Belt Drive-In

Boxoffice, Aug. 6, 1955: “Edwin M. Gardiner, 63, manager of the Belt Highway Drive-In, died in a fire which broke out there Monday (1) night. He was suffocated in the windowless office when flames from an air conditioning unit blocked the only escape. The fire, which firemen believed was caused by faulty wiring of the air conditioner, occurred about 6 p. m. before the theatre had opened. Gardiner lived at Mission, Kas., was a former manager of the Shawnee Drive-In and had done promotion work for MGM in Oklahoma City. The Belt is a Durwood operation. Heavy glass bricks served instead of windows in the concrete block building.”

Boxoffice, July 19, 1947: “ST. JOSEPH, MO. - After a last-minute power scramble, Missouri Motor Movies, consisting of L. E. Pope, W. E. Whaley and C. H. Martin jr., all of Kansas City, opened their Belt Drive-In at the intersection of highways 71 and 36, one-half mile east of here with capacity crowds at three shows last Friday night. A party at Hotel Robidoux followed the first performance. Although three shows were offered opening night, the outdoorer will offer two shows nightly with a 50-cent admission. Although screen mountings and landscaping were still incomplete opening night, all equipment, including in-car speakers were installed. Six hundred cars in the 18-acre tract face the 30 by 40 foot screen.”

In case anyone is interested, as mentioned above by CSWalczak, my original St Joseph Memory Lane website on fortunecity.com was deleted by Fortune City after being active for 12 years. They dropped all of their free websites, now only offering paid websites. The new St Joseph Memory Lane website address is http://sjml.net46.net/ For some reason, since the day that hurricane Sandy hit the east coast, people with AT&T internet service are not able to access the new website. I am hoping it’s just a temporary condition.

Thanks.