumbeled the walls if used, no kidding!) There was only a center screen speaker and often movie patrons would have to tell the projectionist to turn the sound up! And the screen was a Vista-Vision screen, no Cinamascope here in Whitesville. When a Cinamascope film played here, such as “Ghostbusters”, what didn’t fill the screen, filled the surrounding walls. Not intentionally cutting down our little theatre, it was all we had in this area during my time growing up!
Boone Theatre was definately a 2nd run theatre. Usually a summer blockbuster would play at the Boone in November or December of that year! If a movie flopped, it may have taken 2 or 3 weeks for the Boone to play it for the weekend. I remember the John Travolta/Olivia Newton-John flop from ‘83 “Two of A Kind” playing at the Boone Theatre a week or 2 after first being released. “Tootsie” which came out in December of '82, played there in the Spring of '83. I drove by just the other day and it was being cleaned out yet again. The church hasn’t used the theatre in years. I just wonder if the screen is still standing inside?!
My older brother lived on and off in Morgantown in the 80’s and early 90’s. He had a wholesale store just a block or 2 down from the warner theatre. I remember in the summer of 1990 going to see “Bird on a Wire” and “Back to the Future III” there, if memory serves, “Total Recall” was also playing there at the time. Morgantown was always an interesting town. There were (I doubt now) a lot of businesses in that one small area in 1990 and ‘91. There was a huge record store, don’t remember the name, at the top of the street where I bought Beatles cd’s and some of my very first dvd’s!
I lived in Colorado Springs with my brother and his family in the summer of 1991. One day we drove to Sweetwater “yard selling”. On the way back, we saw this huge monolith. It was amazing, I had seen a few of these deserted drive inns this summer in Texas, but my brother stopped at this one and we started looking around. I remember the playground and quite a few of the wooden chairs for the outdoor seating. My nephew and I went inside the tower screen. There was a lot of birds nesting (Hitchcock would’ve been proud) and a lot of rat droppings everywhere! Up one set of stairs we found a huge poster for the 1970 movie “Love Story” pasted onto a piece of plywood. I dutifully brought my sovenier down the stairs and placed it in the back of my brothers van. Awesome day!
I lived with my brother and his family in Colorado Springs TX in the summer of 1991. There wasn’t much to do in this town and one hot day strolling uptown, my nephew and I found this closed theatre. It wasn’t even locked! We decided to explore, being movie buffs (and still are). Everything was very dusty as I remember. The first thing I remember seeing was the concession stand. The popcorn machine still had popcorn in bags ready to be purchased, hot dog weinies (very wrinkled by this time) in their machine ready to be bought also. One sheets were scattered on the counter, Ruthless People, Top Gun, Ferris Bueller-still have them in my collection-It was if this place had just closed like always for the night and was ready to be opened the next day, just didn’t happen. We were wanting to explore behind the huge movie screen, all seats were intact, but we didn’t have a flashlight and it was very dark inside the auditorium. We braved going upstairs because the windows allowed some light to shine through. We found the projector room with the huge, shiny steel green projector that was ready to be run again. Next door to that room was a room filled with dozens of film cans, some had movies in them and some were just empty reels. By this time I being the older of the 2 of us, thought we had better be leaving, because we were tresspassing after all. Still remember this day vividly!!
I never saw a movie there, but I can remember going through Crab Orchard on the way to Beckley in the back seat of mom and dads car and seeing that ominous, gigantic movie screen for many years. I don’t think it was demolished until the early 90’s. There is a Food Lion and auto parts store in that location now.
Very fond memories of the Boone theatre. I remember in the 70’s growing up the line to get in would go for a block or more. Some of the first movies I remember seeing there were “Nine to Five” & “Superman II”. By the early 90’s no one hardly went to this theatre anymore. Admission was still only $4 at the time of closing in 1996. The last movie shown was “Halloween-The Curse of Michael Myers” The poster was still out for a year or more until the church moved in.
There was a JUR drive-in at sylvester,wv opened in 1952 by the JUR theatre circuit. I have heard that it was poorly attended due to the economy in the area of the early 50’s and didn’t stay open very long. Anyone have any more pics or info about the JUR???
interesting story!
Drove by the location of the old Crab Orchard drive-in today, and noticed that the concrete foundation for the snack bar or projection booth was still there! Will have to stop soon and look and see if their are any more remains to be found!
I remember driving by this sign for many years, hasn’t been down too long, maybe a couple years. Just wonder if there are any remains in the area?
Nice photos on the link Chuck, bet that screen has been reclaimed by the trees by now…sad
That was one gigantic drive-in!
Great ad! I used to have a large collection of movie “clippings” too. Wish I still had them! I collected from ‘80-'92.
Sadly, the Miles should be changed to demolished. Roadsidepeek.com states that the drive in was razed in the summer of 2006 for “redevelopment” (i.e. Walmart lol)
Another memory I have watching movies there was the terrible sound, definatey no THX or even surround sound (it may have crumbeled the walls if used, no kidding!) There was only a center screen speaker and often movie patrons would have to tell the projectionist to turn the sound up! And the screen was a Vista-Vision screen, no Cinamascope here in Whitesville. When a Cinamascope film played here, such as “Ghostbusters”, what didn’t fill the screen, filled the surrounding walls. Not intentionally cutting down our little theatre, it was all we had in this area during my time growing up!
Boone Theatre was definately a 2nd run theatre. Usually a summer blockbuster would play at the Boone in November or December of that year! If a movie flopped, it may have taken 2 or 3 weeks for the Boone to play it for the weekend. I remember the John Travolta/Olivia Newton-John flop from ‘83 “Two of A Kind” playing at the Boone Theatre a week or 2 after first being released. “Tootsie” which came out in December of '82, played there in the Spring of '83. I drove by just the other day and it was being cleaned out yet again. The church hasn’t used the theatre in years. I just wonder if the screen is still standing inside?!
Easy Rider & In the Heat of the Night, now that’s a great drive-in double bill! (for a change) lol
That is one awesome looking drive-in!
wow! very cool!!
My older brother lived on and off in Morgantown in the 80’s and early 90’s. He had a wholesale store just a block or 2 down from the warner theatre. I remember in the summer of 1990 going to see “Bird on a Wire” and “Back to the Future III” there, if memory serves, “Total Recall” was also playing there at the time. Morgantown was always an interesting town. There were (I doubt now) a lot of businesses in that one small area in 1990 and ‘91. There was a huge record store, don’t remember the name, at the top of the street where I bought Beatles cd’s and some of my very first dvd’s!
cool pics andy!
I lived in Colorado Springs with my brother and his family in the summer of 1991. One day we drove to Sweetwater “yard selling”. On the way back, we saw this huge monolith. It was amazing, I had seen a few of these deserted drive inns this summer in Texas, but my brother stopped at this one and we started looking around. I remember the playground and quite a few of the wooden chairs for the outdoor seating. My nephew and I went inside the tower screen. There was a lot of birds nesting (Hitchcock would’ve been proud) and a lot of rat droppings everywhere! Up one set of stairs we found a huge poster for the 1970 movie “Love Story” pasted onto a piece of plywood. I dutifully brought my sovenier down the stairs and placed it in the back of my brothers van. Awesome day!
I lived with my brother and his family in Colorado Springs TX in the summer of 1991. There wasn’t much to do in this town and one hot day strolling uptown, my nephew and I found this closed theatre. It wasn’t even locked! We decided to explore, being movie buffs (and still are). Everything was very dusty as I remember. The first thing I remember seeing was the concession stand. The popcorn machine still had popcorn in bags ready to be purchased, hot dog weinies (very wrinkled by this time) in their machine ready to be bought also. One sheets were scattered on the counter, Ruthless People, Top Gun, Ferris Bueller-still have them in my collection-It was if this place had just closed like always for the night and was ready to be opened the next day, just didn’t happen. We were wanting to explore behind the huge movie screen, all seats were intact, but we didn’t have a flashlight and it was very dark inside the auditorium. We braved going upstairs because the windows allowed some light to shine through. We found the projector room with the huge, shiny steel green projector that was ready to be run again. Next door to that room was a room filled with dozens of film cans, some had movies in them and some were just empty reels. By this time I being the older of the 2 of us, thought we had better be leaving, because we were tresspassing after all. Still remember this day vividly!!
I never saw a movie there, but I can remember going through Crab Orchard on the way to Beckley in the back seat of mom and dads car and seeing that ominous, gigantic movie screen for many years. I don’t think it was demolished until the early 90’s. There is a Food Lion and auto parts store in that location now.
Very fond memories of the Boone theatre. I remember in the 70’s growing up the line to get in would go for a block or more. Some of the first movies I remember seeing there were “Nine to Five” & “Superman II”. By the early 90’s no one hardly went to this theatre anymore. Admission was still only $4 at the time of closing in 1996. The last movie shown was “Halloween-The Curse of Michael Myers” The poster was still out for a year or more until the church moved in.
There was a JUR drive-in at sylvester,wv opened in 1952 by the JUR theatre circuit. I have heard that it was poorly attended due to the economy in the area of the early 50’s and didn’t stay open very long. Anyone have any more pics or info about the JUR???