Category Archives: Michigan

Video: Capri Drive-In added to National Register of Historic Places

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Time again for some good news. The Capri Drive-In Theater of Coldwater MI was added to the National Register of Historic Places this week. I took the opportunity to grab its very nice, drone-shot 60th anniversary video from last year. That follows up the 50th anniversary video that I embedded in my post on the Capri about eight years ago.

Back then, during my 2017 virtual visit, I wrote that the Capri was built by John and Mary Magocs and opened in August 1964. Back then it was a single screen serving up to 1000 cars. As the Capri’s story page relates, the snack bar at the time was leased to Auto City Candy Company of Detroit. Operating a Drive-In for the Magocs was a family affair. John and Mary, John Jr. and Tom, spent many a night making sure the show went off each night.

In 1977, the operation of the Capri Drive-In was leased to William Clarke of Coldwater while the Magocs resided in Florida. In 1980, Tom and John Jr. resumed operation of the theatre. One of their first decisions was to install AM radio transmission of the movie sound. All but 5 rows of speakers were removed.

In 1986, the Capri became a twin. Screen Two was added on the back side of theatre. Screen One’s car capacity was decreased to 550 cars, with Screen Two parking 300 more. That’s about the way it looks today.

In 2016, USA Today readers voted the Capri the second-best drive-in in the US, behind only the 99W of Newburg OR. It certainly deserves this latest recognition. Here’s a YouTube short with a few more recent details.

Bryan TX hosts drive-in event Saturday

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photo from the City of Bryan TX web site

Bryan TX is hosting a Valentine’s Day weekend drive-in showing of “Top Gun: Maverick” at the soccer lot of the Bryan Regional Athletic Complex on Saturday, Feb. 15. You’ve got to be a grown-up (18+), and you have to bring cash ($10 per vehicle). The City of Bryan web site has more details, including the promise of a family-friendly “Lilo & Stitch” drive-in double feature on May 16.

That’s all good news, though it has stirred my old existential question – what is a drive-in theater? Should this qualify? Bryan has been doing this since at least 2022, apparently always in the same place. The photo from its announcement appears to be an inflatable screen, which isn’t a surprise given the multipurpose uses of its location. It’s running multiple drive-in nights per year, though less often than once a month.

That’s a pretty good argument in favor of including what I’d call the Bryan Drive-In as part of my list of active drive-in theaters. For example, the Blue Starlite in Austin just two hours down the road uses inflatable screens…

(Oh dear. When I went to get a link, I found that the Blue Starlite, which had shown movies as recently as January 2025, is on “extended hiatus from public showings so the creators can focus on their family during a difficult time.” Good luck and hurry back.)

Anyway, if inflatable screens aren’t disqualifying, how often does a location have to show movies to be on the list? The Highway 2 in Manistique MI scheduled only four nights last year. Heck, the Roadium in Torrance CA is mostly a flea market that shows movies once or twice a season to satisfy its zoning or something.

To include as many drive-ins as possible while omitting the once-a-year pop-ups, I’ll try to define it this way: If you’ve got a permanent screen like the Roadium or the Highway 2, any regularly scheduled showings are sufficient to remain an active drive-in theater. If it’s a temporary screen, then maybe four nights a year should be the minimum? I’ll need to consider where to draw the line. What do you think?

Manistique MI drive-in sets 2022 dates

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Drone photo of the first rows of a drive-in theater
From the Highway 2 Community Drive-In Theatre web site

I’m a little embarrassed to have overlooked this one for so long. Back in 2017, I was excited to notice the reopening of the old US 2 Drive-In in Manistique in Michigan’s upper peninsula, at least for a few shows. I even paid it a virtual “visit” that year as part of my Drive-In-A-Day Odyssey.

After two years of tentative plans and occasional movies, the drive-in showed signs in the summer of 2019 that the experiment was over. (That’s why I hesitated to add it to the Carload drive-in theater list.) In fact, that’s about when the Upper Peninsula Film Union acquired the place and changed its name to the Highway 2 Community Drive-In Theater. The great news is that the Highway 2 is continuing to show movies, with four more dates set for 2022.

“Community” is much more than just a word in the drive-in’s name. Different sponsors pay the licensing fee for each night’s movies. Different charities run the concession stand and keep the proceeds. Patrons are admitted free, and this fine old ozoner gets a fresh set of faces every month or so.

The original US 2 was built in 1953 by J. L. LeDuc, who owned the indoor theaters in town, and planned to close one of them in the summer when the US-2 was open. Within a few years, the Delft Theater chain took over operations, and the theater was listed as the Highway 2. In 1972, David Vaughan bought the drive-in and renamed it the Cinema Two, not because he added a second screen, but because his new indoor theater in town was called Cinema One. It was the last active drive-in in the upper peninsula when it closed in 2001, and now that’s what it is again. Here’s to another 50+ years of community involvement and fun.