Halston Drive-In
1256 Salish Road,
Kamloops,
BC
V2H
1256 Salish Road,
Kamloops,
BC
V2H
2 people
favorited this theater
Showing 19 comments
That’s the Skyway. It opened on April 17, 1950 and closed on September 16, 1980. After closure, the Skyway was demolished a short time later.
As for the other drive-ins in the area.
I found one at 661 Fortune Dr, Kamloops, BC V2B 2K7, Canada. Today, a McDonald’s and a parking area for a shopping center is on the property.
The drive-in itself appeared intact and perhaps operational in 1978, but it was gone and the shopping center in place by 1982.
In 1994, the drive-in did not exist. It appears to have been a parking area for trucks.
By 1999, it was fully constructed and had a go-kart track.
By 2004, it had been abandoned. And given it’s level of disrepair, it appeared to have been abandoned for at least a year and probably longer.
So, if the go-kart track was not mentioned in the grand opening advertisements, it’s probably safe to assume that it did not exist at that time given how much space and investment it took to create it.
Which means that the lifespan of this drive-in was just a few years at best.
Correction on the Kamloops' Drive-Ins history:
The Skyway and the Sundown continued operating into the 1970s right after the Sundown Drive-In was renamed the Odeon Drive-In in 1969. The Sundown did not close in 1969 as I mistakenly said on my previous comment as instead it was renamed Odeon.
Both the Skyway and the Sundown were operated by Odeon. The Skyway became the only drive-in in the Kamloops after the Odeon Drive-In (formerly known as the Sundown Drive-In) closed in 1973.
Also one mistake on the Sundown’s grand opening attraction: Thanks to its schedule of the theater’s first week of operation, “Bugs Bunny’s All Star Cartoon Revue” was added to its grand opening attraction (as it didn’t say on grand opening advertisement).
Unfortunately there’s no mention about the theater’s go-kart track on its grand opening advertisement, but it did say that the owners of the theater were Jim McCormick and Al Glendinning and it ran second-run films. Otherwise, the grand opening advertisement primarily just has information about its schedule, the projection, sound installments, schedule, capacity, and the history of drive-ins in both Kamloops and America.
Do any of the advertisements mention a go-kart track?
Because the J-shaped pavement that extends from the back of the projection/concession hut along the north, then the east side of the drive-in is clearly a go-kart track. You can even see the little cars in the 1999 aerial photo.
The “ticket hut” may be the small building next to the entrance road and then end of the J-shaped track on the SE corner of the drive-in. However, it was destroyed well before the concession/projection hut. As it is gone by the 2016 aerial while the hut remained standing for at least another year or two.
Also, here’s more information about Kamloops' Drive-Ins. There were two in total during the golden age of drive-ins:
The Skyway was the first drive-in in the Kamloops opening April 17, 1950 with “The Red Pony” (plus a Bob/Bing short, unnamed cartoon, and a travelogue all about Banff, Alberta). It was last operated by Odeon and closed September 16, 1980 with “Xanadu” and “The Blues Brothers”.
The Sundown was the other Kamloops Drive-In opening June 29, 1954 with “Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd” (no extras) with the installations of CinemaScope. It closed in 1969.
FOUND IT! I found the grand opening advertisement and it went with the name of “Field Of Dreams Drive-In” (of course not the movie) at first. I haven’t checked to see if it later became the Halston Drive-In.
Despite the theater being freaking small, the Field Of Dreams Drive-In opened its gates on June 25, 1995 with a 35x70ft screen and a 200-car capacity which is completely shocking despite being a very small looking drive-in theater. Its first films screened there were “Crimson Tide” and “Johnny Mnemonic”.
MichaelKilgore - I highly doubt an abandoned building not only got fixed, but they duplicated the graffiti on the walls only to have it burn down again. So, the date’s wrong.
But the “ticket hut” is another matter. I’m not seeing it in any Google Street View before it supposedly burned down. Unless the “ticket hut” was part of the same concession/projection house.
A 1994 aerial photo showed a vacant lot, so the Halston did not grow out of either of Kamloops' previous drive-ins. It was built between then and 1999.
You’re right, Kenmore. A 2017 aerial showed the site intact, though a 2020 aerial showed a gutted building. So SearchN was wrong about the date, or the place got fixed, or something. Y'know, when I quote a source, it doesn’t mean I endorse it. ;)
Could be. It looks very darn close to the screen. The screen is also located at a very odd spot as people can see either the film or the intermission reel in various different areas across Halston Drive very easily, even while filling up gas at either the Esso or Chevron or waiting to get food at the A&W drive-thru.
The projector building looks very close to the screen I think?
MichaelKilgore - A September 2015 Google Street View shows the concession/projection building intact with no evidence of any fire damage. I also cannot find a “ticket hut” on the property in street views from preceding years.
However, by 2018 the concession/projection building had clearly been destroyed by fire. So, either the date is off or the post was about another drive-in.
Waymarking user SearchN posted a note in 2014 that said the Halston was open only briefly in the 1990s. “In April 2014, a pair of suspicious fires destroyed the ticket hut near the entrance and damaged the former concession building, which also housed the projection booth and washrooms.”
Per Boxoffice clippings, there were at least two drive-ins around Kamloops in the 1950s. Did one of them become the Halston?
Inland Industries, Ltd., headed by Ian Clark, built the Skyway in 1950. Stan Creech had acquired it by 1953, the year he built a walk-in section for the Skyway. Creech sold the drive-in to Odeon in early 1962.
George Lane and Sucha Singh were apparently the guys who built the Sundown in Kamloops in the early 1950s, “displacing an apple orchard which was well out in the country east of the main residential area.” Odeon took over the Sundown in 1966, then sold it just before the 1973 season.
I’m pretty sure that the Halston has to be Canada’s smallest drive-in theater I think.
Odd that part of the projection booth/concession stand is still standing. Normally when you knock something down, you take it all down. But it was interesting in that it was off-set, so that it would not block vehicles behind it.
Indeed. It looks really small, looks like a capacity of 60 cars I believe. The projection/concession booth used to be standing too but was demolished in 2018.
The screen still stands, looks like it was a very small drive-in as well.