Author Archives: mrdrivein

Auto-Vue announces it’s closing this fall

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Auto-Vue Drive-In signThe owner of the Auto-Vue Drive-In in Colville WA told the Spokane Spokesman that 2013 will be its final season. Because of the digital projection conversion it would require to continue, the Auto-Vue will close for good after Labor Day weekend.

Steve Wisner said the Auto-Vue is still profitable, but it would take over $170,000 in improvements to the projector and screen to show digital movies. “Technology has just drove us out,” he said. “We’d have to upgrade to new digital and we cannot afford it.”

Wisner also owns the indoor Alpine Theater in Colville, and has upgraded that theater for digital projection. But the drive-in land will set idle; Wisner said he might use it to grow hops. For more, including some nice quotes from the head of the United Drive-In Theater Owners Association, go check out the full story in The Spokesman.

Man posts marriage proposal on drive-in marquee

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The Saratoga Springs (NY) Saratogian reports that a man in Malta NY proposed to his girlfriend using the marquee of the Malta Drive-In. Isn’t that sweet?

Chris Caro and Brandy Courneya had been “inseparable” for about a year, and on the evening of Dec. 22, he concocted an excuse for them to drive by the drive-in, which is owned by his brothers. Brandy, a night-shift worker, was a little sleepy and didn’t recognize at first why Chris stopped. When he gestured to the sign, she saw the words, “Brandy I love you / Will you marry me”. She said yes, and the two plan to marry this fall.

Tom Caro, one of the drive-in owners, said the marquee was also used by friends 20 years ago to congratulate Tom on his marriage. For more great photos and more details on the story, go read the full article in the Saratogian.

Iowa resident thinking of building drive-in

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It’s all very preliminary, and it leaves me wondering how little it takes to get on the morning news shows there, but somebody is talking about building a drive-in in Blue Grass IA. Maybe.

According to KWQC, the Quad Cities’ news leader, Randy Lorenz and his wife own nine acres of land on the west side of town, and in 2008, they tried to get the Reel-To-Reel drive-in built there. Except that the land between his property and the road was unavailable, so that stopped that pretty quick.

This year, all Lorenz has to do is to get through planning and zoning and engineering, and then start construction in the spring, with a tentative opening set for mid-summer. With a new name, which he hasn’t decided on. I hope it happens, but for now it looks like just a bucket of ideas.

To find out more about it, you might start with this page that was probably generated by a computer trying to translate the video report. It’s a decent transcription for a computer, but would be pretty bad if it turned out that a high school student was doing it for extra credit. Or you can play this link to the video of the newscast itself, or click the fragile, embedded version above if it’s still in this post. You’ll have to sit through about a minute and a half of welcomes and weather reports to watch the drive-in story.