Niagara CCC excited about Transit’s reopening

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Sunset at the Transit Drive-InIn the Niagara County (NY) Community College newspaper, The Spirit, there’s a front-page story about the reopening of the Transit Drive-In of South Lockport. The lengthy article (4.2 MB PDF) by Katie Murawski fairly gushes about the place “that looks as inviting to drive by as it is going in.”

According to the article, business is more than sufficient to support this largest of New York drive-ins. Murawski writes, “It’s not uncommon to drive past on the weekend and see a line of cars about a mile long just waiting to get their spot.”

In addition to the renovated snack bar (always a good idea), another thing I like hearing about the Transit is its retro night Tuesdays. On what would otherwise be a disappointing box office night, the folks there instead show older films such as The Goonies and Ghostbusters. I’ll bet that taps into a whole different audience, and the film rental has got to be a lot cheaper. If you’ve got a broadband connection for that big PDF, then go check it out!

Family Drive-In opens for 58th season

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Family_fromsiteWHAG, Hagerstown MD’s news leader, recently ran a video report about the 2013 season opener of the Family Drive-In across the border in Stephens City VA. The Family bills itself as “the only drive-in left in northern Virginia and the DC Metro area”. I’ll grant the northern Virginia part, but the Family really isn’t near Washington DC. Bengies, in suburban Baltimore, is at least 10 miles and 10 minutes closer to the Washington Monument than the Family. But I digress.

I really wish I could embed that video here, but you’ll have to go visit Your4State.com to see it. I also wish that video’s page wasn’t messed up; there’s more to read but you’ll need to highlight the text or view the page’s source to overcome the black-on-black type after the first few paragraphs. Or maybe it’s just my computer. I digress again.

Jim Kopp owns the Family, but longtime box office employee Paula Cooper has the best quote. “Every night, somebody will say ‘will you show the movies?'” Cooper said. “And I say ‘as long as we get some cars’ and ‘what’s the magic number?’ I don’t know because we’ve never closed it down.” Go watch the rest!

Aut-O-Rama adds digital for its 2013 opening

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Autorama_facebookCleveland.com reported that the Aut-O-Rama Drive-In (North Ridgeville OH) spent over $150,000 for two digital projectors and reopened for the 2013 season. The woman in charge, Deb Sherman, said “They just arrived, so that’s why we were able to set our opening date for (last) Friday.”

Sherman’s family has been running the Aut-O-Rama since they opened it in 1965. At first, it showed movies all year, but it shifted to the more traditional April-October drive-in schedule.

The good news is that the audience is growing again. “I’ve noticed a whole new audience coming lately,” Sherman said. “A lot of the baby boomers who went to the drive-ins when they were teenagers themselves are now coming back on a date night.”

Update: The Elyria Chronicle-Telegram also ran a nice article about the new digital projection system. It includes a few photos and more info about the 2013 season, so it’s also worth reading.

The Aut-O-Rama. Man, I love that name. Glad that one is in it for the long haul.