Developer hopes to build Tennessee drive-in

Here’s some good news for a change. According to WSMV, Nashville’s news leader, a developer called Black Eagle Holding wants to build a new drive-in theater in Murfreesboro TN. The 28-acre site is a wooded area that includes buildings that were once part of Nashville’s original airport. You can see the group’s Facebook page here.

The nest step for Black Eagle is to get approval from the local Board of Zoning Appeals, which will hold a hearing on the question on August 14. The usual NIMBY opponents are making the usual arguments, but it sounds like Black Eagle has done its homework and lined up the personnel they need to get it passed.

So how big is this drive-in going to be? Black Eagle attorney Ted Goodman told WSMV, “We’re hoping, actually, it will be the largest single-screen drive-in theater in the United States.” The Shreveport Times quotes him as saying the planned drive-in would hold 500 cars. Uh, no, then that won’t be the largest. Just among drive-ins I’ve visited, Bengies (Middle River MD) and the Boulevard (Kansas City KS) each hold more than 500 cars.

I think we’re going to see more drive-ins built in the next decade than we saw in the last 10 years. I’ve got my reasons, which I’ll explain in a future post or two. Meanwhile, let’s be glad that someone else recognizes how fun (and profitable) a drive-in can be.

South Dakota drive-in to close this year

The Daily Republic of Mitchell SD relayed some sad news this week. The Starlite Drive-In will close for good at the end of the 2013 season rather than purchase digital projection equipment. The tiniest ray of hope is that, although owner Jeff Logan doesn’t plan an reopening the Starlite, he will go through his standard winterization process. “We are going to run it right into the end, and then put it into mothballs,” Logan said.

According to the Starlite’s Facebook page, three Mitchell SD men built the Lake Vue Drive-in, which opened in May of 1949. “It was only the third drive-in in South Dakota. In 1963, Rod Hanson bought it. Logan purchased it in 1976 and renamed it the Starlite. He ran it until 1986 when the drive in business went bust with the advent of HBO and home video. He re-opened it in 1993 as drive-ins saw a resurgence.”

Just a few months ago, we reported how the Starlite had upgraded its movie selection. That translated into better business, but it wasn’t enough. “It’s been one of our best years in a long time,” Logan said. “Even when you’re doing as good as we’re doing, when you do the math, the projections aren’t there.”

You should go read The Daily Republic’s original story, plus a rehash with a few more details by the Associated Press. I don’t know why these drive-ins think they can’t survive on classic films and nostalgia. I need to find out more about that.

Thieves rip off a thousand speaker wires in Ohio

It’s just terrible to see the strange ingenuity of desperate morons who steal copper wiring. Copper theft is a plague in many parts of the country, and now WCMH, Columbus OH’s news leader, says it’s the motivation behind the theft of over 1000 speakers at the South Drive-In Friday morning. But I disagree; more about that in a moment.

First, the facts. According to surveillance video, two men with wire cutters drove in to the South around 5 am and starting cutting wires where the connect to the speaker poles, collecting the wires and the speakers attached to them. South General Manager Bryon Teagardner said that the show will go on with FM sound, and that he’s alerted salvage yards to be on the lookout for someone trying to cash in hundreds of short wire pieces.

“One little 4-foot section or 5-foot section of what they took off of one speaker, the salvage price is not even 20 cents worth of copper in it,” Teagardner said. You know, I think he’s right, these wires weren’t worth enough to cause this theft. I base this opinion partly because of drive-in history and partly because of the internet.

Remember all those drive-in cartoons that talked about “accidentally” snapping off a speaker and returning it to the box office? That was a nice way of saying that drive-ins wanted those expensive speakers back. According to Drive-In Theatres by Kerry Segrave, “Speaker theft got so bad that some theaters implemented a policy of offering rewards, $50 or $100 for example, for reporting speaker theft.” Diligent drive-in operators needed to check every day to see which speakers still worked, plus which speakers were still there.

Everybody in the video report is so focused on the $200 of copper that they’ve overlooked the $10,000 of speakers. Go to eBay and search on “drive-in speaker”. They start around $10 and go up to $40 or more, with higher prices for clean speakers in working condition. These thieves might not be headed to the salvage yard; they might be headed online or to flea markets. That’s where I’d put out the word to watch for these thieves’ wares. Let’s hope those speakers get plugged in again soon.

Update: Turns out those thieving morons were even stupider than I surmised. Bryon Teagardner dropped me a note to say they didn’t take the speakers. Thanks for the note, and hope everything’s back to normal soon!