KSWO, Lawton OK’s News Leader, ran a story last night about the Chief Drive In Theatre in Chickasha, about 45 minutes away. As part of its “One Tank Trips” series, it showed families having fun watching a movie under the stars.
The video includes interview clips with owner Barbara Egbert, who worked at the Chief as a 16-year-old and bought the place “about 11 years” ago. There’s that magnificent tree-lined entry ramp, a good example of how designers built up the drive-in experience when it opened in 1949.
The only real news is that the TV station captured and shared a few minutes of what visiting the Chief is like these days. That’s always something to celebrate, so check it out!
It’s Day 151 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. After my brief stop near Carhenge in Alliance NE, I drove about four hours to return to South Dakota. My destination was the Winner Drive-In Theatre, just southeast of Winner SD.
As you can see from the YouTube video above, the Winner features a curved screen, a grassy playground area, and rows of outdoor seating.
The Winner reopened last Friday for the 2017 season. It was built in 1950 by Harvey Fast, then widened in 1955. The Fasts added that playground equipment in 1960.
Betty Fast, Harvey’s widow and owner of the Winner, told the Rapid City Journal in 2014 why she bought a digital projector that year. “It is an expensive switch, but it’s something that I’ve enjoyed doing,” she said. “I want to do it and the community needs it.”
“The people that come, they aren’t my customers, they’re all my friends,” she said.
In 2015, KWYR had a great video tribute including interviews with Betty Fast and other drive-in workers. That’s where I learned that Winner has a tradition of handing out Tootsie Rolls at the ticket booth, and that the drive-in uses what is only its third popcorn popper.
Some drive-ins are only open on weekends, others are open seven days a week. Then there are drive-ins such as the Winner, which is open Fridays through Mondays. All of which left me out of luck on a Wednesday night, but it gave me time to look ahead and plan the next couple of weeks. It’ll take a few more miles, but I’ll keep the dark nights to a minimum this summer. I hope.
Miles Today / Total: 227 / 19520 (rounded to the nearest mile)
Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 68
Nearby Restaurant: The Holiday House is a fine local restaurant that serves a little bit of everything. I had the broasted chicken, but any place that serves steak and shrimp and beer already has a lot going for it.
Where I Virtually Stayed: Although I was amused to read the Super 8 here advertise itself as “within walking distance” (1.5 miles) from the drive-in, I went upscale and chose the Holiday Inn Express instead. A clean, comfortable room in the evening and a hot breakfast in the morning. I’ve been limiting myself to just one cinnamon roll each time I stay at a HIE. This demonstrates willpower.
Only in Winner: According to Wikipedia, Winner is the county seat for an adjacent county as well as its own, Tripp County. Okay, technically, it’s just the administrative center of Todd County, but you get the idea. And Winner was named for the fact the town had emerged the “winner” as Tripp County’s most successful trading point.
According to Cinema Treasures, the Sandhills opened in 1994. It’s a single screen and can hold about 250 cars. A commenter there said in 2014 that the drive-in had made the conversion to digital projection, but Drive-Ins.com said it didn’t reopen for the 2016 season until June 24 and was still using film.
A 2007 article in the Scottsbluff Star-Herald, said that owner Gerald Bullard opened the Sandhills and had stayed with it since. “When we opened this drive-in, it was extremely successful,” said Bullard. “It used to be on a night like this we would fill to capacity, of 250.”
In that article, Sandhills manager Reva Hewgley said they average between 30 and 50 cars each night. Bullard said that reports of the mosquito-transmitted West Nile virus encouraged some patrons to stay home. But he increased the size of the screen in 2006 and hoped to keep the drive-in going for at least “a few more years.”
Some reports say that the Sandhills shows movies on Saturdays and Sundays starting in June. Then there were those other notes about still using film. The official web site and Facebook page offer no clues, but the easiest conclusion was that I wasn’t going to watch a movie here on a Tuesday night in May.
Miles Today / Total: 143 / 19293 (rounded to the nearest mile)
Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 68
Nearby Restaurant: Steak. Drinks. Big-screen sports. Old-school atmosphere. It all comes together at Ken and Dale’s Restaurant in downtown Alliance. The service was friendly and efficient, and the ribeye steak came out just the way I wanted it.
Where I Virtually Stayed: The Quality Inn here had everything I needed. My room had a fridge and microwave, and the continental breakfast was enough to get me back on the road.
Only in Alliance: In a word, Carhenge. Just north of town, a collection of vintage cars were formed by Jim Reinders into a replica of Stonehenge and painted gray. Carhenge was dedicated at the June 1987 summer solstice, and it’s directly in the path of the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse.
