Video: In Prescott AZ, The Sign Stays Alive

In little Prescott AZ, about halfway between Phoenix and Flagstaff, some folks there really love their old drive-in sign. It’s for the Senator (named for the Senator Highway it fronts), which opened in 1950 and lasted until at least the 1980s.

Since this is dry Arizona, structures tend to remain in place until something or someone intervenes. As shown in the embedded YouTube video, some locals decided in 2008 to put the old sign out of its misery. But try not to get too upset; within a year, other locals had restored the sign.

The reason I’m mentioning any of this is an article posted today by the local newspaper, The Daily Courier. It documents the work of Class of 1963 alum Stephen Rogers and classmate Jane Orr, who together spearheaded a restoration and fundraising effort with former alums that enabled the sign to be re-erected. Since then, the group has posted messages with the sign’s moveable letters to commemorate holidays, anniversaries, and at least one marriage proposal.

“This past week, Orr and Rogers posted a Valentine’s Day missive: ‘Senator Drive-In — We Still Love and Miss You.’ A big red heart is on the far side.” Today’s article has much more, including a photo of how the sign looks today, so you know you really ought to go read it!

New Drive-In Coming Soon In SC

Four people standing next to a sign that reads Coming Soon - Center Road Drive-In

Photo from the Center Road Drive-In Facebook page

A new drive-in in South Carolina may be open as soon as March according to its owner. Brent Anderson told the Florence News that he’s at the “end of the permits and engineering process” for the Center Road Drive-In Movie Theater, which will be a few miles west of the Darlington Raceway south of State Highway 34. “Construction won’t take too long once the permits are in, but it takes a lot longer to get access to those than a normal person might think,” Anderson said.

According to the article, the Center Road have a two-sided screen showing first-run movies in double features on both sides. It will be on land (on Center Road, of course) that Anderson’s family has owned for more than 75 years. He plans to start with a Thursday-Sunday schedule in the spring and may expand to seven days a week in the summer.

It’s always nice to see another new drive-in pop up. We can all follow its progress by checking in on the Center Road’s Facebook page.

Video: Quasar Gets OK To Build

The Douglas County (NE) Board gave unanimous approval yesterday to a new drive-in theater northwest of Omaha. The Quasar is the brainchild of Jeff and Jennifer Karls, who said they hope to have it open by Memorial Day 2019.

According to the Omaha World-Herald, the drive-in will have room for about 400 cars watching a single 50-by-100-foot screen. Original plans called for a second screen, but that was shelved after the couple met with opponent Keith Hoffman, whose farm is nearby.

The Karlses told WOWT, Omaha’s News Leader, that the plot of land is perfect because they wanted “country dark, country quiet.” It’s so quiet that the main road to the drive-in is still unpaved, which the couple said they might help fix later.

“It’s been nearly a year since we bought the land, and we’ve been going through this process since the week after we closed. It’s exciting to be able to move forward now,” Jeff said.

A lot of drive-ins have been qualifying for popular movies by shifting them to a second screen after a couple of weeks, still satisfying the contractual minimum. I hope that the Quasar will be able to add that in the future, but for now, it’s just great to hear about another drive-in on its way!