It’s Day 215 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. It was just a 20-minute drive from the Melody 49 Drive-In, on the outskirts of Dayton OH to the Dixie Twin Drive-In on Dixie Drive in eastern Dayton.

According to Greater Dayton Drive-In Movie Theaters by Curt Dalton (available online here), Levin Theaters opened the Dixie in July 1957. Unlike most drive-ins, the Dixie put its kids’ playground behind the concession stand instead of in front of the screen. It was an economic use of the land, since the building obstructed the view for about eighty feet.

The Levin Family Foundation site tells the story of the Dixie’s owners’ brush with Hollywood. In 1964, brothers Sam, Al and Lou Levin decided to produce their own movie. The result was The Girls on the Beach, shot in two weeks for a budget of $50,000 and released by Paramount the following year.Sam and Al Levin both had minor roles in the film, playing beauty contest judges.

In 1967, the Dixie took the then-unusual step of opening on Sunday mornings for a flea market, called the Paris Flea Market, which has become a Dayton institution. The Dixie became a twin in 2002 after salvaging a screen from the Sherwood Twin Drive-In.

The Dixie switched to digital projection in 2014. It had failed to earn a free projector from Project Honda the year before, but according to a story at MostMetro.com, “the Dixie received tens of thousands of emails, comments, calls and posts in an unprecedented show of support,” which inspired management to shell out for two brand new projectors. That was probably the right call. Greg Dove, president of Levin Service Company, said in a 2016 article in the Dayton Daily News that attendance and revenue were up 30 percent since the digital system went in.

“The initial fear that we had, that people would just be watching their little devices at home, really hasn’t panned out,” Dove said. “And we’re quite happy that it hasn’t happened.”

Today’s video is from WDTN, Dayton’s News Leader. It’s a 2011 interview with Ryan Levin showing the then-new Dixie marquee and its remodeled concession stand.

photo by Neon Michael, from the Carload Flickr pool

Did I mention that I was here last year? After a long traffic jam of people driving to watch a movie, I just stuck my phone out the window and got a pretty interesting picture of the marquee.

Back to this night – thank goodness the Dixie has two screens, because one had The Emoji Movie on it. I chose whatever was on Screen 2, which turned out to be Atomic Blonde, a movie I hadn’t seen yet. It was the kind of action spy thriller, with occasional steaminess, that’s just right for a drive-in.

Miles Today / Total:  14 / 26431 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: Atomic Blonde / 130

Nearby Restaurant: You know I love quirky regional chain restaurants, and Skyline Chili definitely qualifies on both counts. Most of its locations are in Ohio, so it’s regional, and until recently, you couldn’t buy a bowl of chili from them, so that’s quirky. Their signature dish is their signature chili over thin spaghetti, or as a chili dog condiment. Cheese and onions are optional.

Where I Virtually Stayed: I haven’t had many opportunities to stay in the same place for two nights, and the Hampton Inn in Englewood is just about 15 minutes away from the Dixie. That’s how long it took for me to get back to the room last year.

Only in Dayton: Just up the street on Dixie Drive, in Abby Mausoleum in Dayton Memorial Park, in the final resting place of Agnes Moorehead, a fine actress who performed in everything from Citizen Kane to Charlotte’s Web, but who was best known as Samantha’s mother Endora on the 60s TV series Bewitched.

Next stop: Bel-Air Drive-In Theatre, Versailles IN.

It’s Day 213 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. It took just a little over an hour to drive from Hamilton OH northwest of Cincinnati to the Starlite Drive-In Theatre in Amelia OH, southeast of Cincinnati.

According to its Facebook page, the Starlite opened in 1947. World War II veteran Jerry Jackson from Williamburg OH built it and owned it “until about 1968.” In the 1980s, reference works suggest that it was owned by Holiday Amusements, which ran a lot of drive-ins in the Cincinnati area.

The Starlite converted to digital projection in early 2013, and The Clermont Sun interviewed manager Ken Aultz. “The picture is excellent,” Aultz said. “The image is brighter and sharper and the stability is perfect.” The article also noted that Debbie Brooks had owned the Starlite for about 20 years and was its third owner.

In March 2015, Brooks noticed that the previous winter’s moisture had highlighted problems with the original screen tower’s support timbers. (Did that have anything to do with the new screen they mounted on it the year before? I couldn’t find any mention of that.) With sadness, she had the old, doomed screen dismantled and a modern steel screen erected in its place just in time for a Memorial Day Weekend opening.

The YouTube video for this post is a nice change of pace from drone aerial photography. It’s a time lapse view of a busy night at the Starlite, including that gorgeous old screen tower still in the background. The new screen works just as well, but that old one had history!

It was Carload night at the Starlite, but not only did leave off the .com, that modern screen had The Emoji Movie. Entertainment Weekly gives the movie a grade of F, writing, “it looks terrible, but it’s fun to imagine how much more visually experimental your niece’s remake will be, when she borrows her mom’s iPhone and uses her crayons to draws expressions on leftover lemons and doesn’t feel the need to include constant product-placing references.” So it’s not just me. But the Starlite itself is a great place to watch a movie, whenever there’s a movie worth watching.

Miles Today / Total:  57 / 26339 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: The Emoji Movie / 128

Nearby Restaurant: With a short drive, I had plenty of time for a late breakfast (or breakfast for lunch, however you want to put it), so I stopped at Poochie’s Place. This little place is where the locals go for their down-home cooking. I tried a peanut butter cup pancake with my egg white Western omelette. And lots of coffee. Great stuff!

Where I Virtually Stayed: There don’t seem to be any hotels in Amelia per se, so I went just a few miles up the road to the Best Western Clermont on the fringes of Cincinnati. It’s just across a parking lot from a White Castle, so that’s a plus. My comfy room had the full set of amenities, and breakfast was especially strong. On top of all that, I paid less than for most chain hotels.

Only in Amelia: At the end of the shortest path from Amelia to the Ohio River, you’ll find New Richmond and the Cardboard Boat Museum. You see, New Richmond holds its RiverDays Celebration every third weekend of August, and that includes a cardboard boat regatta. There have been so many interesting entrants that the museum was created to show them off. You’ll see ​the Bat Boat, a Delta Queen paddlewheel replica, a John Deere tractor, a coffee cup, the Miss Mudwiezer HydroPlane, and many more.

Next stop: Melody 49 Drive-In, Brookville OH.

It’s Day 211 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. I crossed over to Ohio for the start of a new movie week, taking almost three hours to drive from one Holiday to another, from the Holiday Drive-In Theatre in Mitchell IN to the Holiday Auto Theatre in Hamilton OH.

According to Cinema Treasures, the Holiday opened in September 1948 as the Hamilton Outdoor Theatre. CT says the name was changed in 1951 to Holiday Auto Theatre, but an article in The Miami Student says it changed when National Amusements bought it in late 1948. Cinema Treasures’ timeline seems more likely.

“It changed hands a few times over the years,” wrote the Student, and that fact holds up well. The 1948-49 Theatre Catalog lists Louis Aldt as the owner, and the International Motion Picture Almanac has “L. Olt” owning the place in 1959. I think somebody misspelled that name. Making it more confusing is that in between, Ben Cohen was listed as the owner in 1956.

There’s another ownership snapshot in 1998 when Cincinnati Magazine included then-owner Fred Baum in its discussion of regional drive-ins. “To describe Baum as passionate about his drive-in is to seriously underplay the man’s obsession,” it wrote. The grounds and concession stand were impeccable, and “the much-modified projector, with its 4,500-watt xenon bulb, produces an immaculate image on the huge screen.”

A Cinema Treasures commenter said Baum passed away on Memorial Day 2007 at age 64. “Current co-owner Gregory Reinhold and The Holiday employees continue to operate this venue as Fred would have wished, even though Baum put the Drive -In up for sale in 2006.”

Cincinnati Magazine wrote that Todd Chancey and Mark Althoetmar, a pair of Disney employees (former, in Chancey’s case), bought the Holiday in 2007. They converted it to digital projection before the 2013 season. “The challenge is you have to get a machine strong and large enough to get the light to the screen,” Chancey said.

The YouTube video from this post comes from a viewer of WXIX, Cincinnati’s News Leader, who recorded a live remote at the Holiday for New Years Eve 2009. While it was nice to see Chancey talk about his preparations, for me the video is worth watching just for that great view of the drive-in marquee at night. (The tradition continued; in 2012, USA Today listed the Holiday among its 10 great places for a family-friendly New Year’s Eve.)

This was the third time I’ve seen the latest Planet of the Apes installment, but the loud action makes it a pretty good drive-in movie. Anything’s better than The Emoji Movie.

Miles Today / Total:  132 / 26282 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: War for the Planet of the Apes / 127

Nearby Restaurant: At Lindenwald Station, they serve breakfast all day, which made me happy after a drive that took practically all morning. I heard the biscuits and gravy were worth it, and of course they were. At lunch, I had a half order plus a “Cattle Car” omelette (the station has a neat locomotive theme) packed with ham, bacon, sausage, and cheese, then topped with more gravy. Which is why I wasn’t hungry for dinner.

Where I Virtually Stayed: Even though Hamilton is a much larger town than many I’ve seen lately (population 62,000 or so) and is close to Cincinnati, there’s only one hotel in town. Good thing it’s a Courtyard, and an especially good one at that. I haven’t written about Courtyards much, because they’re usually found where business travelers want to be, but they’re pretty reliable. My freshly renovated king room had a mini-fridge and a coffee maker, and breakfast was available for purchase.

Only in Hamilton: Roadside America has the whole story of the Hollow Earth Monument. It marks the gravesite of John Cleves Symmes Jr., hero of the War of 1812, who later announced that the Earth was hollow with giant holes at the North and South Poles. He died in 1829 and was buried in his family’s cemetery. When that was turned into a park in the 1840s, all of its bodies were dug up and moved to a new cemetery — except for John Cleves Symmes Jr. It was around this time that Symmes’ son erected the Hollow Earth Monument, topped by a globe with hole through its middle, inscribed with Symmes’ belief that “the Earth is hollow and habitable within.”

Next stop: Starlite Drive-In Theatre, Amelia OH.