Category Archives: Colorado

Twin Falls drive-ins’ future looks bleak

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The Twin Falls (ID) Times-News ran a fairly pessimistic piece this week about the drive-ins in that town. The Motor-Vu and Grand-Vu will open this spring, but they have no plans to make the switch to digital projection. When Hollywood stops sending film, they’ll just shut down.

Both drive-ins are owned by Interstate Amusement, which has a web site that mentions the other theaters in town but not the drive-ins. Maybe they’ll add something once they reopen? The Times-News article quotes Larry Roper, which it says is Interstate Amusement’s managing director, although last summer’s Times-News video, embedded above, says he’s the owner. Anyway, Roper sounds pretty glum about the future of drive-ins in general. “If we cannot get some kind of solution to the end of the 35-mm film or a way to put digital into the drive-ins, they all will be closing,” he said.

Wow! I hope that Roper is just so busy running all those theaters so that he hasn’t noticed that several drive-ins have already converted to digital, and many more have indicated that they’ll convert this season. For just one example, the Star Drive-In of Montrose CO recently announced on its Facebook page that it will convert even as its fundraising efforts continue.

At least the Motor-Vu’s Facebook page is more optimistic, posting “We have to upgrade to Digital which will cost upwards of $100,000.” And the Motor-Vu’s fans have already chimed in, talking about raising the money. (Strangely, I can’t find any web site for the Grand-Vu. If you know of one, post a comment here and I’ll add the link.) So let’s hope the Times-News just caught Roper on a bad day, and the good folks of Twin Falls find a way to keep their drive-in(s) for decades to come.

Please add your photos to our Flickr pool

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old Valley Drive-In in Fort Morgan, Colorado

photo by Neon Michael

Carload.com, America’s finest drive-in news source, has started its own Flickr pool to collect great (and just okay) photos of drive-ins. To get things started, I’ve added a few pictures of my own, such as this shot of the old Valley Drive-In in Fort Morgan, Colorado.

If you’ve got some drive-in photos, please join the Carload group and share them with the rest of Carload’s readers. If we use your photo to illustrate a story, we’ll give you credit and link back to your photo’s Flickr page, as demonstrated by the caption under this Valley photo. You retain all your rights to your photos; you’d just be giving Carload permission to use them here.

Please consider adding your drive-in experience to our collective celebration of all the great fun of drive-ins by uploading to the Carload group today. And thanks for visiting Carload.com.

Watch this great short about Colorado Drive-Ins

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I just realized that I haven’t shared this great short film with you. It’s called Projector: The Last Outdoor Cinemas of Colorado, and it looks like a labor of love for director Mike Liguori and his Thousand Foot Pictures.

Liguori hopes to expand the short into a feature-length documentary, which would be a great thing, of course. For the latest information, you can sign up for his email list or check his Facebook page.

Projector was filmed in 2010, before the digital conversion crisis reached its peak. Although it doesn’t point it out, the short interviews the two owners of the two unrelated Colorado theaters named Star Drive-In, one in Monte Vista and one in Montrose. Keep watching for glimpses of the playground still available in Monte Vista, the abandoned Frontier sign near Center CO, and the neon signs of the 88 of Commerce City. Check it out!