It’s Day 233 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey, and my eighth in Ontario. It took a little over an hour to drive from downtown Toronto to the Mustang Drive-In Theatre just outside Guelph.

Guelph has had a drive-in theater since at least 1948, but it wasn’t always the Mustang. The Guelph Drive-In sat on the north side of town until it was razed to make way for a shopping center around 1958. As the Waterloo Region Record put it, “The closing of the Guelph Drive-In created a business opportunity elsewhere.”

In 1959 Charles Jemmett built the JEM Drive-In northeast of town. (The name was based on his family name and was always in all-caps.) The JEM had the same capacity, about 400 cars, as the Guelph, so that drive-in must have been doing well enough.

According to a Kitchener Waterloo Record article quoted at length by a commenter on Cinema Treasures, “Sometime in the late 1960s, Charles Jemmett sold the JEM Drive-In to Premier Operating Corp. of Toronto and retired. Premier renamed it the Mustang and later sold it to Sunset Cinema Inc., which continues to operate it today.”

Blogger Steven Petric wrote, “The success at the Mustang drive in can be pointed to the strategy of bring back families to the drive-in by running only the latest movies and avoiding R-rated slashers and horror flicks. Plus kicking out the drinkers and the trouble makers”.

How did the Mustang switch to attracting families? Petric wrote that a Mustang article in the Guelph Mercury newspaper was one example of how to lure the right crowd. “Families don’t have to worry about babysitting,” it said. “If the kids are tired, bring your pillows, and sleep in the vehicle, and smokers, come one, come all. Then there’s the sunsets. You won’t get that anywhere else.”

The video of the day comes from one of Drone to Earth’s many uploads to YouTube. I recommend that you check out the others in that series, as well as a video tribute to projectionist Bill Cardinell.

Miles Today / Total: 58 / 27695 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: The Hitman’s Bodyguard / 147

Nearby Restaurant: I really wanted to go back to another great Mandarin buffet, but I think I ought to avoid duplicating experiences in these regional chains. Instead I enjoyed a wood oven pizza at Buon Gusto. I really love a thin crust like on the pies here, and a meat-free margherita is at least a little healthier to eat. The local Royal City Saison beer is on tap. Good times!

Where I Virtually Stayed: Sure, it’s just another Hampton Inn, but that always represents a pretty safe bet for me. The one in Guelph has a heated salt water pool, which is something I don’t see every day. Guest laundry facilities, an indoor theater next door (useful during winter months), and a typically solid breakfast. Add a clean, comfortable room with all the amenities, and that’s why I choose Hampton a lot.

Only in Guelph: Just three years ago, the latest piece of artwork on the University of Guelph campus was unveiled. It’s a huge statue of a sleeping gryphon, the mythical mascot of the school’s sports teams. At least the gryphon is, not the sleeping part.

Next stop: Hanover Drive-In Theatre, Hanover ON.

It’s Day 232 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey, and the end of a full week in Ontario. It took me barely a half hour to drive from Oakville to The Docks in downtown Toronto. If I hadn’t been driving on a Sunday morning, it probably would have taken twice as long.

The Docks on Polson Pier is an entertainment complex with go-carts, beach volleyball, a nightclub, mini-golf, and a driving range, all within a stone’s throw of Lake Ontario. On weekend evenings, that driving range transforms into what we care about, a two-screen drive-in theater.

That drive-in opened in late spring 2001. In a Toronto Star article about the grand opening, they addressed the loss of older drive-ins over the previous years. “You took something away from people that they didn’t want to be taken away,” said a Docks spokesperson who asked not to be named(!). “It was pure economics. But it was inevitable that they’d come back.”

In 2004, Toronto Life ran an article saying mercurial then-owner Jerry Sprackman was trying to replace everything on the site with a casino if he could get approval. (The article was quoted at length by a poster at TorontoNightclub.com.) That didn’t happen. The article noted in passing that “(t)he movie screen was up at the drive-in before approvals were given or anyone noticed”.

The Star ran what amounted to an update this January, related to a request for a new liquor license. The Docks lost its license in 2005 after noise complaints from neighboring islanders. In 2008, a new company got a license with strict conditions, and now more ownership changes have complicated the issue. If you read the article and take notes, you might be able to figure out the timeline.

When it opened, The Docks was showing movies seven days a week. Now it’s down to weekends, and I was there for its Sunday Carload night. Its listed capacity is 400 cars, but a few years ago they proved you can fit 500 MINIs.

The video of the day comes from The Docks’ Facebook page. Another nice video on YouTube shows a gathering of Volkswagens at the drive-in, but the nicest images don’t come till the end.

Miles Today / Total: 23 / 27637 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: Logan Lucky / 146

Nearby Restaurant: Hanging around downtown Toronto, I gravitated to the Real Sports Bar and Grill. The ambiance reminded me of a huge Las Vegas sports book, with subdued lighting and a huge TV screen surrounded by dozens of smaller screens, all playing sports of course. I felt compelled to order chicken wings (sold by the pound) to balance the Molson Canadian beer. It was an experience!

Where I Virtually Stayed: You knew this already – there are a whole lot of very nice hotels in downtown Toronto. For this trip, I got to check an item off my bucket list by staying at the Renaissance Toronto Downtown Hotel, better known as the hotel in the Rogers Centre. Back when it was SkyDome, the new home of the MLB Blue Jays was the first stadium with a built-in hotel, with 70 rooms facing the field. The Jays were on the road, but I still got a room facing the field. It had a mini-fridge and solid wifi; sometimes that’s all I need.

Only in Toronto: The Toronto Islands hold more than noise-hating neighbors. They’re also the home of Centreville Theme Park, a place that was children’s heaven. The islands were hit hard this year by spring flooding and are slowly getting back to normal. For grown-ups, there are bicycle rentals, cafes, a lighthouse, and even a small commercial airport.

Next stop: Mustang Drive-In Theatre, Guelph ON.

It’s Day 231 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey, and my sixth day in Ontario. It only took about a half hour to drive from the Starlite Drive In Theatre in Stoney Creek, just outside of Hamilton to the 5 Drive-in Theatre, just two miles west of the Ford plant in Oakville.

I’m really not sure when The 5 opened, but I have a theory. There once was the Oakville Drive-In, and according to a 1957 newspaper ad, it was “2 miles east of the Ford plant, between Q.E. and Dundas Hwys”. Two miles east on the road in front of the plant would be in Lake Ontario, but as I just wrote, two miles west would put you where The 5 is now. So if I’m right, that was its single-screen beginning in 1957 or earlier.

The International Motion Picture Almanacs indicate that the Oakville persisted until at least 1969, then by 1972 The 5 appeared and the Oakville was gone. On The 5’s old website’s History page, it said that it had been “(o)wned and operated by Premier Operating since the early 70’s”. So maybe the drive-in changed its name to the nearby Highway 5 (also known as the Dundas Highway) when Premier acquired it.

(A couple of other respected online sources claim The 5 opened in the mid 1960s, but that doesn’t match the almanacs or line up with the official history. But what do I know? It’s just a theory.)

What we know for sure is that The 5 was a single screen until Premier added a second in 1980 and a third in 2001. To read what it’s like today, and see some nice photos, check out a sponsored blog post about a trip there less than three weeks ago.

The video of the day is a YouTube trip through the winding entrance ramp to the iconic 5 sign on the central concession building. But you should really also check out an official video with plenty of aerial coverage showing just how busy it gets there.

I was so glad to be pointing at the huge original screen for my movie this night. The Hitman’s Bodyguard might not reward careful thought, but it’s a fun action movie that works well at a drive-in.

Miles Today / Total: 28 / 27614 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: The Hitman’s Bodyguard / 145

Nearby Restaurant: With the short drive, I had plenty of time to relax with my lunch at Stoney’s Bread Company. There are plenty of sandwiches available, but I wanted to fill up on healthy roughage for a change, so I went with the grilled chicken salad. There were pecans and asiago cheese in there, still it was better for me than a lot of my recent meals.

Where I Virtually Stayed: There are plenty of my kind of hotels in Oakville, but the one I chose this time was the Hilton Garden Inn. My comfy room had the full set of amenities including a Keurig coffee maker, and a very full breakfast was free in the morning thanks to my Hilton Honors gold status. I’d love to have this available at every stop.

Only in Oakville: The Oakville Museum is housed in the former estate of the town’s founding family. There’s an exhibit about the way Oakville celebrated Expo 67, and also displays about its history in the underground railroad and local black history.

Next stop: The Docks, Toronto ON.