Author Archives: mrdrivein

Oct. 6: Hollywood Drive-In Theatre, Averill Park NY

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Hollywood Drive-In marquee with a rainbow in the background

Photo from the Hollywood Drive-In Facebook page

It’s Day 279 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. It took over an hour and a half to drive from Barkhamsted CT to the Hollywood Drive-In Theatre, northwest of Averill Park NY.

I’ve been sweating out different drive-ins’ histories for weeks. This time, I’ll let the Hollywood’s own History page tell the story, with only a bit of my editing.

The Hollywood Drive-In Theater is located on (NY State) Route 66 just eight miles outside of Troy. The theater was built in 1952 by the late James Fisher who oversaw the operation for the next 16 years.

In the beginning James, his wife, Beatrice, and son Frank kept the theater open year round. It ran seven nights a week in the spring and summer months and on weekends September through May. For the colder weather the theater offered heaters for the cars at no charge. The heaters plugged into the side of the speaker pole.

In 1968 Frank took over the business from his father and still enjoys running it to this day. He has learned everything from the projectors to the concessions when he was just a teenager, working with his father and through trial and error, and has improved the theater tremendously from those early days.

The theater began with two pre-1950’s carbon arc projectors which held 2000 foot reels. Then came 6000 foot reels and the projectors had to be reconditioned to handle the larger reels. After that the projectors were changed to Xenon which gave off a more brilliant light, and they added a platter system.

As of April 2012 the theatre has converted to a digital projection system with Dolby digital sound, projected onto a 36- by 88-foot screen. In 1952 the theater held 250 cars but has expanded over the years and now can accommodate approximately 400 cars.

I’m back. To read more about the Hollywood, you could read Frank’s 2009 interview with All Over Albany, where he said, “The drive-ins that are open are as popular today as they used to be. There was a time in the 70’s when it was really, really bad — when a drive in couldn’t get first-run movies. They got a bad name somewhere along the line. But the nostalgia kind of brought them back.”

About the only thing I couldn’t find for the Hollywood was a good video. I was happy to be able to visit on its final Friday of the season. Too bad it doesn’t stay open all year any more.

Miles Today / Total: 77 / 32610 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: The Lego Ninjago Movie / 175

Nearby Restaurant: About halfway between the Hollywood and Troy is what is probably the closest restaurant, Paolo Lombardi’s Ristorante in Wynantskill. It’s a solid white linen Italian restaurant with a wide variety of dishes. I was tempted by the filet mignon but figured that pasta would be Paolo’s specialty, so I picked the parmesan chicken. That worked great for me.

Where I Virtually Stayed: I think the closest hotel to the Hollywood is the Hilton Garden Inn in Troy. Since I was happy to find an HGI close by, I’ll stick to that explanation. There was a fireplace in the lobby to greet me from the seasonal autumn air. My room had the full complement of modern amenities. The very nice HGI breakfast buffet was included because I’m a Gold level Hiltoner. Good stuff!

Only in Averill Park: Samuel Wilson (1766-1854) was a meat packer from Troy just up the highway. His name is purportedly the source of the personification of the United States known as “Uncle Sam,” according to Wikipedia. During the War of 1812, his company supplied a few thousand barrels of meat to soldiers stationed nearby. They knew of Wilson and his local nickname and started calling the barrels, marked E.A.-U.S., property of Uncle Sam, and it just snowballed from there.

Next stop: Malta Drive-In Theatre, Malta NY.

Oct. 5: Pleasant Valley Drive-in, Barkhamsted CT

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It’s Day 278 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. Even though the majority of my drive was on I-91, it took almost two hours to drive the 90 miles from the Northfield Drive-In Theatre, just barely across the Massachusetts border in Hinsdale NH, to the Pleasant Valley Drive-in in Barkhamsted CT.

This is a place, literally a stone’s throw from the Farmington River across the highway, with quite a history. It opened in 1947 under a different name. I’m pretty sure it was the Rogers Corner, because that’s what Billboard magazine called it when it wrote about it in 1949. That’s when “Vincent J. Youmatz, part-owner, founder, and former president of the theater” sued the corporation that owned it. But the name of that corporation was the Peoples Forest Drive-In Theater Corporation, and some people, including the current owner, believe that it opened as the People’s Drive-In.

Don Heilbron bought the drive-in from the original owners in the 1970s. Around that time, according to The New York Times, “it survived by showing what the multiplexes couldn’t: X-rated movies.” At that point, everyone agrees that it was called the Rogers Corner.

In 1987, Brady and Sally Miller bought the Rogers Corner, switched to family movies, and changed the drive-in’s name to Pleasant Valley to help it publicly break from its X-rated past. “It took Brady three years before people started realizing it was a family venue again,” wrote Donna McGrane, who bought it from the Millers in 1996. (She was gracious enough to share the drive-in’s history with me.)

From the time McGrane took over, the Pleasant Valley’s history is pretty well documented. In that Times article from 2008, she said, “My mother used to run the ticket booth and my dad would work part time running the projector, so weekends they’d put us in pajamas and pack us into the station wagon, and that’s how we spent our summers. When the theater came up for sale 11 years ago I couldn’t let it go.”

More recently, the drive-in went through an amazing story of finding the money for the digital conversion before the 2014 season. Eloquently written by Entertainment Weekly, it tells how an 11th hour reprieve, in the form of a benefit auction organized by Torrington Preservation Trust member Travis Lipinski, surprisingly raised the cash for a down payment on the new projector.

The Pleasant Valley is open for another weekend this season, but not on this night, a Thursday. At least I know that it should be around for years to come.

The embedded video of the day is a little personal. Four years ago, I wrote about the Pleasant Valley and used this clip from WVIT, Connecticut’s News Leader. Then a week later, the video stopped working in my blog post. It’s working again (at least as I type this), so I’m giving it another try.

Miles Today / Total: 90 / 32533 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 174

Nearby Restaurant: The closest restaurant to Pleasant Valley appeared to be the Log House, so that’s where I went. Inside and out, the place was just as wooden as the name promises. They say this is a homestyle restaurant, though I don’t know how many serve such an excellent lobster bisque. I continued on to the roast turkey with stuffing and cranberry sauce, then finished with a slice of chocolate cake. Wonderful comfort food!

Where I Virtually Stayed: There aren’t any hotels near Pleasant Valley, so I drove a few miles to Avon and the Residence Inn there. My studio suite had a fully stocked kitchen and a fireplace. I could have lived here for weeks, which is the idea. The full breakfast buffet in the morning was one of the best free hotel breakfasts I’ve had this year. I was ready for another day.

Only in Barkhamsted: Every year, the Barkhamsted Historical Society reopens Squire’s Tavern for one night of food, drinks, games, and music “just like it was in the 1800’s.” This year, the date is October 21. If you want to see what the place is like when it’s quiet, you can take a virtual tour here.

Next stop: Hollywood Drive-In Theatre, Averill Park NY.

Oct. 4: Northfield Drive-In Theatre, Hinsdale NH

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It’s Day 277 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. With all the twisty, forested roads, it took me almost an hour and a half to drive from Leicester MA to the Northfield Drive-In Theatre, just barely across the border in Hinsdale NH.

The Northfield, the oldest New Hampshire drive-in that’s still active, was built in 1948 by Carl Nilman. According to Digital Commonwealth, Nilman was the son of Swedish immigrants who settled in East Buckland MA in the early 1900s, and he had a profitable career of owning and operating theaters. “A resourceful man who never married,” Nilman built a hefty estate, which he bequeathed to charities including a scholarship fund for needy students at Mohawk Trail Regional High School in his home town.

Many reference works of the period refer to Nilman’s theater as the Auto Drive-In, although I found one 1948 newspaper article that called it the Northfield Community Drive-In. The original screen was destroyed by a hurricane in 1951 (it must have been Hurricane How), but it was rebuilt, and that 80- by 54-foot screen is still used today.

The Shakour family bought the drive-in in 1967, which was around the time my references began calling it the Northfield Community. I couldn’t find the buyers’ first names directly, but they were probably Gabriel and Barbara Shakour, who founded The Keene Shopper (pdf) in 1959. That paper is now The Monadnock Shopper News, run by their son Mitchell Shakour, who also now owns the Northfield Drive-In.

Mitchell runs the drive-in on summer weekends and his veterinarian wife Carla runs the snack bar. In 2013, he briefly wondered whether the Northfield should convert to digital or shut down; community support convinced him to make the switch.

One odd thing about the drive-in – it’s just north of Northfield MA (hence the name), but the sign, parking lot, driveway and screen are all completely just barely across the border in NH. (I can’t help but think the resourceful Nilman did that on purpose.) Yet everything I read says the drive-in “straddles” the line and “sits partially” somehow in MA. My guess is the drive-in owns an adjoining chunk of MA, but I just don’t get it. I’ll come back and update this if I ever find a better explanation.

The Keene Sentinel noted another really great odd thing. Because the Shakours are vegetarians, there are plenty of veggie options available at the Northfield snack bar, including veggie burgers, veggie hot dogs and spring rolls. I’d definitely go for that!

But summer is long gone, and so is the Northfield’s season. I was left without a movie to watch on an unseasonably warm October night.

The YouTube video of the day is brief, but it was the best drone shot I could find to show the tree-lined Massachusetts border to the left. (Check out the Northfield Drive-In channel for more.) It was very nice video work to superimpose a movie on the screen in daylight, or is the digital projector just that powerful?

Miles Today / Total: 53 / 32443 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 174

Nearby Restaurant: Mim’s Market in Northfield features a little bit of everything. It looks like a two-story house plus an attic, but it’s a convenience store and delicatessen. Fresh coffee and muffins complement a fine deli sandwich built to order from the meats, cheeses and condiments available. Of course, they had me at coffee.

Where I Virtually Stayed: There aren’t any hotels close by, but there is one great bed and breakfast, the Centennial House. My King bedroom didn’t have a fridge or microwave, but it had a full bookcase and a view of the pines outside. Breakfast was great of course, and I was glad to find such a comfortable place close by.

Only in Hinsdale: According to Roadside America, there’s a house in Hinsdale that’s completely covered in old license plates. (Here’s the Google Street View.) In 2005, its creator’s daughter wrote, “This was my father’s project — Albert (Bob) Duso. It started as a garage. I was raised in this house. He ran an antique and flea market out of it for years. He LIVED for people to stop and ask him about it! He would be thrilled today to know he was listed here.”

Next stop: Pleasant Valley Drive-in, Barkhamsted CT.