Author Archives: mrdrivein

Nov. 3: Delsea Drive-In, Vineland NJ

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It’s Day 307 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. It’s Friday, so Halloween’s behind us, meaning no more special spooky showings anywhere. I really needed to find drive-ins that were still showing movies in November, and that meant a four-hour drive south from Coxsackie NY to the Delsea Drive-In in Vineland NJ.

According to Cinema Treasures, the Delsea was a single-screen, 700-car drive-in operated by the Budco chain when it opened on April 29, 1949. Budco was later bought by American Multi Cinema, which abruptly closed it in July 1987. It sat quietly for over 15 years as the rest of the drive-ins in New Jersey, the birthplace of the drive-in movie, also closed.

In 2003 a local pediatrician, Dr. John DeLeonardis, bought the property to build a skate park to keep his patients active. Then he saw the 100-foot screen was still in pretty good shape, so he started down the path of restoring the drive-in. The Delsea reopened in July 2004 with the same projectionist who was there on its last night in 1987.

DeLeonardis added a second screen in 2008. In 2011, he installed a bank of solar panels, making the Delsea the first solar-powered drive-in. (Of course, that’s not literally true; the panels generate into the grid during the day, and the Delsea uses electricity at night, but the net usage is pretty close to self-sufficiency.)

NJ.com wrote in 2011 that DeLeonardis’ wife Jude, can be found weekend nights working the snack bar, where she put edamame, stir-fry asparagus, wraps and other healthy choices on the menu.

The Delsea is the home theater for the Drive-In Film Festival, a non-profit organization that brings new, family-friendly independent films to drive-in theaters free of charge to promote filmmaking and drive-ins. They’ve got a great video about themselves and the Delsea on YouTube, although the embedded video of the day is a different one focusing more specifically on DeLeonardis and the results of his work.

On a wonderfully, unseasonably warm evening around 70 degrees, I was treated to the latest blockbuster entry in the Thor series, which made a great drive-in movie. It was nice to watch in the state where the industry was invented.

Miles Today / Total: 242 / 34685 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: Thor: Ragnarok / 186

Nearby Restaurant: When I don’t want to think about dinner, I’ll often pick pizza, so I went over to the Taste of Italy Pizzeria in Vineland. The place was all right inside, but I just wanted something to take back to my room for some quiet munching time. The chicken parmigiana pizza was the perfect compromise between something familiar and something uniquely Vineland.

Where I Virtually Stayed: After my longest drive in weeks, I just wanted something dependable, which to me is another name for Hampton Inn. The one in Vineland had high ceilings in its breakfast area, which gives us a much airier feel, and there’s a nice indoor pool and hot tub. Meanwhile, the usual amenities were there in my room and the usual solid breakfast was waiting in the morning. Ready for another drive!

Only in Vineland: For decades, the most famous place in Vineland was the Palace of Depression, an eighteen-spired, pastel-colored castle in a swamp, built in 1932 out of rusted auto parts and mud. According to a nice summary on Roadside America, George Daynor built the palace to show that the Great Depression was beatable. Daynor said he was guided to the site by an angel, and that he ate frogs, fish, rabbits and squirrels during the three years it took to build.

Next stop: Bengies Drive-In Theatre, Middle River MD.

Nov. 2: Hi-Way Drive-In Theatre, Coxsackie NY

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It’s Day 306 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. This was one more day of short drives – just 20 minutes from the Greenville Drive-In Outdoor Cinema, in Greenville NY of course, to the Hi-Way Drive-In Theatre in Coxsackie NY.

NewYorkDriveIns.com has plenty of newspaper clippings of the Hi-Way’s origins. It opened with a single screen on May 4, 1951, owned by brothers Morris and Rafael Klein. (The 1952 Theatre Catalog listed the drive-in’s executive as Mrs. Frieda Klein. Sounds like somebody’s wife was taking charge!)

Roger Babcock began working at the Hi-Way in 1971 and met his future wife when she started working there. When the Kleins decided to sell in 1976, the Babcocks took over, and they’ve been running it ever since. (Although some sources suggest the Babcocks didn’t take full ownership until the mid-1990s.) They added a second screen in 1999, a third screen in 2004, and a fourth in 2011. Along the way, they converted from in-car speakers to radio sound.

There was a flurry of drama in 2014 when the Babcocks faced the prospect of finding the money to convert all four screens to digital projection. In January that year, Roger told the Kingston Daily Freeman, “We have no plans on shutting the drive-in down, none whatsoever.” After donation boxes and an IndieGoGo campaign yielded a pittance, he found an unusual source of financing. “Social Security at my age is going to help pay for this,” he said. “With Social Security, the monthly payments are reasonable enough for us to convert two to three screens.” They eventually converted all four.

I wrote about Roger and the Hi-Way back in October 2013, when he was still deciding whether to get a loan to buy some projectors. Too bad the lengthy, incisive article I referenced then is gone now. That just happens sometimes.

The drive-in closed for the 2017 season after Columbus Day weekend. They posted on their Facebook page, “see ya in March, Snow banks permitting”.

The video of the day is a delightful documentary short by Tansy Michaud and Adam Carboni called Enjoy Your Intermission. (There’s a great interview with the filmmakers here.) It profiles the Hi-Way and the people who ran it when they were still using their beloved 35mm film.

Miles Today / Total: 14 / 34443 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 185

Nearby Restaurant: The Pegasus Restaurant in Coxsackie has been around almost as long as the Babcocks. It’s not one of the cheap eats joints I often prefer, but now and then I need to show I can behave at a nice place. I was rewarded by a plate of broiled scallops in a spicy red sauce with a side of shrimp. By the end of the evening, I could see how this place has stayed around for so long.

Where I Virtually Stayed: I’m not sure why they called the hotel up the road the Best Western New Baltimore Inn. It’s one of a cluster of hotels by the closest NY State Thruway exit to the drive-in, but even that highway doesn’t go anywhere near Baltimore. At any rate, the price was pretty nice, my room had all the modern amenities, and breakfast included scrambled eggs and bacon. It’s all good.

Only in Coxsackie: This town has a class of viruses named after it. According to Wikipedia, the coxsackieviruses were discovered in 1948–49 by Dr. Gilbert Dalldorf, a scientist working at the New York State Department of Health. Searching for a polio cure, he found that fluid collected from a non-polio virus preparation could block polio’s damage. Eventually he discovered viruses that often mimicked mild polio, and he named them after the town where he had obtained “the first fecal specimens.”

Next stop: Delsea Drive-In, Vineland NJ.

Nov. 1: Greenville Drive-In Outdoor Cinema, Greenville NY

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It’s Day 305 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. On this rainy Wednesday, I was glad to have a short drive, just a half hour from the Jericho Drive-in in Glenmont NY to the Greenville Drive-In Outdoor Cinema, in Greenville NY of course.

The Greenville used to have its history posted on an About Us page on its web site. Fortunately, the Internet Archive made a copy in 2014 so I can share some of its highlights with you.

In April 1959, Peter Carelas began construction on the Greenville Drive-in. New York Drive-Ins says its opening night was two months later on June 18. The drive-in was originally designed to hold 400 cars, although the International Motion Picture Almanac later listed its capacity as 550. The screen was 85 feet wide.

The Greenville’s history appears to have been uneventful until it was put up for sale in 1988. That’s when local business owner Mark Wilcox and 10 others, eventually forming “The Greenville Eleven, Inc.” jointly purchased the drive-in to save it from land development. Wilcox operated and managed the Greenville through the 2006 season. During that time, he switched from in-car speakers to FM sound. Even now, he’s still listed as the CEO of the corporation.

“2007 was a year of sadness,” as the Greenville closed. In 2009, Don Brown and Patricia Creigh reopened it for the season, but plagued by rainy weather, the drive-in was only open a few weekends. The Greenville was again closed for the 2010 and 2011 seasons.

In 2012, Jim Gatehouse and family took over, spruced up the facility and reopened, but they couldn’t get past the digital projection hurdle and closed the Greenville again for the 2014 season.

Enter the current owners, Leigh Van Swall and Dwight Grimm. They ran a modest but successful Kickstarter campaign, highlighted by the embedded video above, in early 2015. (It noted, “We are one of the few all-grass drive-ins in existence so the fifteen acres requires extensive mowing and gravel access roads to keep patrons from becoming mired.”) Grimm later told Catskill Eats, “We’re trying not to be so much a straight-up movie theater, but more of an event venue with movie-showing capabilities.”

The Greenville opened a beer garden in 2016, and held a typewriter festival later that year. They finished their 2017 season in mid-October and promised to be back in May 2018. Sounds like fun!

Miles Today / Total: 22 / 34429 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 185

Nearby Restaurant: Was Lane’s Cafe, up Highway 32 from the drive-in, the diner where the Greenville Eleven organized over breakfast? The menu showed plenty of breakfast choices, but I arrived at lunch. I had the hot open-faced turkey sandwich with gravy and cranberry sauce. Mashed potatoes make a better choice than the fries they provided, but for a good turkey sandwich, I’m willing to overlook that.

Where I Virtually Stayed: The Greenville Arms 1889 Inn is possibly the best place to stay in Greenville. It’s the kind of vintage bed and breakfast you’d find on a postcard. My comfortable little room included a mini-fridge. Breakfast included grits, a difficult dish to find in chain hotel buffets. And as a bonus, the proprietors make gourmet chocolates. That’s a great reason to stay here!

Only in Greenville: According to Roadside America, just south of Greenville in the town of East Durham, on the property of Blackthorne Resort, there is a 17-foot-tall steampunk robot. It was built by Thomas Willeford for the 2014 Steampunk World’s Fair, and is displayed in an open-air shed-like building.

Next stop: Hi-Way Drive-In Theatre, Coxsackie NY.