Almost-famous old truck to help drive-in

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The 1963 Dodge pickup, as shown in the trailer for Man of Steel.

The 1963 Dodge pickup, as shown in Trailer 2 for Man of Steel.

Brian Grams, director of the Volo Auto Museum in Volo IL, had to search all the way to Kansas to find the beat-up 1963 Dodge D200 pickup truck that will be featured in this summer’s Superman movie Man of Steel. The Daily Herald of suburban Chicago had a nice story about how Grams found the right vehicle for the movie, and then a bunch of close matches for the filmmakers to use in other shots.

Although Man of Steel looks like it’ll be a fine drive-in movie, normally I wouldn’t care enough to write about it. The great part about this story is the Grams has donated that truck to the McHenry Outdoor Theater to help it raise money to buy digital projection equipment. From May 3 through August 24, each patron’s ticket stub will be entered into a drawing to win the truck. Sounds like it’ll run just well enough to return to the drive-in each week. The Daily Herald wrote, “Though the truck runs, Grams says he wouldn’t recommend driving it cross country.”

St. Albans Drive-In is for sale

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WFFF, Burlington VT’s news leader, came up with a great bit of investigative reporting. It found that the St. Albans Drive-In, just across the border in St. Albans NH VT, is for sale. The implication is that St. Albans’ future is in doubt.

According to WFFF, the St. Albans had been owned by Paul Gamache, who died in January. Now his son, Anthony Gamache, owns the place, and he wasn’t talking to WFFF. Oh, and did we mention that there’s a new Walmart being built across the street?

A nice touch at the end of the report: “Regardless of the motive for selling it on the drive-in’s real estate listing the property is called superb for retail.”

Iowa’s 61 Drive-In reopens with digital projection

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KWWL, Waterloo IA’s news leader, provides with yet another happy story of a nearby drive-in converting to digital projection in time for the opening of the 2013 season. In this case, it’s the 61 Drive-In of nearby Delmar.

I love what 61 Drive-In owner Dennis Voy said when a reporter asked him why he spent all that money on the new projection equipment. “It was either making the conversion or going out of business,” he said,” and we have too many drive-in theater fans in the eastern Iowa area that enjoy this theater.”

It’s great to see another example of a drive-in doing what it will take to stay with us for a long time to come.