Photo from the Black River Drive-In Facebook page

It’s Day 287 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. I was happy for another short drive, barely a half hour as I went south from the the Bay Drive-In Theatre in Alexandria Bay NY to the Black River Drive In just northeast of Watertown NY.

The drive-in’s web site has an excellent history page. Much of the information here comes from that site, though I’ve also found several pieces to supplement it.

The Black River was built in 1950 by Sylvan Leff, who operated it into the early 1970s. Then Leff leased the drive-in to Panther Theatres, which subsequently became Country Wide Theatres. After “a couple of years,” the theater was sold to Atko Canton Corporation, owned by Charles Girrard and Anthony Kolinski. Atko Canton was incorporated in 1972, so that’s the earliest it could have purchased the Black River.

Atko Canton operated the drive-in into the mid 1980s. The International Motion Picture Almanac, sometimes slow to notice changes, still listed Atko Canton as the owner in its 1988 directory. For one season, it leased the Black River to Jeff Szot. After that season closed, a fire badly damaged the concession building. Szot went on to buy and operate the 56 Auto Drive-In in “the early or mid-1980s,” and the Black River stayed closed.

In the mid 1990s John Nagelschmidt, who owned and operated the Midway Drive-In Theatre in Minetto NY, bought the Black River from Kolinski and Girrard. Current health codes required water and sewer service, which didn’t arrive until 2005. That’s when Nagelschmidt and Loren Knapp, long-time projectionist at the Midway formed Black River Drive-In, Inc. and rebuilt the drive-in “practically from the ground up.” It reopened on August 18, 2006.

As documented by the Watertown Daily Times, Knapp installed a digital projection system in 2012. He declined to join the studios’ Virtual Print Fee reimbursement program, explaining, “Whoever is taking care of the print fee gets to have a direct line into your projector to see what’s going on. If we want to run a special show, non-theatrical content, I’d have to pay them. I also equated it with Big Brother watching you.”

There’s a great photo album on the drive-in’s Facebook page showing step by step how they refurbished its long-neglected sign. The photo I embedded above shows the final product.

On this night, for the second consecutive Saturday, I got to watch the excellent Blade Runner sequel. It was cool and threatened rain as I munched on a “Sausage Pattie” and onion rings. As long as coffee was available, I was fine.

Miles Today / Total: 26 / 33094 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: Blade Runner 2049 / 179

Nearby Restaurant: I hadn’t expected to find such a nice brewpub in the Salmon Run Mall, where Skewed Brewing sits right next to those indoor movie theaters. I enjoyed the duck wings with Thai chili and lime sauce along with a pint of their pineapple hefeweizen. Great stuff!

Where I Virtually Stayed: It’s nice to try out the individual approaches that really nice mom and pop motels take to their properties, and sometimes it’s nice to get back to a familiar chain hotel. There’s a Hampton Inn in Watertown, and that meant that I knew just what to expect at every turn. There were cookies to welcome me at check-in. My room had the full set of modern amenities. Breakfast in the morning was the high standard Hampton. Yes, I really do like this chain.

Only in Watertown: Every winter on Vernon Scoville’s farm just east of town, volunteers build a 30-foot snowman. Some years, it’s even taller. The Watertown Daily News wrote, “Visitors may leave canned food donations or money in his bottom button, made from an old tire. This is the second year the Scovilles have accepted food donations. Last year, they were able to bring in more than 500 pounds of nonperishable food items which were donated to the Community Action Planning Council of Jefferson County’s food pantry in Watertown and the Lowville Food Pantry.”

Next stop: Midway Drive-In Theatre, Minetto NY.

Photo from the Bay Drive-In Facebook page

It’s Day 286 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. I hugged the St. Lawrence River for an hour and a half as I drove upstream from the 56 Auto Drive-in Theater, just southwest of Massena NY, to the Bay Drive-In Theatre in Alexandria Bay NY.

The drive-in’s web site used to have an excellent history page, now available via the Internet Archive. Much of the information here comes from that site, though I’ve also found several pieces to supplement it.

The Bay was built in 1968, and several sites say it was to replace the 1000 Islands Drive-In that was overrun by a new highway cloverleaf, although that’s five miles away from the Bay. The International Motion Picture Almanacs for 1969 through 1976 listed both the Bay and the 1000 Islands, so they either competed for a few years or the IMPA didn’t notice that the old drive-in had shut down.

According to the Thousand Island Sun’s grand opening article, hosted on New York Drive-Ins, recent Alexandria Bay mayor Willard Beach led the corporation that built the Bay. The article said the drive-in would have “the latest in projection and sound equipment” and “will be handling brand new pictures during July and August … due to this being a tourist area the corporation is entitled to first-run movies.”

The Wade family bought the Bay in 1982, and had to work to get first-run movies back. By 1992, with first-run movies being shown again and patronage on the rise, they rebuilt and enlarged the concession stand, adding a 60-seat indoor viewing section.

In the wee hours of July 15, 1995, a severe thunderstorm “demolished” the drive-in, according to the Watertown Daily Times. The theatre was extensively damaged including the building roof structure and the face of the screen. Within 9 days the theatre was back in full operation.

The Alexandria Bay town planning board approved a second screen in March 1997, but it wasn’t built until July 1999. The second field’s layout is unusual because of the lot being only diagonally adjacent to the original. The Bay added a second concession stand in 2001 for the second screen; it sold Pepsi products while the main concessions sold Coke products. Restrooms for the second screen were added in 2006.

There’s a pretty good video at the Spectrum News of Northern NY from December 2015, when unseasonably warm weather and unreasonably strong enthusiasm prompted the Bay to show the latest Star Wars installment during the holiday season. I’m sorry that I couldn’t embed it here, but I recommend you go watch it anyway.

The movie this night wasn’t Star Wars, but it was one I hadn’t seen yet. On a cool mid-October night with rain threatening, it was still worth it to watch something new to me.

Miles Today / Total: 70 / 33068 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: American Made / 178

Nearby Restaurant: Coffee Pot Cathy’s was an easy walk from the Otter Creek Inn (see below), and the name lured me over. There was basic breakfast diner food in the morning to go with the coffee, plus a really nice cheese danish. I think I need more coffee with that!

Where I Virtually Stayed: There are plenty of very nice, slightly quirky resorts in Alexandria Bay, and the Otter Creek Inn is one of them. It’s a quiet place right next to the water, so the views are great. My room had a fridge, which I always appreciate, and coffee in the morning. With breakfast restaurants within walking distance, coffee was all I needed to get there.

Only in Alexandria Bay: In the middle of the St. Lawrence River on Heart Island just across from Alexandria Bay is Boldt Castle, a six story, 120 room Rhineland reproduction built in 1900 by hotelier George Boldt for his wife. When she died in early 1904, Boldt halted work on the castle, which fell into disrepair until purchased by the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority. Access is available only by boat.

Next stop: Black River Drive In, Watertown NY.

Photo by Chris1982 via Cinema Treasures

It’s Day 285 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. It started with another drive through the wilderness, Five Ponds this time, in the two hours it took to get from the Valley Brook Drive In north of Lyons Falls NY to the 56 Auto Drive-in Theater, just southwest of Massena NY.

The drive-in is about four miles south of the St. Lawrence River. A possibly apocryphal story says that its dirt came from the St. Lawrence Seaway project there. Just a half-hour drive from Cornwall ON, it gets almost a third of its visitors from Canada.

The 56, named for New York State Route 56, was built by Peter C. Papayanakos, misspelled as “Papyanakas” in the local newspaper’s grand opening article, and opened in July 1955. Before the 1968 season, his corporation leased the drive-in to Deb Theatre Corp., a division of Panther Theatre Corp. And that’s almost all I could find about its history before the current owner bought it.

Jeff Szot of JS Cinemas has owned the 56 for about 30 years now. When did he buy it? According to North County Now, “Szot said he bought the drive-in sometime in the early or mid-1980s.” That’s a little fuzzy. The International Motion Picture Almanacs of the 1980s show “W. Leger” as the owner, so that must have been who sold the 56 to Szot.

Talking about the many factors that led to the extinction of most drive-in theaters, Szot told NNY Living about one that rarely gets mentioned. He said that the film industry started releasing only “second-run films” to the drive-ins, and that they only bounced back once they got first-run movies again. I had thought that drive-ins had struggled to get current movies from the beginning until the mid- to late-1980s. I’ll have to check that some day.

Szot told the Watertown Daily Times in May 2015 that there had been a decline in the number of his patrons at the 56. “I think it’s kind of leveled off. They’re coming out, but we’ve seen a decline over the past few years. But there’s still nothing like the shared experience. People enjoy going to the movies to get the experience,” he said.

The 56 switched to digital projection in 2014. “It was a costly upgrade,” Szot said. “It didn’t put us out of business, which is a good thing.”

The drive-in’s last show this year was on Labor Day weekend, so it was another movie-less night for me.

Miles Today / Total: 105 / 32998 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 177

Nearby Restaurant: When the drive-in is closed, I often go in search of a diner. In this case, Wendy’s Diner in Massena isn’t the hamburger chain but a good small-town diner. I had a country fried steak with a potato and veggies, plus an amazing, huge cinnamon roll. That plus all the coffee I could drink put me in a very pleasant mood.

Where I Virtually Stayed: I heard a lot of good things about the Blue Spruce Motel, and I didn’t find anything to contradict them. It’s one of those little place that looks like it might have been around a long time, but continues to be lovingly refurbished whenever necessary. My king room had all the modern amenities, and although breakfast wasn’t included, the most wonderful homemade donuts were available to purchase there. Mmm, doughnuts!

Only in Massena: Roadside America suggests that when you’re in the neighborhood, you should visit the Eisenhower Lock in the St. Lawrence Seaway. The Seaway is an interesting story of the eventual triumph of common sense and mutual benefit over decades of bickering within and between the two countries involved. And the Eisenhower Lock is the only one in the system with its own Wikipedia page.

Next stop: Bay Drive-In Theatre, Alexandria Bay NY.