Category Archives: New York

Sept. 23: Hathaway’s Drive-In Theatre, North Hoosick NY

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Hathaway's Drive-In marquee and screen

Photo from the Hathaway’s Facebook page

It’s Day 266 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. Even though it was barely 100 miles between Milford NH  and the Hathaway’s Drive-In Theatre in North Hoosick NY, it took almost two and a half hours to drive there.

Hathaway’s opened on May 7, 1948, “built by a partnership between Chase & Mary Hathaway and Dean & Dorothy LeBarron Hathaway,” according to New York Drive-Ins. The hurricane of November 1950 blew down the original screen, which was rebuilt using wooden poles heavily braced to support the screen. In 1994, wind destroyed that screen, so it was replaced with the current steel screen.

The Pingree family owned and operated Hathaway’s since 1988 according to a story in the Brattleboro Reformer. (An article in Hemmings Motor News said the date was 1990.) They put it up for sale in 2004 but had a hard time finding a buyer. Duane Greenawalt bought the place in 2009.

In August 2013, Greenawalt announced that Hathaway’s needed a digital projector and would close unless he got support from the community or was a winner in Honda’s Project Drive-In. “Maybe people don’t think I’m serious when I say we will close,” Greenawalt told the Bennington Banner. “But, my family and I have discussed this at great length and we just can’t afford to stay open without help. We need to win this.”

The next spring, that help came from an unusual source. As documented in The Eastwick Press, Lynn Caponera from In The Night Kitchen at Scotch Hill Farm in Cambridge NY came to the rescue. The late Maurice Sendak, author and illustrator of such children’s books as Where the Wild Things Are and In The Night Kitchen, created In the Night Kitchen Farm, a non-profit that grows and distributes fresh produce to those in need. The Greenawalts agreed that Hathaway’s would run on-screen public service announcements promoting awareness for hunger relief in exchange for the funding.

I was happy to watch another new release on a Saturday night. The latest Kingsman installment makes a fine drive-in movie.

Miles Today / Total: 103 / 31210 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: Kingsman: The Golden Circle / 168

Nearby Restaurant: Jean’s Place is a little diner that’s probably the closest restaurant to Hathaway’s. They had a Sloppy Joe special for dinner this night, but they also serve breakfast all day, which tends to be my favorite. Blueberry pancakes and plenty of coffee hit the spot any time.

Where I Virtually Stayed: Google Maps said that the closest hotels to Hathaway’s were all in Bennington across the border in Vermont. Honestly, I didn’t go out of my way just so I could stay at another Hampton Inn; it was just a coincidence. It was all the very nice, dependable Hampton standard including a clean, comfy studio suite with all the modern amenities and a solid breakfast in the morning. Thank goodness for happy coincidences.

Only in North Hoosick: One of 29 historic covered bridges in New York State is the Buskirk Bridge in Hoosick. Wikipedia says that it’s perhaps the state’s earliest surviving William Howe truss bridge.

Next stop: Sunset Drive-In, Colchester VT.

Bringing back Long Island drive-in memories

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The Babylon (NY) Beacon columnist Sandi Brewster-walker looked back with a lengthy tribute to the drive-in theaters of Long Island. In particular, the article featured the Johnny All Weather Drive-In Theatre that opened in 1957 in Copiague. It was a rare (probably “only” at the time) drive-in with an adjacent indoor theater where the same movie would run during bad weather.

The Beacon article rambles past the history of drive-ins in general and circles around to some Long Island drive-in history. In the early 1950s, some town councils voted against zoning variances that would have allowed such theaters, in one case because “it would give rise to a moral problem.”

Times changed. In 1961, a similar theater in Long Island opened, the Smithtown All-Weather Drive-In in Nesconset. Then times changed again. Johnny All-Weather closed after the 1984 season, and Smithtown closed a year later.

There’s so much more to read about the Johnny All-Weather and its other Long Island drive-ins. The Long Island page from NewYorkDriveIns.com is probably the best single source, but you should start with the Beacon column, so go read it!

Without film, Hi-Way faces tough choices

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The Daily Freeman of Hudson Valley NY ran a story that I expect to see duplicated in dozens of other towns. Now that the Hollywood studios have stopped supplying film prints of their movies, the Hi-Way of Coxsackie has to decide what it’s going to do about the coming drive-in season.

According to the Daily Freeman story, Roger Babcock and his wife bought the Hi-Way in 1996. Since then, he expanded from one screen to four, and he takes pride in maintaining his fleet of dependable, workhorse film projectors. “All I replace is bulbs and a gear here and there,” Babcock said.

Now come the tough choices. If Babcock switches to digital, how many projectors can he afford? He’ll need to upgrade the projection booth to “clean room” conditions with heat, air conditioning, air filtering, and an internet connection. Where will he get the money for all that? Virtual print fees from the studios? Social Security? For much more about the Hi-Way and its future, you’ll just have to read the article.