Category Archives: Video

Nov. 1: Greenville Drive-In Outdoor Cinema, Greenville NY

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It’s Day 305 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. On this rainy Wednesday, I was glad to have a short drive, just a half hour from the Jericho Drive-in in Glenmont NY to the Greenville Drive-In Outdoor Cinema, in Greenville NY of course.

The Greenville used to have its history posted on an About Us page on its web site. Fortunately, the Internet Archive made a copy in 2014 so I can share some of its highlights with you.

In April 1959, Peter Carelas began construction on the Greenville Drive-in. New York Drive-Ins says its opening night was two months later on June 18. The drive-in was originally designed to hold 400 cars, although the International Motion Picture Almanac later listed its capacity as 550. The screen was 85 feet wide.

The Greenville’s history appears to have been uneventful until it was put up for sale in 1988. That’s when local business owner Mark Wilcox and 10 others, eventually forming “The Greenville Eleven, Inc.” jointly purchased the drive-in to save it from land development. Wilcox operated and managed the Greenville through the 2006 season. During that time, he switched from in-car speakers to FM sound. Even now, he’s still listed as the CEO of the corporation.

“2007 was a year of sadness,” as the Greenville closed. In 2009, Don Brown and Patricia Creigh reopened it for the season, but plagued by rainy weather, the drive-in was only open a few weekends. The Greenville was again closed for the 2010 and 2011 seasons.

In 2012, Jim Gatehouse and family took over, spruced up the facility and reopened, but they couldn’t get past the digital projection hurdle and closed the Greenville again for the 2014 season.

Enter the current owners, Leigh Van Swall and Dwight Grimm. They ran a modest but successful Kickstarter campaign, highlighted by the embedded video above, in early 2015. (It noted, “We are one of the few all-grass drive-ins in existence so the fifteen acres requires extensive mowing and gravel access roads to keep patrons from becoming mired.”) Grimm later told Catskill Eats, “We’re trying not to be so much a straight-up movie theater, but more of an event venue with movie-showing capabilities.”

The Greenville opened a beer garden in 2016, and held a typewriter festival later that year. They finished their 2017 season in mid-October and promised to be back in May 2018. Sounds like fun!

Miles Today / Total: 22 / 34429 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 185

Nearby Restaurant: Was Lane’s Cafe, up Highway 32 from the drive-in, the diner where the Greenville Eleven organized over breakfast? The menu showed plenty of breakfast choices, but I arrived at lunch. I had the hot open-faced turkey sandwich with gravy and cranberry sauce. Mashed potatoes make a better choice than the fries they provided, but for a good turkey sandwich, I’m willing to overlook that.

Where I Virtually Stayed: The Greenville Arms 1889 Inn is possibly the best place to stay in Greenville. It’s the kind of vintage bed and breakfast you’d find on a postcard. My comfortable little room included a mini-fridge. Breakfast included grits, a difficult dish to find in chain hotel buffets. And as a bonus, the proprietors make gourmet chocolates. That’s a great reason to stay here!

Only in Greenville: According to Roadside America, just south of Greenville in the town of East Durham, on the property of Blackthorne Resort, there is a 17-foot-tall steampunk robot. It was built by Thomas Willeford for the 2014 Steampunk World’s Fair, and is displayed in an open-air shed-like building.

Next stop: Hi-Way Drive-In Theatre, Coxsackie NY.

Oct. 31: Jericho Drive-in, Glenmont NY

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It’s Day 304 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. On Halloween, I scurried to a safe retreat, driving less than two hours from the Unadilla Drive-In in Unadilla NY, of course, to the Jericho Drive-in in Glenmont NY.

The story according to Oval Pike is, “The Jericho opened in 1955, after two brothers bought the land from the physician who lived across the road.” It’s true that the incorporation papers for Jericho & 9-W Drive-In Theater, Inc. were filed with the state on Sept. 16, 1955, and DriveInMovie.com wrote that those brothers were Morris and Raphael Klein. But New York Drive-Ins and everybody else says that the grand opening was on Flag Day, June 14, 1957.

The International Motion Picture Almanac still listed Morris Klein as the owner in its 1966 edition, and the Jericho’s capacity was 520 cars. Then came a few decades where I’m really not sure what happened.

The Spotlight of Albany County says that current owners Mike and Lisa Chenette bought the Jericho in 1995. About 2007, they carved out a piece of their viewing field to open the TwisT ice cream stand. (Which offers 25 flavors of hard ice cream and 22 varieties of soft serve including eight combinations of candy that can be added! But I digress.) In 2013, they tried and failed to get a free digital projector in Honda’s Project Drive-In. In 2014, they tried fundraisers to build up some of the cast they’d need, and they upgraded to digital projection in 2015.

And that’s about all I’ve got for this beloved local staple. The video of the day must have first aired on WNYT, Albany’s News Leader, in early 2014 although it was posted to YouTube over two years later.

The Jericho is closed for the season. The ice cream stand was closed for Halloween, but otherwise expects to stay open through this Sunday.

Miles Today / Total: 100 / 34407 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 185

Nearby Restaurant: I find a good old 50s-style diner to be a great salve for missing out on the drive-in experience, and Johnny B’s Glenmont Diner fits that to a T. It’s not shy about sharing all the awards it’s won, or about nailing plenty of vinyl records to the wall. Everyone was dressed up for Halloween, adding to the surreal. Oh yes, the breakfast was amazing, with eggs and bacon and plenty of coffee.

Where I Virtually Stayed: There were a couple of hotels closer to the Jericho, but the Hilton Garden Inn by the Albany Medical Center was just six miles away, so I went with one of my favorite chains. There were cookies waiting for me at check-in, my room had all the modern amenities, and my Hilton Gold status scored me a free breakfast from its substantial buffet.

Only in Glenmont: Next door in Albany, there’s a 28-foot tall, four-ton steel and fiberglass statue of Nipper, the dog best known as listening to “His Master’s Voice” for RCA. According to the Albany Institute of History & Art, Nipper came to his downtown perch in 1958 following renovations of a rundown warehouse built in 1900. The refurbished structure became the new home of RTA, a distributor specializing in RCA appliances. The sculpture was fabricated in Chicago, shipped by rail in five sections, and assembled on the roof with the help of a ten-story crane.

Next stop: Greenville Drive-In Outdoor Cinema, Greenville NY.

Oct. 29: Circle Drive In Theatre, Dickson City PA

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It’s Day 302 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. Coming from the Warwick Drive-In Theatre, just across the border near Warwick NY, it took just an hour and a half to drive to the Circle Drive In Theatre in Dickson City PA.

The important part of the history of the Circle is that Michael Delfino bought it some time in the 1960s, and as of 2015, the 95-year-old was still the owner. That year was when he added a second screen to the Circle, which still packs them in every weekend.

What went before is a little sketchy from the very beginning. Milford Now reported in 2014 that the Circle was built in 1945, which matches what the Circle web site’s history page says. Also in 2014, Happenings magazine said the drive-in had been around “for 65 years” which would put the opening date at 1949, but that it broke ground in 1945. Cinema Treasures also puts the opener in 1949. Why would an erected drive-in sit idle for over three years? That’s a story, but it’s one I don’t know.

What I do know is that the Circle’s first appearance in the fairly reliable Theatre Catalog series was its 1949-50 edition. It was said to be owned by “Albert Frangel,” who I suspect to really be Albert Frengel only because that was a much more common surname in eastern Pennsylvania.

The 1952-59 editions of the Motion Picture Almanac listed the owner as E. Hollander of the Allied Circuit or just the circuit. In the early 1960s, it switched to the “Milgrim (sic) Bkg. Serv.”, actually Philadelphia’s Milgram Booking Service which was associated with Nathan Milgram Services, owner of over a dozen PA drive-ins.

Next up was Delfino, but when exactly? Milford Now said he bought it in 1964. The Times-Tribune of Scranton said it was 1963. WNEP, Moosic’s News Leader, reported it was “the early 1960s.” The Paper Shop blog said it was 1969. Happenings wrote that he had been there “for 61 of the theater’s 65 years,” implying that he worked there before buying the Circle. All I can tell for sure was that it was before the MPA’s 1978 edition, which listed Delfino as the owner.

And that’s when the uncertainty ended. From all accounts, Delfino has had a great time running the Circle. “When you love what you’re doing, you’ll never work a day in your life. I’ve never worked a day in my life at the theater,” he told Happenings. He guided the switch the digital projection in 2012, enlarging the screen at the time.

In 2015, the Circle added a second screen. “I’m a firm believer in perpetuity and that’s forever and everything here is going to last forever. It’s going to be here permanently and that’s why we are doing that,” he told WNEP.

On this night, the occasion was the drive-in’s annual Circle of Screams, “America’s only haunted drive-in theatre.” As part of the package, it was showing two public domain classics, The Horror and Night of the Living Dead.

The video of the day is that WNEP report on the new screen in 2015. Enjoy!

Miles Today / Total: 84 / 34215 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: The Terror / 185

Nearby Restaurant: It’s just a little out of the way, but I had to see the life-sized pirate ship in front of Cooper’s Seafood House in Scranton. It’s been around about as long as the Circle (1948), and the walls are covered with dioramas, photos, and quirky decorations. And there’s food! And a bar with plenty of beers! I had the broiled seafood platter and a pint of Shipyard Pumpkinhead. It was a great way to get ready for the drive-in.

Where I Virtually Stayed: The best bargain among Dickson City’s hotels is probably the Microtel Inn. I got the standardization of a chain hotel at a mom and pop price. There were cookies and coffee to welcome me, my two queens room had all the modern amenities, and the continental breakfast included hard boiled eggs, waffles and fruit. I was ready for another week on the road.

Only in Dickson City: Over in nearby Scranton is the Steamtown National Historic Site, a railroad museum to top them all. There’s an active restoration shop for the steam locomotives and a working roundhouse. Scranton also had the first electric streetcar, and the Electric City Trolley Museum is right next door.

Next stop: Unadilla Drive-In, Unadilla NY.