Meadow Bridge Drive-In keeps its locals together

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Meadow Bridge Drive-In marquee

Photo by neshachan. Used by permission.

With all the talk about drive-ins in trouble, we need a positive, uplifting article about a drive-in. The Register-Herald of Beckley WV has come to our rescue with a fine, lengthy story about the Meadow Bridge Drive-In (Meadow Bridge WV). On a summer night, the Meadow Bridge is the only local source of dining and entertainment, and the community gathers there for a good time. “It’s like a picnic at night. And it’s a tradition,” says owner Howard McClanahan.

The Meadow Bridge was built in 1953 by a local guy. Eventually, Thomas Theaters ran it, and years later “(w)ord on the street was that the theater was going to turn X-rated because its screen faced away from the road.” That’s when McClanahan, then a projectionist, bought the place.

There are no worries about the digital conversion here. McClanahan already bought his digital projector, which cost more than he spent to buy the Meadow Bridge in the first place, and he’s happy with the results.

There is so much more to this article, including lots of photos with lengthy captions, happy anecdotes of pizza and other community attractions, and a long, lingering warm feeling in general. You just know that you should go read it!

Twin-City Drive-In plans to “close or sell”

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Twin City drive-in photo from 1952As we near the end of the voting for Honda’s Project Drive-In, it’s sobering to remember what could happen to the drive-ins that don’t finish among the winners. The Johnson City (TN) Press reported that the Twin City Drive-In of nearby Bristol may close for good unless its owner can find someone willing to buy the place and install a digital projector.

The Bristol News also ran a story on the Twin City, which sits near Bristol Motor Speedway. The News wrote that the Twin City’s marquee “recently showed a ‘For Sale’ sign posted during race week to see if there was any interest in the theater, priced at $4.5 million.” (No one bought it at that price.) According to that article, the drive-in’s yearly property tax bill had risen from $4,000 to $20,000 because of business attracted by the race track.

The Press article quoted Twin City owner Danny Warden as saying, “We’re going to show through this year, and unless something changes, that might be it. You never know, though, we’ve had a couple of people who say they might be interested in buying it. If someone buys it and switches to digital, then it will stay open.”

That price tag looks a little steep to me, but I sure hope someone finds a way to buy this reportedly profitable drive-in and bring it into the digital age.

Project Drive-In roundup 3: Dark of the screen

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I warned you that it might come to this. With less than a week left in Honda’s Project Drive-In voting period, I’ve found media reports about a few more of the candidates.

Here’s something confusing: Some of those media reports only partially duplicate other reports. That is, if a new story lists drive-ins A, B, and C, but a story from one of my first two round-ups already mentioned A and C, then I’ve added B as a new candidate in this third round-up. If you click through to the story, it’ll mention all three, but we know that B is the only one that’s new to this list. Okay?

With that in mind, let’s go through a few more:

And that should hold us on Project Drive-In news until they start talking about winners. Wouldn’t it be nice if Honda chose more than five?