Boston Public Radio discusses New England drive-ins

Posted on Aug 31, 2013 by mrdrivein

Saco Drive-In, photo by Joe Shlabotnik

We do love our video here, but Carload also appreciates hearing great audio. Boston Public Radio station WGBH hosted a 14-minute interview with film critic Garen Daly to discuss drive-in memories and the outlook for drive-in theaters in the future. You can listen to it here.

Yet another feature of this New England drive-in roundup is a list of all the surviving drive-ins in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, along with the dates they were born.

One thing that often strikes me is when someone, as during this interview, brings up the movie American Graffiti when discussing drive-in theaters. The centerpiece of American Graffiti was a drive-in restaurant, but there were no theaters depicted in that movie. Anyway, despite that minor irritant, I think you ought to go listen.

Project Drive-In roundup 2, The Sequel

Posted on Aug 29, 2013 by mrdrivein

In my last post, I began the task of listing every local media report of every local drive-in that’s participating in Honda’s Project Drive-In. Foolishly, I thought that I might gather up all of them in one sitting. When I hit 20 theaters, each with a similar tale of tenuous finance and this lottery-ticket hope for survival, my eyes had glazed over, and I barely had the strength to finish off the post and click Publish.

Two days later, I’m ready again to see how many more drive-in reports I can list. Again, they’re alphabetized by state. And again, if you click through and find a particularly cool detail we should all know about, please leave a comment.

More of your candidates:

Skyline Drive-In, Barstow CA, reported by the Victorville Daily Press.
Idan-Ha Drive-In, Soda Springs ID, reported by the Idaho State Journal.
Route 34 Drive-In, Earlville IL, reported by the Ottawa Times.
Galva Autovue Drive-In Theatre, Galva IL, reported by the Kewanee Star Courier.
McHenry Outdoor Theater, McHenry IL, reported (with video) by the Lake County News-Sun.
M.E.L.S. at the Starlite Drive-In Theatre, Thorntown IN, reported (with video) by the Lafayette Journal and Courier.
Valle Drive-In, Newton IA, reported by the Des Moines Register.
Franklin Drive-In, Franklin KY, reported by WBKO.
Stanford Drive-In, Stanford KY, reported by Central Kentucky News.
Saco Drive-In, Saco ME, reported by the Bangor Daily News.
I-70 Drive-In, Kansas City MO, reported (with video embedded above) by KSHB.
Pine Hill Drive-In, Piedmont MO, reported (with video) by KFVS and by the Wayne County Journal-Banner.
Skyview Drive-In, Lancaster OH, reported and misspelled (with great photo) by the Louisville KY Courier-Journal.
99W Drive-In, Newberg OR, reported (with video) by KGW and by KATU.
Brownsville Drive-In, Grindstone PA, reported (with video) by KDKA.
Riverside Drive-In, North Vandergrift PA, reported by TribLive.com.
State Line Drive-In, Elizabethton TN, reported by WATE.
Meadow Bridge Drive-In, Meadow Bridge WV, reported (with video) by WVNS.
Field of Scenes Drive-In, Freedom WI, reported (with video) by WLUK.
Keno Drive-In, Pleasant Prairie WI, reported by the Kenosha News.

Whew again! That’s 20 more drive-ins with local coverage of their Project Drive-In eligibility. I don’t know whether there are 20 more that I haven’t mentioned, but if I spot enough new ones, there may be a third episode of this franchise.

Project Drive-In roundup

Posted on Aug 27, 2013 by mrdrivein

I’ll admit it. I’ve been so overwhelmed by the local media coverage of Honda’s Project Drive-In that it’s been hard to write. On one hand, I don’t especially want you to vote for some Florida drive-in over one on Ohio or vice versa. Heck, I’ve even noticed that Honda has added at least a couple drive-ins (such as the Apache) that weren’t there when voting started.

There are only so many ways I can spin the local news when it says that nearby drive-in X needs to convert to digital projection, and its best / only hope is if it is one of the Project Drive-In winners. So I’m just going to gather ~~them all~~ a bunch of them in this list. There are probably lots of interesting, fresh details here and there about each drive-in, but I’m going to let you discover them. If you find something sufficiently cool, post a comment about it, will you please?

Your candidates, alphabetized by state:

Henagar Drive-In Theatre, Henagar AL, reported (with video) by WHNT and by AL.com.
Grand View Drive-In Theater, Grandview IA, reported by HispanicBusiness.com.
Cherry Bowl Drive-In, Honor MI, reported by the Grand Traverse Insider and the Detroit News.
Finger Lakes Drive-In, Auburn NY, reported by the Auburn Citizen.
Jericho Drive-In, Glenmont NY, reported (with video embedded above) by WNYT.
Hathaway’s Drive-In Theatre, North Hoosick NY, reported by the North Adams Transcript.
Bessemer City Kings Mountain Drive-In Theatre, Bessemer City NC, reported by the Gaston Gazette.
Raleigh Road Outdoor Theatre, near Henderson NC, reported by The News & Observer of Raleigh.
Lynn Auto Theatre, Strasburg OH, reported by The Repository of Canton.
Silver Drive-In, Johnstown PA; Bar-Ann Drive-In, Portage PA; and Palace Gardens Drive-In, Indiana PA, all reported by the Tribune Democrat of Johnstown.
Cumberland Drive-in Theater, Newville PA, reported by The Sentinel of Cumberland County.
Auto Drive-In Theatre, Greenwood SC, reported by the Greenville News.
Monetta Drive-In Theatre, Monetta SC, reported by the Aiken Standard.
Macon Drive-In, Lafayette TN, reported (with video) by WTVF.
Graham Drive-In, Graham TX, reported by The Graham Leader.
Mayberry Drive-In Theatre and Diner, Moneta VA, reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Central Drive-In Theater, Norton VA, reported by the Kingsport Times News.
Mt. Zion Drive-In Theater & Restaurant, Mount Zion WV, reported by The Charleston Gazette and the Parkersburg News and Sentinel.

Whew! That’s 20 theaters so far. I’ll see how many more I can round up for our next installment.