Author Archives: mrdrivein

Oct. 19: Delevan Twin Drive In, Delevan NY

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It’s Day 292 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. An hour’s worth of twisty state highways brought me from Portville NY to the Delevan Twin Drive In in Delevan NY of course.

A contemporary article in the Arcade (NY) Herald, hosted by NewYorkDriveIns.com, said that Opening Day for the Delevan was Sept. 24, 1959. It was built by Elgin Boylan and had 400 speakers for 400 cars. HistoricAerials.com shows it under construction(!) earlier in 1959 and in operation in 1961.

I sometimes turn to my shelf of old International Motion Picture Almanacs for clues within their annual drive-in lists. The IMPA is far from perfect, but the Delevan is a particular example of how wrong it can be; it wasn’t listed in the 1961 edition, and the 1963-66 editions showed it with a capacity of 365 cars, owned by “Al Boylain”.

The 1978 IMPA changed the owner to “Mendola, G.P.” (NYDI says that was Gasper “Pat” Mendola) and corrected the capacity to 400, and that’s how it stayed through its final list in 1988. But the IMPA listings were often on autopilot in the 1980s, with any real-world changes going unnoticed.

NYDI says the Delevan was later operated by Macy Cohen and Phil Leiffer, then later yet by Ron and Mary Sahr. A 1992 Springville Journal article referred to it as Sahr’s Delevan Drive-In Theater.

Don Loomis and his wife Josie bought the drive-in in 2000. The drive-in’s web site used to say that he added the second screen in 2005; aerial photos show it was there in 2006 but not in 2002, so that’s probably accurate. Loomis had converted one screen to digital projection, but when Josie was diagnosed with cancer, they made the decision to sell. “We planned to do this the rest of our lives,” Don told The Buffalo News in October 2014. “We didn’t buy it just to sell it. But it looks like it’s time to pull the plug.”

Dr. Michael DiBella, an emergency room physician, bought the drive-in in the 2014-2015 off-season after Loomis listed it on eBay. “I’ve always wanted to own a drive-in,” he told The Buffalo News in April 2015. “It’s a piece of old-fashioned Americana, and I wanted to preserve part of that.” DiBella changed the name to the Delevan Twin Drive In. (For some reason, his name is spelled Mickel on the drive-in’s web site, but it’s Michael everywhere else including all references to his day job in Buffalo.)

The Delevan is closed for the season now, though its Facebook page says it might reopen for the latest Star Wars movie in December.

I was so desperate for a video that I embedded a January 2017 report from WKBW, Buffalo’s News Leader, that should have been a non-story. During the 2016 season, DiBella wanted to accept credit cards but couldn’t get a landline installed, so he used an old-fashioned imprinting machine to make credit card charge slips. (Am I the only one old enough to remember back when that was the usual way charges were handled?) He kept the slips but forgot to phone them in. When he got around to it after Christmas, it freaked out nervous cardholders, but as the report shows, DiBella bent over backwards to make it right for every patron.

Miles Today / Total: 38 / 33385 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 180

Nearby Restaurant: Just north of the drive-in is Chanderson’s Steak & Seafood, a great place for dinner. There are few things tastier and more satisfying than a well-prepared ribeye steak, and this came with a full soup and salad bar to help me believe that I was eating healthy. Add a glass of merlot, and it’s a perfectly rounded meal.

Where I Virtually Stayed: Google said the closest hotel to the Delevan Twin is the Chaffee Lodge just a few miles north. This is one of those Mom and Pop motels where they’ve done some serious renovations. My quiet room had the full set of modern amenities. The great price left plenty of cash in my pocket for breakfast down the street at the Strawberry Fields Cafe.

Only in Delevan: The World Series begins next week, so we’ll turn to arguably the most famous person ever born in tiny Delevan, Frank Isbell. He was a full-time first baseman with the American League pennant-winning Chicago White Sox in 1901, then moved to second base where he was had the highest batting average on the 1906 World Series champs. If you’re really into baseball, you may recognize how rare it is for a player to shift to a more difficult position on the defensive spectrum, but I guess it worked for Isbell.

Next stop: Vintage Drive In Theatre, Avon NY.

Oct. 18: Portville Drive-In, Portville NY

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It’s Day 291 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. In less than an hour and a half, I was able to drive from the Silver Lake Twin Drive In Theatre in Perry NY to the Portville Drive-In in Portville NY of course.

For this virtual visit, I must admit that I’ve got almost nothing, and most of what I have is from NewYorkDriveIns.com. They’re the folks who host a copy of the Olean Times Herald article from July 8, 1972, talking about the Portville, which began operating the night before. “The grand opening had been delayed because of the wet spring weather,” the Times Herald wrote, quietly understating the great Flood of June 1972, which shut down some businesses and damaged several parts of town. The article said the drive-in was “untouched by the flood waters”, but I’d still bet it added to the delay.

Industry veteran Dean Emley, who had managed Olean’s Haven indoor theater over 20 years earlier, returned to shepherd the Portville, which opened before its landscaping was finished. It was said to hold 600 cars and was owned by the Frontier Amusement Company of Buffalo.

That brief article is easily the best information I’ve got on the Portville, including its own web site which misstates its opening date as 1970. Every other bit of information I’ve got is second-hand, or by inference.

In the 1978 International Motion Picture Almanac, the first time it listed the Portville’s owner, it was “Bordinaro”. That was corrected to Bordonaro by the 1984 edition. That surname pops up in several news stories about theaters in western New York, and it could have been the family that owned Frontier Amusement. New York Drive-Ins said in 2010 that Anthony Bordonaro was the owner at that point. In general, what little evidence I could find all points to the Bordonaro family owning the Portville for a very long time, possibly since it opened.

Chris1982 wrote at Cinema Treasures that the Portville uses FM radio sound and added its second screen in 2005, which matches before (2004) and after (2007) photos at Historic Aerials. It’s still operating, so it must have managed the transition to digital projection, probably without any drama since I can’t find anything about requesting donations for it.

And that’s about it. Its Facebook page shows that it closed for the season after Labor Day this year, and its web page says “We look forward to seeing you in April 2018.” Maybe it’s just one of those places that does its work so well that no one thinks to write about it.

Miles Today / Total: 55 / 33347 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 180

Nearby Restaurant: Sprague’s Maple Farms is full of maple-y goodness, of course, but they also raise free-range turkeys, one of which was the guest of honor for my dinner. It came with maple sausage stuffing and cranberry sauce, and I drank some maple Chardonnay to stay on theme. I finished off dinner with a slice of apple pie a la mode topped with truly homemade maple syrup. What an experience!

Where I Virtually Stayed: Apparently, the closest hotels to the Portville are in Olean, and the very closest is the Holiday Inn Express there. Fresh cookies greeted me at check-in. My room had the full set of modern amenities. And I was glad to return to the HIE standard breakfast including meat, the pancake machine and amazing little cinnamon rolls.

Only in Portville: In the bell tower of Portville’s First Presbyterian Church, the Westminster carillon sounds the time each hour of the day. It’s a gift from the Atkinson family to thank the dozens of people of the town who donated blood for their daughter, who died from leukemia in 1968 at the age of 12. Her mother told the Olean Times Herald in 2015 that when she hears the carillon, “she smiles, thinking of the little girl who was quiet, loved animals and released the fish she regularly caught from Dodge Creek.”

Next stop: Delevan Twin Drive In, Delevan NY.

Oct. 17: Silver Lake Twin Drive In Theatre, Perry NY

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It’s Day 290 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. Thanks to some interstate highways, it took me less than two hours to drive from the Finger Lakes Drive-In, just west of Auburn NY, to the Silver Lake Twin Drive In Theatre in Perry NY.

The Silver Lake opened as a single-screen drive-in on Sept. 23, 1949. Harry Martin and his wife Mary built the place and operated it until selling it to Jake Stefanon before the 1966 season.

According to a Rochester Democrat and Chronicle article, captured on the Silver Lake’s history page, Jake also opened a drive-in in 1949, in Altoona PA. (That drive-in, the appropriately named Altoona, actually opened in April 1948, so maybe he misremembered the year. But I digress.)

The article said that “while operating a string of outdoor theaters in Buffalo, Jake bought a decrepit drive-in near the eastern shore of Silver Lake that was nothing more that ‘cow pastures and posts.'” Martin was in his mid to late 60s by then, so maybe he was having trouble keeping it up. Anyway, Jake moved to Perry in 1970 “and devoted all his time to transforming the Silver Lake Drive-In into a family entertainment center.”

Why did Jake do all that transforming? “While I was with the Blatt Brothers (a Pittsburgh-based theater chain), we’d build a drive-in out in the country … and pretty soon, a hot dog stand would spring up, and a custard stand – capitalizing on our ability to draw people,” he said. “So I realized, if you draw people, you have to have something to sell to them.”

A hot dog stand outside the gates evolved into the full-service Charcoal Corral restaurant. Then came ice cream, pizza, an arcade, mini golf, and an outdoor bandstand.

That 1995 article said Jake’s son Rick was the one who made those plans work. “He’s the visionary … I get it built and make it go,” Rick said. It also said that Rick, then 45, had been working at his dad’s theaters since he was 14. The son eventually bought the drive-in from his dad in 1993. He also added a second screen before the 1998 season.

The Livingston County News ran an article when the Silver Lake reopened for the 2017 season with Rick showing off a brilliant idea. “Every night, we’ll go out and walk the lot to select a family that has children,” he explained. “We’ll ask them if they want to help us out and start the movie. That always gets a big, positive response. They come in and I give them a little bit of the general workings on how it all goes. Then we direct them to the computer where they take over the controls. They start the movie on the computer as they would at home. For helping out, they always get free popcorn and cotton candy for the entire family.” Wow, that sounds like a great way to get drive-in fans for life!

The emphasis that the proprietors place on the restaurants and fun extend to the title of their Facebook page and web site; both say Charcoal Corral and Silver Lake Twin Drive In. And it extends to their Facebook videos, almost all about the types of yummy food available. That’s why the embedded video of the day starts with the drive-in marquee and shifts to 10 minutes of a relaxing parade of tractors.

I just missed the Silver Lake’s final drive-in showing of the season the Sunday before Columbus Day, but at least the Charcoal Corral is open for the rest of October.

Miles Today / Total: 90 / 33292 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 180

Nearby Restaurant: Obviously, I had to eat dinner at the Charcoal Corral, although it would have been a good choice anyway. It was Southwest BBQ Night, and for me that meant a rack of tender baby back ribs with baked beans and a salad. A trip to the ice cream stand topped off the best way to visit here on a night without a movie.

Where I Virtually Stayed: If you’re going to stay in Perry, you’ll want to stay at the Park-Lake Motel. It’s another one of those clean, comfortable little places with great rates. My efficiency room had all the modern amenities, and there was coffee available in the common area. After a quiet night’s sleep, I was ready to go scout out breakfast at John & Sarah’s nearby.

Only in Perry: As Wikipedia puts it, four men who were out fishing on Silver Lake on July 13, 1855, swore that they encountered a 60-foot-long sea serpent with glowing red eyes. The resulting frenzy that came from this story created an immense boom for the nearby towns of Perry and Silver Lake. About 100 more people later claimed to have seen it. Two years later when the Walker Hotel in Silver Lake burned down, firemen discovered the remains of the legend: a large mass of canvas. Hotel owner A.B. Walker had built the monster to attract business.

Next stop: Portville Drive-In, Portville NY.