Author Archives: mrdrivein

Hamilton Auto Theatre keeps improving

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Ticket booth at the Holiday Auto Theatre

photo by Erica Minton, used by permission

Cincinnati CityBeat ran one of my favorite kind of drive-in stories yesterday. It’s a long description of how some outsiders purchased the Hamilton Auto Theatre just outside Hamilton OH in 2007 and brought it up to date while keeping as many nostalgic elements as they could. That updating passed a major milestone a couple of weeks ago when it upgraded to digital projection equipment.

The CityBeat article is a wonderful, long exploration into the story of former Disney theme park employees Todd Chancey and Mark Althoetmar, who visited the Hamilton during a roller-coaster tour and fell in love with it. “We started tying in drive-ins with our roller-coaster trips,” Althoetmar said. “We would ride coasters by day and take in drive-ins at night.”

Now the new owners painstakingly keep the place looking great. Chancey changes each little light bulb in the marquee sign and Althoetmar is trying to add more neon. The best part is that they understand why people go to the drive-in. “People will tell you they come here because they love that they can control their environment,” Chancey said. “They’re not stuck next to people like in a theater. They can sit in their car or outside their car.

There’s so much more in this article, including the odd saga of the abandoned buses. The only thing it’s missing are some good photos, but why quibble, just go read it!

Getty Drive-In goes digital

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At Carload, we love a good excuse for video, and here’s a nice report from WZZM, Grand Rapids MI’s news leader. In nearby Muskegon, the Getty 4 Drive-In has committed to a quarter-million dollar upgrade to digital projection. The only sad note: “The four old projectors that were used since the 1960s are heading for a metal salvage yard.” There’s just got to be a use for those old projectors, right?

Indiana, Oklahoma drive-ins survive storms

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Winchester_FacebookWNDU, South Bend IN’s news leader, ran a story about the storm that took out one of the two screens at the Melody Drive-In (Knox). There’s a nice video of the damage and reaction, but I wasn’t able to embed it here. The good news is that the Melody re-opened last weekend, and the owners hope to rebuild the damaged screen by July 4.

And Oklahoma City’s last drive-in, the Winchester, was also hit hard by storms according to a story in The Oklahoman. Winds damaged the theater’s new digital projection system and half the marquee, although the screen and the “historic neon cowboy sign” survived. Owner Lindy Shanbour says that insurance should pay for most of the repairs, and the Winchester will bounce back. “I don’t know how long it’s going to take, but we will reopen,” he said. “You get this in your blood, and you can’t get it out. I can’t tell you the feeling it gives me.”

I’m always a little shaken when storms and drive-ins mix it up. One of my favorites growing up was the drive-in in Sedalia MO, apparently called the Highway 50 or just Sedalia. I’m fuzzy on that, but I remember that it was in the median where US 50 split into east- and west-bound lanes just west of town. I always thought that it was so cool to have a drive-in in a highway median. And I also remember when I saw the news reports and photos in 1980 that showed how a tornado had blown it to shreds. The drive-in closed after that, and now not only does the highway not split any more, but it looks like there’s an indoor theater where the drive-in used to be. So it’s great news that the Melody and the Winchester are coming back.