Author Archives: mrdrivein

Midway raises just enough to buy projector

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Midway Drive-In screen

photo by Jim Good, used by permission

As part of our Project Drive-In roundup series a few weeks ago, we mentioned the Midway Drive-In, which sits in the middle of farmland on a now-bypassed highway between Osawatomie and Paola KS. The Midway didn’t win one of the digital projectors that Honda gave away, but now comes news that it has raised enough money to get a loan to buy one, ensuring that the Midway will reopen in spring 2014.

According to The Kansas City (MO) Star and WDAF, Kansas City’s news leader, Osawatomie City Councilwoman Tamara Maichel organized the Midway Drive-In Digital Fund to raise money for the conversion. And earlier this week, Maichel posted that the Fund had raised over $14,000, enough for a down payment on a digital projector.

According to the post, “Midway Drive-In has to be up and running by the end of the year, due to taxes, incentives, and discounts from Sonic Equipment. The owners needed to get a loan.”

Midway owners Paul and Anna Dimoush said they were able to get a loan for the projector from Paola’s Citizens State Bank .“We’ll probably get it installed and run some movies through it to make sure it works before next season,” Paul Dimoush said.

The 330-car drive-in has been around since at least 1955, when the Theatre Catalog listed its operator as Mid-Central Theaters. Let’s hope it stays in operation for at least another 60 years.

Happy Halloween! Here’s a virtual triple feature

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A few months ago, I mentioned the Shocker Internet Drive In as the best virtual drive-in experience I’ve found. Since then, I’ve heard nothing about whoever lovingly stitched these 3+ hour videos together for our viewing pleasure. (If you know anything, please leave a comment.)

Anyway, it’s Halloween, so I thought I’d celebrate with Shocker episode #41, a 1940s Bela Lugosi triple feature. Check out Black Dragons, Voodoo Man, and Bowery at Midnight, plus a bumper crop of drive-in previews and intermission films. Enjoy!

Brazos faces uncertain future

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WFAA, Dallas’s news leader, provided an excellent report about the funding problems of the Brazos Drive-In in Granbury TX. Not only did WFAA give us this embedded video, the web page with the story also includes some great photos and even linked to the Brazos web site, something that surprisingly few news story pages bother to do. Good job!

According to Brazos owner Jennifer Miller, converting to a digital projection system could cost as much as $100,000. Miller and Brazos manager Brenda Stewart have “teamed up to save the cinema,” WFAA says, though it’s hard to tell exactly what they’re doing to raise money.

The story also says that no matter what happens, the screen and concession building will remain because they “are considered historical.” As Miller put it, “It will look like a drive-in, but there may be 1,000 apartments in the parking lot.”

For the full story and those photos, go check out the story at the WFAA site. I also found another Brazos story from July 2012 by a different WFAA reporter but hosted by KHOU, Houston’s news leader. You might want to go watch that one too.