Author Archives: mrdrivein

Is this MO venue a drive-in?

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This looks like it could be fun, but is it a drive-in? Photo from the Lakeside Ashland Facebook page

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?

New drive-in opens in Rustburg VA

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Screen capture from a WSET news video

It’s the time of year when we see plenty of stories about drive-ins that have reopened for another season, sprinkled with a few worrisome tales of possible sales and closures. (Looking at you, Weirs!) But the kind of news that really grabs my attention is the report of a brand-new drive-in. Thanks to WSET, Lynchburg VA’s News Leader, we know that the 29 Drive-In opened in nearby Rustburg this past weekend. (That link includes a short video, but I couldn’t find a way to embed it here.)

The owners, Candice and Jamie “Papa O” Ohler, said they plan to show a family-friendly movie every Saturday night this season, which began with “Twister”. The 29 can accommodate 40 cars, which use FM radio sound to hear the movies of the screen shown above. The cost is $25 per carload.

The Campbell County Planning Commission gave its unanimous approval to the new drive-in back in February. At that meeting, Ohler said he had held a couple of drive-in events last fall, so he probably built that screen before then.

This place is such a throwback, in so many good ways. Old-time drive-in owners rented their movies outright, as Ohler said he planned for the 29. Some theaters over 100 years ago were back rooms behind candy shops; I’ll bet the “I Scream You Scream” ice cream shop in front of the 29 will do a lot of business on warm Saturday nights.

As far as I can tell, the 29 doesn’t have a separate web presence, although there’s a “Drive In Movie” link at the I Scream You Scream page on Facebook. As soon as I see one, I’ll add it to the Carload Drive-In List. Meanwhile, we’ll all just know it’s there if we’re in the neighborhood on a Saturday night.

Super Video: In-depth view of South Dakota’s 6 or 7 drive-ins

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Continuing my cleanup of stories I missed over the past couple of years, I want to share with you one of the best drive-in videos I’ve seen. In May 2023, South Dakota Public Broadcasting presented an episode of “Dakota Life Detours” that was all about the six family-owned drive-in theaters in the state, plus a glimpse of a seventh that closed just weeks before airtime.

Those drive-ins, along with the time that they’re first mentioned in the video are the Winner Drive-In Theatre in Winner SD (4:13), Miller’s Midway Drive-in Theatre (5:34), Mobridge’s Pheasant Drive-In (6:25), Roy’s Black Hills Twin Drive-In in Hermosa (6:52), Gregory’s Hilltop Drive-Inn Theatre (7:40), and the Pheasant City Drive-In Theatre in Redfield (8:22). The video also described the most recent chapter in the story of Mitchell’s Starlite Drive-In (18:28), which quickly renovated and reopened in April 2020 after being dark for seven years. The Starlite’s owners elected not to reopen for the 2023 season, announcing that the drive-in had been “not meeting expenses.”

There are so many great images of drive-in playgrounds, twilight scenery, and varied snack bars that it’s hard to call out even a few of them. The item that most caught my attention was the gas-fired, open-flame popcorn popper used at the Pheasant City (16:21). I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anything like it.

Host Larry Rohrer got it just right, balancing nostalgia with the celebration of great times going on now. His relaxed, folksy narration was perfect for discussing the “community service” that these drive-in families provide for their neighbors who come by for popcorn, snacks, and a place to get away from it all.

I stumbled onto this video while looking for the latest updates about the Winner, which suffered serious screen damage from a windstorm in July 2024. The town rallied behind the drive-in, and its Facebook page showed a photo from a few weeks ago with fresh lumber next to the screen remains. Here’s hoping the Winner is back in action soon. Until then, we’ve got a great opportunity to see what it and its sister drive-ins looked just a couple of years ago.