Oshawa native Ronald Dalziel, then age 26, was the guy who bought the St. Thomas in 1976 and converted it into a dual theatre, according to an article in the March 28, 1977 issue of Boxoffice.
The Saint Thomas Drive-In’s first appearance in the Motion Picture Almanac series was in the 1950-51 edition, with a capacity of 400 cars, and the owner listed as B. Herman. The capacity stayed the same for the rest of its run in the MPA drive-in list. Ownership changes:
1980 photo by John Margolies, part of the Library of Congress’s John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive and effectively in the public domain.
1980 photo by John Margolies, part of the Library of Congress’s John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive and effectively in the public domain.
1980 photo by John Margolies, part of the Library of Congress’s John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive and effectively in the public domain.
1977 photo by John Margolies, part of the Library of Congress’s John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive and effectively in the public domain.
1977 photo by John Margolies, part of the Library of Congress’s John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive and effectively in the public domain.
I enjoy being proven wrong, but I don’t believe this one. I’ve done a lot of research in Holbrook, and I’ve had some help from the Navajo County Historial Society. Despite hard digging into back issues of the Holbrook Tribune News, we have found zero evidence of any drive-ins other than the two that briefly battled it out in 1955 - the 66 and the Western Star.
It’s difficult to prove a negative, but I would point you to Holbrook’s 1957 topo map, viewable at HistoricAerials.com. That map shows outlines for the then-operating 66 and the closed Western Star, but no drive-ins on Iowa Street.
As the guy who wrote the book, twice, of the history of every drive-in that ever existed on Route 66, I’ve seen plenty of erratic, random mentions of drive-ins that were really just ideas, or that were built somewhere else. I would appreciate learning the sources for the belief that Holbrook had a third drive-in.
422nd Place is/was the road from Highway 210 to the cemeteries, so it’s possible that it was referred to as the cemetery road, just as the highway to a neighboring town was often called the “That-Town Highway”.
Another data point that the Lantern probably opened in September 1953. Independent Film Journal, Oct. 16, 1954: “The Lantern Drive-In at Denton, N.C. celebrated its first anniversary with a week of special events.”
And supporting the Theatre Catalog’s spelling over the MPA’s, the Raleigh News and Observer mentioned on Aug. 13, 1953 that “Jack H. Foust of Lexington” had been appointed a notary public.
I uploaded a 1953 High Point Enterprise ad that mentioned the intersection of “new 64” and 109 south of Thomasville. For a little while, the Lantern ads didn’t mention those highways, instead specifying Route 2 in Thomasville.
By July 1960, the Lantern ad return to calling its location as “109 on New 64”. (BTW, I just saw a Google Map that continues to call the old 64, well, Old 64.)
That “new” US 64 had a diamond interchange with 109, visible on a 1955 aerial photo but not the contemporary topo map. The Lantern was immediately west of that diamond, which is still there today. A wooded field now occupies the old Lantern site, fronted by a car repair shop at 8614 E US Hwy 64, Thomasville, NC 27360. Note that the repair shop is not within the Thomasville city limits; that’s just the post office that delivers its mail.
The 1955-56 Theatre Catalog included the Lantern under Silver Valley NC, Hwys. 64 and 109, capacity 200, owner Jack H. Foust.
The Lantern made its first appearance in the Motion Picture Almanac in the 1957 edition. It was listed under “Silver City,” which is likely to have been a typo since that was also the misspelled home of the Siler City Drive-In. (Which was itself misspelled with an extra V.)
The MPA listed the owner as Jack Faust and the capacity at 218 cars. That remained the same through 1961, the Lantern’s final MPA appearance. It fell off the drive-in list for 1962, which typically suggests that it closed in 1961.
Boxoffice, June 15, 1970: “Tri-State Theatre Services is booking and buying for the Buccaneer Drive-In, Richmond, Ky., for owners Harold Bryant and Harry Roadin.”
This may be relevant. The Oct. 23, 1961 issue of Boxoffice included an ad from an auction company for a 350-car drive-in “located 3 miles N. of Richmond, Ky. on U. S. 25 in Madison County / Due to the death of a member of the corporation, this Drive-In Theatre will be sold at absolute auction. It is improved with a Steel CinemaScope Screen Tower, modern and efficiently equipped concession building, RCA equipment, and is situation on 16 acres of land.”
Since I’m always looking for (or inventing) connections, maybe one of the Redas passed away, then the future Eastern owner bought the place. The dates and location match.
Then again, here’s the caption to a small photo of a crumpled screen that appeared in the Aug. 15, 1966 issue of Boxoffice: “The screen tower at the Eastern Drive-In, Richmond, Ky., was blown down and damaged July 14 in gale-like winds. The drive-in is managed by Mose Reda, a 40-year veteran of the theatre business. His son Tony is manager of the Michigan Drive-In at Detroit and a brother Don is manager of the Jolly Roger outdoor theatre, also in Detroit.”
Boxoffice, Jan. 31, 1966: “M. C. Hughes, McKee; Frank Carnahan, Ormond Beach, Fla., and Glenn Peters, Richmond, are the new owners of the Richmond Drive-In on Berea Road. The airer was purchased from stockholders in Cumberland View, Inc.”
The May 4, 1962 issue of the Eastern Progress, Eastern Kentucky State’s student newspaper, included an ad for “Eastern Drive-In Theatre / (Formerly Reda Drive-In)”. The ad said the Eastern would open for the season on May 10.
Ads for the Eastern described its location as “2½ miles North of Richmond on U.S. 25.” The Eastern advertised in the Progress through at least May 20, 1966, the last ad I could find.
The Exhibitor, May 24, 1950: “Arthur C. Craig opened the new Lake Carlisle Drive-In, Richmond, Ky.”
The Exhibitor, June 21, 1950: “ The new Lake Carlisle Drive-In at Richmond, Ky., opened on June 14.”
(I would interpret those two notes to say that, although it was scheduled to open in May, the Lake Carlisle really opened on June 14, 1950.)
The huge list of 1950 drive-in projects printed in the Feb. 17, 1951 issue of Boxoffice indicated that the Lake Carlisle had opened in 1950. It was listed with a capacity of 500 cars and owned by Arthur C. Craig.
The Exhibitor, March 12, 1952: “Ernie Reda, recently released from the army, is managing the Reda Drive-In, Richmond, Ky.”
In a 2012 story in the Palm Beach Post, William Glenn Mize said that his father, who managed the Delray, and his family lived in a house under the movie screen.
And here’s the Internet Archive link to David Schneider’s now-inaccessible Palm Beach Post story.
Let me transcribe some of the July 10, 1973 newspaper clipping, contributed by elmorovivo. (I dated it from the AP news story on the page.) It said that Juan “Contreres” (sic) had earlier sold the Muse-U to Reed & Reed Distributors of New York. Clifford Reed took over at that point, renaming it “The Cinema.”
“After Reed left Tularosa for the East, the building sat vacant, and just a short time ago, Security Bank & Trust took it over.” Then came a fire on the evening July 9 which gutted the old theater building.
A 25 Years Ago note in the Alamogordo Daily News remembered that in February 1946, Alva Sitton Jr. of Tularosa partnered with “Mr. Blaylock of Ruidoso” to buy Carrizozo’s Lyric Theatre.
A small correction on the date when Baca Theaters (aka Bernard Newman) bought the former Apache.
Boxoffice, Feb. 17, 1964: “Bernie Newman, who operates the Gem Theatre in Walsh, has purchased the Apache Drive-In, Springfield, and the theater is being remodeled prior to being reopend in May”
Oshawa native Ronald Dalziel, then age 26, was the guy who bought the St. Thomas in 1976 and converted it into a dual theatre, according to an article in the March 28, 1977 issue of Boxoffice.
The Saint Thomas Drive-In’s first appearance in the Motion Picture Almanac series was in the 1950-51 edition, with a capacity of 400 cars, and the owner listed as B. Herman. The capacity stayed the same for the rest of its run in the MPA drive-in list. Ownership changes:
1952-53 edition: Twinex 1960 edition: Moonlight Drive-In 1964 edition: Twinex (again)
1980 photo by John Margolies, part of the Library of Congress’s John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive and effectively in the public domain.
1980 photo by John Margolies, part of the Library of Congress’s John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive and effectively in the public domain.
1980 photo by John Margolies, part of the Library of Congress’s John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive and effectively in the public domain.
1977 photo by John Margolies, part of the Library of Congress’s John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive and effectively in the public domain.
1977 photo by John Margolies, part of the Library of Congress’s John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive and effectively in the public domain.
I enjoy being proven wrong, but I don’t believe this one. I’ve done a lot of research in Holbrook, and I’ve had some help from the Navajo County Historial Society. Despite hard digging into back issues of the Holbrook Tribune News, we have found zero evidence of any drive-ins other than the two that briefly battled it out in 1955 - the 66 and the Western Star.
It’s difficult to prove a negative, but I would point you to Holbrook’s 1957 topo map, viewable at HistoricAerials.com. That map shows outlines for the then-operating 66 and the closed Western Star, but no drive-ins on Iowa Street.
As the guy who wrote the book, twice, of the history of every drive-in that ever existed on Route 66, I’ve seen plenty of erratic, random mentions of drive-ins that were really just ideas, or that were built somewhere else. I would appreciate learning the sources for the belief that Holbrook had a third drive-in.
422nd Place is/was the road from Highway 210 to the cemeteries, so it’s possible that it was referred to as the cemetery road, just as the highway to a neighboring town was often called the “That-Town Highway”.
Another data point that the Lantern probably opened in September 1953. Independent Film Journal, Oct. 16, 1954: “The Lantern Drive-In at Denton, N.C. celebrated its first anniversary with a week of special events.”
And supporting the Theatre Catalog’s spelling over the MPA’s, the Raleigh News and Observer mentioned on Aug. 13, 1953 that “Jack H. Foust of Lexington” had been appointed a notary public.
I uploaded a 1953 High Point Enterprise ad that mentioned the intersection of “new 64” and 109 south of Thomasville. For a little while, the Lantern ads didn’t mention those highways, instead specifying Route 2 in Thomasville.
By July 1960, the Lantern ad return to calling its location as “109 on New 64”. (BTW, I just saw a Google Map that continues to call the old 64, well, Old 64.)
That “new” US 64 had a diamond interchange with 109, visible on a 1955 aerial photo but not the contemporary topo map. The Lantern was immediately west of that diamond, which is still there today. A wooded field now occupies the old Lantern site, fronted by a car repair shop at 8614 E US Hwy 64, Thomasville, NC 27360. Note that the repair shop is not within the Thomasville city limits; that’s just the post office that delivers its mail.
The 1955-56 Theatre Catalog included the Lantern under Silver Valley NC, Hwys. 64 and 109, capacity 200, owner Jack H. Foust.
The Lantern made its first appearance in the Motion Picture Almanac in the 1957 edition. It was listed under “Silver City,” which is likely to have been a typo since that was also the misspelled home of the Siler City Drive-In. (Which was itself misspelled with an extra V.)
The MPA listed the owner as Jack Faust and the capacity at 218 cars. That remained the same through 1961, the Lantern’s final MPA appearance. It fell off the drive-in list for 1962, which typically suggests that it closed in 1961.
Boxoffice, June 15, 1970: “Tri-State Theatre Services is booking and buying for the Buccaneer Drive-In, Richmond, Ky., for owners Harold Bryant and Harry Roadin.”
This may be relevant. The Oct. 23, 1961 issue of Boxoffice included an ad from an auction company for a 350-car drive-in “located 3 miles N. of Richmond, Ky. on U. S. 25 in Madison County / Due to the death of a member of the corporation, this Drive-In Theatre will be sold at absolute auction. It is improved with a Steel CinemaScope Screen Tower, modern and efficiently equipped concession building, RCA equipment, and is situation on 16 acres of land.”
Since I’m always looking for (or inventing) connections, maybe one of the Redas passed away, then the future Eastern owner bought the place. The dates and location match.
Then again, here’s the caption to a small photo of a crumpled screen that appeared in the Aug. 15, 1966 issue of Boxoffice: “The screen tower at the Eastern Drive-In, Richmond, Ky., was blown down and damaged July 14 in gale-like winds. The drive-in is managed by Mose Reda, a 40-year veteran of the theatre business. His son Tony is manager of the Michigan Drive-In at Detroit and a brother Don is manager of the Jolly Roger outdoor theatre, also in Detroit.”
Boxoffice, Jan. 31, 1966: “M. C. Hughes, McKee; Frank Carnahan, Ormond Beach, Fla., and Glenn Peters, Richmond, are the new owners of the Richmond Drive-In on Berea Road. The airer was purchased from stockholders in Cumberland View, Inc.”
The May 4, 1962 issue of the Eastern Progress, Eastern Kentucky State’s student newspaper, included an ad for “Eastern Drive-In Theatre / (Formerly Reda Drive-In)”. The ad said the Eastern would open for the season on May 10.
Ads for the Eastern described its location as “2½ miles North of Richmond on U.S. 25.” The Eastern advertised in the Progress through at least May 20, 1966, the last ad I could find.
The Exhibitor, May 24, 1950: “Arthur C. Craig opened the new Lake Carlisle Drive-In, Richmond, Ky.”
The Exhibitor, June 21, 1950: “ The new Lake Carlisle Drive-In at Richmond, Ky., opened on June 14.”
(I would interpret those two notes to say that, although it was scheduled to open in May, the Lake Carlisle really opened on June 14, 1950.)
The huge list of 1950 drive-in projects printed in the Feb. 17, 1951 issue of Boxoffice indicated that the Lake Carlisle had opened in 1950. It was listed with a capacity of 500 cars and owned by Arthur C. Craig.
The Exhibitor, March 12, 1952: “Ernie Reda, recently released from the army, is managing the Reda Drive-In, Richmond, Ky.”
Here’s the grand opening ad from Jan. 7, 1949, originally clipped by CT friend rivest. It’s even got a photo of owner Walter E. Foley, Jr.
In a 2012 story in the Palm Beach Post, William Glenn Mize said that his father, who managed the Delray, and his family lived in a house under the movie screen.
And here’s the Internet Archive link to David Schneider’s now-inaccessible Palm Beach Post story.
Let me transcribe some of the July 10, 1973 newspaper clipping, contributed by elmorovivo. (I dated it from the AP news story on the page.) It said that Juan “Contreres” (sic) had earlier sold the Muse-U to Reed & Reed Distributors of New York. Clifford Reed took over at that point, renaming it “The Cinema.”
“After Reed left Tularosa for the East, the building sat vacant, and just a short time ago, Security Bank & Trust took it over.” Then came a fire on the evening July 9 which gutted the old theater building.
A 25 Years Ago note in the Alamogordo Daily News remembered that in February 1946, Alva Sitton Jr. of Tularosa partnered with “Mr. Blaylock of Ruidoso” to buy Carrizozo’s Lyric Theatre.
More than one Silco, or false alarm?
Boxoffice, Nov. 30, 1964: “The Silco Theatre in Silver City, N.M., is being converted into a furniture store”
A small correction on the date when Baca Theaters (aka Bernard Newman) bought the former Apache.
Boxoffice, Feb. 17, 1964: “Bernie Newman, who operates the Gem Theatre in Walsh, has purchased the Apache Drive-In, Springfield, and the theater is being remodeled prior to being reopend in May”
Boxoffice, July 12, 1965: “The Ritz in south Denver has a marquee which proclaims in large letters "Gone for Coffee - Be Back Soon.” "