Tiny drive-in scores a digital projector

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Link to video about Australia's Jericho Drive-InHere’s a wonderful little story from ABC, the Australian Broadcast Corporation. The tiny Queensland town of Jericho (population 370) has an even tinier drive-in (36 cars), which has stayed in operation since 1969. Like drive-ins everywhere, it needed to upgrade to a digital projection system to continue showing Hollywood’s finest films. Unlike most other drive-ins, the Jericho got its town council and state government to chip in, and it’s doing great with the new equipment.

I just love what Queensland Minister for Local Government David Crisafulli said about the importance of keeping the drive-in alive. “It stacks up not just from a tourism point of view to have something like this in western Queensland,” Crisafulli said, “but for what it does for the social infrastructure of this town. It’s a point of difference. Not only can they market that to their economic advantage, but also they can proudly say they’re a town where people still matter.”

The only downside of the ABC’s video report is that I can’t embed it here. To see what a tiny Australian drive-in looks like, you’ll have to give it a click!

First and last Wyoming drive-in endures

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Snack bar at the American Dream Drive-InThe Los Angeles Times gave us quite a gift this week with its profile of the American Dream Drive-In of Powell WY. There’s a great video (too bad I can’t embed it here) plus a lengthy story of the history of the American Dream, which opened in 1949 as Wyoming’s first drive-in theater and is now the state’s last one in operation. There’s also a good slide show on the side, although most of those photos show up in the video.

The article profiles Pokey Heny, the owner of the American Dream. Earlier this year, Heny faced the same decision that so many drive-in owners had to make – whether to buy digital projection equipment or close down. According to the Times, “The digital projector cost $80,000, what she paid for the place in 2004, but against her husband’s advice, she borrowed the money this year and took the plunge.”

“I’m investing in the town’s future,” Heny said. “So many businesses have closed, the bowling alley and video store. If I let this one go, it wasn’t ever coming back.”

You really need to read the article to get the full history of the place, from it’s beginnings as Paul’s Drive-In, then the Vali Drive-In, and now the American Dream, a name Heny chose when she bought it. “It really is the American dream to be your own boss,” she said. “And there aren’t that many female small-business owners in Wyoming.” So you know what to do. Go read it!

Grand opening photo takes us back to 1950

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Cars facing a narrow drive-in screen at the Meadow Lark Drive-In in 1952.

The Meadow Lark Drive-In (Wichita KS) in 1952.

Over in The News-Herald of Southgate MI, guest writer Wallace Hayden starts with the 1950 grand opening photo of the Fort Drive-In in nearby Wyandotte. Then Hayden, the historical librarian at the Bacon Memorial District Library, weaves a thorough, interesting tale of the Fort in particular and drive-ins in general.

(You’ll have to click the link to see that photo along with Hayden’s great story. I didn’t have any other photos of the Fort available, so I used the opportunity as an excuse to share another great photo from the 1952 Theatre Catalog. This one is from the Meadow Lark Drive-In (Wichita KS), which might have been the first to convert from a single screen to two of them. Don’t you just love that narrow screen? But I digress.)

Hayden provides a lot of great background information for his story. “Today this is the site of the Meijer’s store in Southgate,” he wrote. “However, at that time the area was mostly open land in Ecorse Township that was experiencing rapid development. In the years from 1946 to 1950, more than 2,000 homes were built in the township.”

He continues by painting a full picture of the drive-in experience back then, with its gravel lot, teenagers in the trunk sneaking in for free, and indoor booths at the concession stand. Hayden even adds an interesting historical footnote. “In 1951, the Fort received national attention when Boxoffice magazine cited it as an example of a drive-in showing adult material.”

Aha! I wonder if Hayden has the original source material, a really good memory, or the same Drive-in Theaters book that I do. According to author Kerry Segrave, in fall 1951, a Boxoffice writer found this ad in the Detroit Times: “Fort Drive-In – Three adult hits … The Burning Question, Guilty Parents, and How to Take a Bath. … Exposing the stark naked facts of life!” Most folks now know that first movie as Reefer Madness, and the other two were similarly “shocking” pseudo-educational short films made in the 1930s.

Not only does Hayden do a great job of telling us the story of the Fort and other nearby drive-ins, he sticks the landing. “Like the favorite doll or toy truck from childhood, most of these roadside attractions vanished unnoticed while their clientele grew older and concerned themselves with other interests. But, like those things of childhood, drive-ins still live on in memory.” For much, much more of this great writing plus that grand opening photo, you already know that you need to go read it!