I’ve found a place that dances on the edge of being a drive-in theater. That bugs me. See what you think.
It all started with listicle buried under another story, all published by a Quincy IL radio station. It’s a surprisingly accurate list of the “11 Missouri Drive-In Movie Theaters Still Alive in 2025.” Most of the entries matched what I’ve got for the state, which sadly lost Independence’s Twin last November. On the bright side, Number 11 was the new (built in 2022) Twin Crescent Drive-In in Buffalo MO, so I added that to my list.
The Twin Crescent, which has only one, permanent screen, is very much a drive-in. It has clearly marked paths for cars to drive up and park to watch the show and listen via FM stereo sound. (By the way, three miles away on the other side of Buffalo, an Autoscope operated for 20 years. That was a different kind of edge case – up to 122 cars all watching the same movie on individual screens. Is it still a drive-in without multiple cars watching a single screen? But I digress.)
The fourth item on the radio station list was “Lakeside, Ashland,” which is south of Columbia MO near the airport. The place charges by the carload. It has a permanent outdoor screen. And it has a large, grassy lawn in front of that screen, with a double-row parking lot farther back. You can see the layout on Google Maps.
Even Lakeside doesn’t seem sure what it is. Its FAQ page includes the question, “Is Lakeside a Drive-In or do I bring chairs and blankets?” The answer: “You can do both! We have VIP front row parking for the drive-in experience. You can also see and hear the movie very well from several rows back. However, most visitors bring chairs and blankets to sit on the lawn.” Those lawn tickets are $10 per carload in advance to park and get out of your car, or you can upgrade to $30 for a place to park and watch, including unlimited popcorn and soda.
If not for that front row, hearing the movie behind waves of lawn chairs via 1933-style loudspeakers, Lakeside obviously would not be a drive-in. If it included radio sound and a lot of single-row parking so that everyone could listen and watch the movie, then Lakeside would definitely be a drive-in. Instead, this place is where “most visitors” park their cars and bring their blankets to the grass near the screen. You could say the same for any city’s “movie in the park” night. But there is that one row that holds about 20 cars.
Kudos to the radio station for including this edge case, but is it really a drive-in? It’s a tough call, but I’m voting against. Call me a modernist snob, but the lack of in-car sound disqualifies Lakeside. That also means that if someone there installs an FM transmitter that fixes the sound for the first row or two, I’ll either need to change my mind or find a new way to draw the line between drive-in and not-a-drive-in. What do you think?