Author Archives: mrdrivein

Dec. 23: Fair Oaks Drive-In Theatre, Middletown NY

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It’s Day 357 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. Driving through the rain, I was glad the temperature was on the liquid side of freezing. It took me two hours to cross the border, going from the Laurel Drive-in in Hazleton PA to the Fair Oaks Drive-In Theatre north of Middletown NY.

The story of the Fair Oaks is vague and unusual from its very beginning. Both a 2001 article in the Times Herald-Record of Middletown and an October 2017 post on the drive-in’s official Facebook page say that opening was in 1967. The trouble is that Historic Aerials happens to have a photo of that location from 1968, and there’s no drive-in. Other online sources agree with the New York Drive-Ins web site, which has “Gala Opening” newspaper ads of the “All New – All Weather” Fair Oaks for May 15, 1970.

The Fair Oaks opened as a single screen, and the only owner info I’ve found for its early years was the Taylor family. The only personal glimpse I could find was in August 1976, when owner E.J. Taylor became an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church and planned to seek a tax exemption “as soon as I can do it.” By all accounts, the drive-in closed after the 1981 season.

In that 2001 Times Herald-Record article that got the opening date wrong, it was accurate in stating that Ron Mege “took on the ruins of Fair Oaks” in 1990. “Mege started with nothing but bare walls. He built the projection equipment, rewired the place, even built one of the screens himself.” That second screen went up after 1994, based on aerial photos.

(In an ironic counterpoint to Taylor’s 1976 suggestion of holding ULC services at the drive-in, landowner Pravin Patel donated 10 acres of the drive-in field for the Bharatiya Mandir Hindu temple, which was built in 1998.)

Mege and the Fair Oaks rolled along until 2013, when things got weird. In September 2013, the Times Herald-Record wrote that local man John Grimaldi planned to take over the drive-in and invest in an upgrade to digital projection. Then-current film projectionist Tanner Mege was to be hired as the manager. That didn’t happen. Instead, the Fair Oaks sat dark for all of 2014, which Ron Mege later blamed “on a divorce that tied up his assets.”

Then Regina Franz and husband Adam Gerhard entered the picture. They took over the lease in March 2015 and reopened the Fair Oaks in May that year. Newspaper accounts suggest that the digital projector they were using had been partly paid for by a Kickstarter campaign at the Randall Drive-In in Bethel VT. In May 2016, according to another Times Herald-Record article, Gerhard posted on Facebook that “actions have been taken against us” and that the couple had been “forced to seek legal recourse.” They said the Fair Oaks would remain closed.

Ron Mege and girlfriend Kelly Boland took over and began refurbishing the Fair Oaks with a new digital projector within days of Gerhard’s post. The drive-in reopened in July 2016, and they added a digital projector for the second screen in June 2017. Meanwhile, according to the West Lebanon NH Valley News, Franz and Gerhard were sued by the Vermont Attorney General’s Office in October 2016 for allegedly “making deceptive representations in connection with a fundraiser.” Through their lawyer, they denied any wrongdoing, and I don’t know the status of that lawsuit.

It looks like the Fair Oaks has settled down with good seasons of improvements, fun shows, and grilled onions. It closed for the season in late September, then began replacing its marquee sign, apparently the original. I look forward to a successful, uneventful 2018.

Miles Today / Total: 127 / 39615 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 200

Nearby Restaurant: I found another nice regional restaurant chain. Cosimo’s Brick Oven has four locations, and I wonder whether they’re all as good as the one in Middletown. I started with the garlic bread fresh out of that oven, then had a formaggi five-cheese pizza. With a glass of malbec to wash it down, I left with a warm, full belly on a cool, cloudy evening.

Where I Virtually Stayed: I had been denying myself for days, but in Middletown I relented and chose my old favorite chain, the Hampton Inn. There were cookies and coffee waiting at check-in. My large, comfortable room had all the modern amenities. Breakfast was the usual strong Hampton standard. I might get sick of them later, but right now I wish there was a Hampton Inn next to every drive-in.

Only in Middletown: Just south of Middletown in Goshen in the Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame. It’s built on an actual historic stables and track, and its interactive exhibits show what it’s like to buy a horse at auction, train it and race it. The museum is free, and you can take a virtual tour of the place on YouTube.

Next stop: Hyde Park Drive In Theatre, Hyde Park NY.

Dec. 22: Laurel Drive-in, Hazleton PA

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It’s Day 356 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. On a chilly, overcast day, I was glad it took less than an hour to drive from the Point Drive-In between Northumberland and Mechanicsville PA to the Laurel Drive-in in Hazleton PA.

The Laurel was built on the site of the Mount Laurel Race Track, and was so good it opened twice. Its associated miniature golf course and restaurant opened in early June 1950, then the drive-in’s first movie was on Saturday, June 24, 1950. However, the Laurel’s official grand opening was Friday, July 14. The Plain Speaker of Hazleton wrote that the “500-car” drive-in was owned by Charles V. O’Donnell and Anthony D. Sacco. It offered RCA in-car speakers and “an all-metal screen over 60 feet high.”

The Hazleton Standard-Sentinel wrote, “Sacco and O’Donnell began the Laurel Acres project three years ago.” The concession stand was “equipped with a large screen view window, speakers, a 100-foot snack bar, and rest rooms.”

There were more newspaper clippings about the Laurel over the next couple of decades. In July 1956, owners O’Donnell and Sacco announced a new sound system, extra speakers, and free mini-golf for drive-in patrons. In October 1959, O’Donnell and Sacco, “trading as Laurel Drive-In Theater” were in court about a theater in Tamaqua. A windstorm blew the roof off the concession stand and damaged the screen on Sept. 10, 1968, and about 50 speaker posts “were torn from the ground”. Sacco and O’Donnell were mentioned as joint owners then too.

The odd thing is that O’Donnell’s name is missing from everything but those contemporary newspaper accounts. The 1952 Theatre Catalog said the Laurel was owned by just Anthony Sacco, and the 1951-88 Motion Picture Almanacs all listed only a single Sacco as the owner. A March 2016 article in The Times-Tribune includes an otherwise good summary: “The Laurel Drive-In is a family-owned business owned by (manager) Steve Sacco’s father, Frank Sacco. Steve Sacco’s grandfather, the late Anthony Sacco, started the drive-in in 1950.” The MPAs changed the owner’s initial from A to F by 1980, so that could be about when Frank took over.

(For a really weird one, check out this 2014 Standard-Speaker photo caption. It said that today’s Frank’s founding father was “Frank ‘Chic’ Sacco”. A 1952 article in The Plain Speaker mentioned a “Chic” Sacco who chaired a church committee, but his real first name was John. Was that the same Chic? Why would anyone mistake him for Anthony? But I digress.)

In recent years, the Laurel has had trouble converting to digital projection. Based on its Facebook posts this year, for 2017 it opened in mid-May and closed in mid-September. As far as I can tell, except for two classic horror weekends, the film-only Laurel showed only three movies all season – Baywatch, Wonder Woman, and Transformers: The Last Knight. In my opinion, they ought to call the folks who run the Mahoning about finding interesting 35mm films to show in the absence of a digital projector.

A post on that Facebook page says, “We look forward to seeing you again next year.” I really hope they can find a way to keep this great family-owned community treasure going for another few decades.

The embedded YouTube video of the day is an aerial view of the Laurel. I’ve seen plenty of drone videos this year, but I can’t recall seeing another that gets quite that high.

Miles Today / Total: 52 / 39488 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 200

Nearby Restaurant: They told me that one of the best places in Hazleton for lunch is Jimmy’s Quick Lunch, one of the few restaurants in town that predate the Laurel. As Mod Betty at Retro Roadmap points out, it’s got a very cool vintage neon sign after dark, and it’s home of the Jimmy Dog, a weiner topped with chili and mustard and onion cubes. Great stuff!

Where I Virtually Stayed: Once again I stayed strong and bypassed a Hampton Inn to save money and prove I could do it. Instead I stayed at a Red Roof Inn for less than half the price. Apparently it used to be a Best Western, but it’s pretty nice right now. My clean room had all the modern amenities, and the continental breakfast was enough to fortify me to look for a real meal, with more than enough cash left in my pocket for any restaurant in town.

Only in Hazleton: Just north of Hazleton there’s a large lump of coal to commemorate the Lattimer Miners Massacre. On September 10, 1897, about 300 to 400 unarmed strikers marched to a coal mine at the town of Lattimer to support a newly formed union. The sheriff and 150 armed deputies opened fire on the crowd, killing 19 and wounding dozens more, almost all of them shot in the back.

Next stop: Fair Oaks Drive-In Theatre, Middletown NY.

Dec. 21: Point Drive-In, Northumberland PA

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Point Drive-In marquee and back of one screen

Photo from the Point Drive-In Facebook page

It’s Day 355 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. On an ugly, wintry day of driving, I was glad it only took about a half hour to go from the Pike Drive In Theatre in Montgomery PA to the Point Drive-In between Northumberland and Mechanicsville PA.

The Point opened under a different name. The June 21, 1952 issue of Billboard wrote “Harold E. Bell opened his new 250-car Arrow Drive-In near Danville, Pa.” Later that year, Billboard noted that the drive-in had installed “new high-intensity lamps”, perhaps to increase its capacity. By 1955, the Motion Picture Almanac listed the Arrow at 400 cars, owned by “Bell & Kipp Bros.”

An October 1, 1957 ad in the Hazleton Standard-Sentinel for the Australian adventure film Walk Into Hell mentioned the Point Drive-In in Danville, the first reference I could find to its new name. The MPA, frequently slow to notice changes, updated its listing by 1959.

The next solid information I could find was in an article in the Winter 2005-2006 issue of Spectrum magazine, hosted at Archive.org. It interviewed current owner Dave Renn about the 1970s and 1980s when the Point showed some X-rated movies. “There was very low overhead,” Renn said. “They needed only one person to run the projector and one for the concession stand – people rarely got out of their cars.”

The Point stopped showing adult films after the 1987 season. Owner Joe Farruggio, whose Sportservice Corporation had purchased the Point some time before 1980, then transformed the Point from single to triple screen and added FM stereo sound.

Renn apparently told the Drive-In Theater Adventures blog in 2015 that he had owned the Point for 27 years, which is only a little off from the Spectrum article, which said he “took over” in 1990.

In October 2014, Renn held a Jackalope music festival to raise money to finance the conversion to digital projection, according to The Daily Item of Sunbury. Something must have worked, because the Point outfitted its first digital projector in June 2016, and its movie listings this season suggest it found a second. On the other hand, it was still raising money in early October 2017 for a third digital projector.

The Point closed for the season at the end of October. I’m glad it promised to reopen next spring.

Miles Today / Total: 30 / 39436 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 200

Nearby Restaurant: The closest restaurants are all in Danville, and the one I chose for dinner was the Old Forge Brewing Company. Heck, it’s got Brewing right in its name! I had a salad to stay healthy, then dove in to my ribeye steak brushed with beer butter. I don’t know how one would make beer butter, but it sure sounds great. For dessert, I enjoyed a stout float, like a root beer float without the root. Good times!

Where I Virtually Stayed: The closest hotel to the Point is the Pine Barn Inn in Danville. For such a homey-sounding name, it’s a modern-looking place. There was coffee waiting for me. My comfortable room had all the modern amenities. And there’s a full restaurant on-site for dinner and, most important, breakfast. It was a welcome refuge on a cold, drizzly day.

Only in Northumberland: According to Wikipedia, Northumberland was founded in 1772. Its land was purchased from the Iroquois in the first Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768, and the village was laid out in 1772. During the American Revolution, Northumberland was evacuated in response to British-led attacks during the Big Runaway in 1778, and was only finally resettled in 1784.

Next stop: Laurel Drive-in, Hazleton PA.