Category Archives: Maine

Honda to spend a month promoting drive-ins

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What does Honda have in common with drive-ins? Until recently, I’d say the closest link was The Beach Boys’ 1964 album All Summer Long, which included the songs Little Honda and Drive-In. The former was an international hit, and I often hear the latter at drive-in theaters. In fact, I’d say that Drive-In is probably the best drive-in celebration song of all time. But I digress.

Almost 50 years later, Honda is about to give us a much better reason to connect it with drive-in theaters. This Friday, Honda will launch Project Drive-In, a month-long effort to raise awareness of the wonderful, fragile state of drive-ins today. The best part is that Honda will effectively rescue five drive-ins from oblivion, paying for new digital projection equipment. And you get to pick which drive-ins get saved.

According to Jessica Fini of Honda Public Relations, visitors to Project Drive-In will be able to cast their votes for their favorite drive-in out of a list of over 50 that need help. Some of those drive-ins were chosen by Honda, and others were added after they heard about the promotion and asked to be included. Voting will run through September 9, and a couple of weeks later, Honda will present checks or equipment to the five winners.

Fini said that she hopes that raising general awareness about the drive-ins in need might even help the theaters that don’t finish in the top five. And why is Honda so interested? “A lot of people have an emotional attachment to drive-ins,” Fini said. “We started hearing about all the drive-ins that are in trouble. It’s just a natural connection for us to raise this effort further through a social media promotion.”

As the Maine Sun Chronicle reported recently, Honda has been busy filming some videos to run in conjunction with this promotion. Fini told me that they won’t be used as TV ads (darn!) but will be featured on the Project Drive-In site. So spread the word, and get ready to vote early and often to keep your favorite drive-in alive.

Saco Drive-In plight featured on TV

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Inside the projection room at the Saco Drive-InThe News Leader of Auburn ME, WMTW, recently ran a story about the Saco Drive-In of Saco ME. We mentioned the Saco here at Carload a month ago, and there isn’t a lot of new information in this new report, but there’s some nice video of the Saco marquee and from inside its projection booth.

According to the report, “At least two other theaters in Maine, one in Boothbay (maybe the Harbor Theatre in Boothbay Harbor) and the other in Damrascotta (probably the Lincoln) are both open thanks to the public pitching in to buy the new projectors.” But those are both indoor theaters, so we don’t really follow them on Carload. Never mind.

I would have loved to embed the video, even with its preroll advertising, but the best I can do is show you a screen grab and suggest that you head to WMTW’s site to check it out for yourself.

Second-oldest drive-in tries Facebook fundraising

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Saco Drive-In marqueeThe Sun Chronicle of Westbrooke ME ran a lengthy article about the Saco Drive-In’s struggle to find money for its digital conversion project. According to the Chronicle, the Saco opened in 1939 and is the second-oldest drive-in still in operation. Its operator, Ry Russell, has turned to the Saco’s Facebook fans to raise the money required for the changeover.

Russell said the lack of a digital projector already hurt the Saco in 2012 when film copies of blockbuster movies were scarce.

Here’s a nice touch for the fundraiser: “As part of the Facebook fundraiser, Russell has asked customers and fans of the drive-in to send in stories and photos about what makes the drive-in special to them, which will be put together into an e-book and given to people who make donations toward the new projector.” I look forward to seeing a copy of that!