Category Archives: Missouri

Boulevard marks 60th year of movies

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Boulevard screen at dusk with vapor trails

photo by Terry Shuck, used by permission

KCTV, Kansas City MO’s news leader, ran a loving tribute to the Boulevard Drive-In, across the border in Kansas City KS. The occasion was the presentation of a plaque commemorating the Boulevard’s 60th year; it opened in 1954.

A particularly interesting sidenote is that, according to the article, Kansas City “is the only city in the country to have three” living drive-in theaters. Actually, that author must be referring to the metro area, since the Twin (Independence MO) and the I-70 (Kansas City MO) are really in different cities. That triggers all sort of memories for me, since that’s the metro area where I was born and raised. I’ve attended all three of these, and I also remember some drive-ins that are long gone, sitting in the back of a borrowed van at the 63rd Street, seeing Blazing Saddles at the Leawood, and watching Star Trek 5 with my dear wife at the State. I wonder what has made the KC area such fertile ground for drive-ins. My guess would be that land prices haven’t skyrocketed the way they have elsewhere.

Oh yes, back to the KCTV article. It includes a bounty of quotes from Wes Neal, a part of the Boulevard since 1954. For example, one of the Boulevard’s distinguishing characteristics is that it kept its speakers even as many drive-ins have gone FM-only. “We want to keep it like the original drive-in, and we keep every one of the speakers working perfectly all the time, so every week we have to check every speaker and repair them as necessary,” he said.

The article also points out another distinguishing point – the Boulevard was the first drive-in to go digital, early in 2012. I saw Men In Black 3 there during a visit last year, and it looked great. But maybe I should stop rambling about my Kansas City drive-in roots and just let you go read it!

Indiana, Oklahoma drive-ins survive storms

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Winchester_FacebookWNDU, South Bend IN’s news leader, ran a story about the storm that took out one of the two screens at the Melody Drive-In (Knox). There’s a nice video of the damage and reaction, but I wasn’t able to embed it here. The good news is that the Melody re-opened last weekend, and the owners hope to rebuild the damaged screen by July 4.

And Oklahoma City’s last drive-in, the Winchester, was also hit hard by storms according to a story in The Oklahoman. Winds damaged the theater’s new digital projection system and half the marquee, although the screen and the “historic neon cowboy sign” survived. Owner Lindy Shanbour says that insurance should pay for most of the repairs, and the Winchester will bounce back. “I don’t know how long it’s going to take, but we will reopen,” he said. “You get this in your blood, and you can’t get it out. I can’t tell you the feeling it gives me.”

I’m always a little shaken when storms and drive-ins mix it up. One of my favorites growing up was the drive-in in Sedalia MO, apparently called the Highway 50 or just Sedalia. I’m fuzzy on that, but I remember that it was in the median where US 50 split into east- and west-bound lanes just west of town. I always thought that it was so cool to have a drive-in in a highway median. And I also remember when I saw the news reports and photos in 1980 that showed how a tornado had blown it to shreds. The drive-in closed after that, and now not only does the highway not split any more, but it looks like there’s an indoor theater where the drive-in used to be. So it’s great news that the Melody and the Winchester are coming back.

Things that are not drive-ins

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3M Streaming ProjectorBy now, you’ve probably got a pretty good idea about the what kind of news items you’ll see on Carload. This week, I found a couple of examples of news you won’t find here. Except this one time, to explain why.

3M supplied the photo on the right of its new Streaming Projector, which several sources promote as a way to “recreate the drive-in experience”. Now that’s a nice little device with some fun possibilites, and I hope my son’s 3M stock does well enough for him to have college textbook money one of these years. But that projector recreates the drive-in experience the way baking a Totino’s pizza recreates the Italian restaurant experience. The drive-in experience is sitting in your car surrounded by a bunch of other cars full of people wanting to have a good time. It’s walking in the dark across a hilly gravel lot to the concession stand for a hamburger. You can squint your eyes and pretend your back yard is like that, but you know better.

The second, more common, type of story comes from the Lebanon (MO) Daily Record, which notes that the local Kiwanis Club is hosting a “drive-in movie” night at the local civic center, probably in the parking lot. Hey, Lebanon, you used to have two drive-in theaters. A long time ago, I saw “The Goodbye Girl” at one of them. The way to hold more drive-in nights is to build a new drive-in. Or to go drive somewhere to a drive-in that’s still showing movies.

There are any number of well-intentioned groups that have the idea of a cute, nostalgic drive-in night. Probably a lot of those folks don’t know that real drive-in theaters still exist. But you won’t read any more about them here, because they’re just not doing it right. And the same goes for any new invention, gadget, or business model that tries to “recreate” being at a drive-in. No thanks, we prefer the real thing.