Author Archives: mrdrivein

South Dakota drive-in to close this year

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The Daily Republic of Mitchell SD relayed some sad news this week. The Starlite Drive-In will close for good at the end of the 2013 season rather than purchase digital projection equipment. The tiniest ray of hope is that, although owner Jeff Logan doesn’t plan an reopening the Starlite, he will go through his standard winterization process. “We are going to run it right into the end, and then put it into mothballs,” Logan said.

According to the Starlite’s Facebook page, three Mitchell SD men built the Lake Vue Drive-in, which opened in May of 1949. “It was only the third drive-in in South Dakota. In 1963, Rod Hanson bought it. Logan purchased it in 1976 and renamed it the Starlite. He ran it until 1986 when the drive in business went bust with the advent of HBO and home video. He re-opened it in 1993 as drive-ins saw a resurgence.”

Just a few months ago, we reported how the Starlite had upgraded its movie selection. That translated into better business, but it wasn’t enough. “It’s been one of our best years in a long time,” Logan said. “Even when you’re doing as good as we’re doing, when you do the math, the projections aren’t there.”

You should go read The Daily Republic’s original story, plus a rehash with a few more details by the Associated Press. I don’t know why these drive-ins think they can’t survive on classic films and nostalgia. I need to find out more about that.

Thieves rip off a thousand speaker wires in Ohio

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It’s just terrible to see the strange ingenuity of desperate morons who steal copper wiring. Copper theft is a plague in many parts of the country, and now WCMH, Columbus OH’s news leader, says it’s the motivation behind the theft of over 1000 speakers at the South Drive-In Friday morning. But I disagree; more about that in a moment.

First, the facts. According to surveillance video, two men with wire cutters drove in to the South around 5 am and starting cutting wires where the connect to the speaker poles, collecting the wires and the speakers attached to them. South General Manager Bryon Teagardner said that the show will go on with FM sound, and that he’s alerted salvage yards to be on the lookout for someone trying to cash in hundreds of short wire pieces.

“One little 4-foot section or 5-foot section of what they took off of one speaker, the salvage price is not even 20 cents worth of copper in it,” Teagardner said. You know, I think he’s right, these wires weren’t worth enough to cause this theft. I base this opinion partly because of drive-in history and partly because of the internet.

Remember all those drive-in cartoons that talked about “accidentally” snapping off a speaker and returning it to the box office? That was a nice way of saying that drive-ins wanted those expensive speakers back. According to Drive-In Theatres by Kerry Segrave, “Speaker theft got so bad that some theaters implemented a policy of offering rewards, $50 or $100 for example, for reporting speaker theft.” Diligent drive-in operators needed to check every day to see which speakers still worked, plus which speakers were still there.

Everybody in the video report is so focused on the $200 of copper that they’ve overlooked the $10,000 of speakers. Go to eBay and search on “drive-in speaker”. They start around $10 and go up to $40 or more, with higher prices for clean speakers in working condition. These thieves might not be headed to the salvage yard; they might be headed online or to flea markets. That’s where I’d put out the word to watch for these thieves’ wares. Let’s hope those speakers get plugged in again soon.

Update: Turns out those thieving morons were even stupider than I surmised. Bryon Teagardner dropped me a note to say they didn’t take the speakers. Thanks for the note, and hope everything’s back to normal soon!

Who wants to rehab Indiana’s Ski-Hi?

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Over at TriCities.com, the folks there ran a story that first appeared in the Muncie (IN) Star Press. I’m not sure how that works, but the only difference between the two is that the Star Press version includes some photos and a nice bit of video, which I’ve embedded here. It’s worth the visit for the photos, but the Star Press is one of those newspapers that wants to restrict viewers to a few pages a month unless they subscribe. But I digress.

Anyway, the story is about Michael Chalfant, who bought the remains of the Ski-Hi Drive-In, which sits just north of Muncie at the corner of Indiana highways 3 and 28. The Ski-Hi had closed around 2005, and it just sat until Chalfant bought it a couple of years ago. The Ski-Hi had a lot of fans, and there are any number of people who’d love to see it restored and operating again. And that’s pretty much the end of the story.

A big problem is that the Ski-Hi has been gutted. Not only was it hit by weather and decay, but vandals and scavengers cleared out the apartment at the base of the tower and the concession stand. “Everything’s pretty well gone,” Chalfant said. “Thieves have taken the scrap and the wiring. The snack bar is beyond repair. The counters are still in there but it’s pretty much been rummaged through.”

The situation now is that Chalfant mows the grounds and has “no immediate plans” to tear down the Ski-Hi. But he also says he has no particular plan to restore it. Some folks are starting to talk about forming a non-profit to embark on the huge project of restoring a drive-in when all that’s left is the land, the shell of a concession building, and a screen tower that’s slowly falling apart. Good luck on putting something together, and meanwhile, thanks to the Star Press for preserving this video snapshot of what a drive-in can look like after years of neglect.