Category Archives: New York

Oct. 18: Portville Drive-In, Portville NY

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It’s Day 291 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. In less than an hour and a half, I was able to drive from the Silver Lake Twin Drive In Theatre in Perry NY to the Portville Drive-In in Portville NY of course.

For this virtual visit, I must admit that I’ve got almost nothing, and most of what I have is from NewYorkDriveIns.com. They’re the folks who host a copy of the Olean Times Herald article from July 8, 1972, talking about the Portville, which began operating the night before. “The grand opening had been delayed because of the wet spring weather,” the Times Herald wrote, quietly understating the great Flood of June 1972, which shut down some businesses and damaged several parts of town. The article said the drive-in was “untouched by the flood waters”, but I’d still bet it added to the delay.

Industry veteran Dean Emley, who had managed Olean’s Haven indoor theater over 20 years earlier, returned to shepherd the Portville, which opened before its landscaping was finished. It was said to hold 600 cars and was owned by the Frontier Amusement Company of Buffalo.

That brief article is easily the best information I’ve got on the Portville, including its own web site which misstates its opening date as 1970. Every other bit of information I’ve got is second-hand, or by inference.

In the 1978 International Motion Picture Almanac, the first time it listed the Portville’s owner, it was “Bordinaro”. That was corrected to Bordonaro by the 1984 edition. That surname pops up in several news stories about theaters in western New York, and it could have been the family that owned Frontier Amusement. New York Drive-Ins said in 2010 that Anthony Bordonaro was the owner at that point. In general, what little evidence I could find all points to the Bordonaro family owning the Portville for a very long time, possibly since it opened.

Chris1982 wrote at Cinema Treasures that the Portville uses FM radio sound and added its second screen in 2005, which matches before (2004) and after (2007) photos at Historic Aerials. It’s still operating, so it must have managed the transition to digital projection, probably without any drama since I can’t find anything about requesting donations for it.

And that’s about it. Its Facebook page shows that it closed for the season after Labor Day this year, and its web page says “We look forward to seeing you in April 2018.” Maybe it’s just one of those places that does its work so well that no one thinks to write about it.

Miles Today / Total: 55 / 33347 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 180

Nearby Restaurant: Sprague’s Maple Farms is full of maple-y goodness, of course, but they also raise free-range turkeys, one of which was the guest of honor for my dinner. It came with maple sausage stuffing and cranberry sauce, and I drank some maple Chardonnay to stay on theme. I finished off dinner with a slice of apple pie a la mode topped with truly homemade maple syrup. What an experience!

Where I Virtually Stayed: Apparently, the closest hotels to the Portville are in Olean, and the very closest is the Holiday Inn Express there. Fresh cookies greeted me at check-in. My room had the full set of modern amenities. And I was glad to return to the HIE standard breakfast including meat, the pancake machine and amazing little cinnamon rolls.

Only in Portville: In the bell tower of Portville’s First Presbyterian Church, the Westminster carillon sounds the time each hour of the day. It’s a gift from the Atkinson family to thank the dozens of people of the town who donated blood for their daughter, who died from leukemia in 1968 at the age of 12. Her mother told the Olean Times Herald in 2015 that when she hears the carillon, “she smiles, thinking of the little girl who was quiet, loved animals and released the fish she regularly caught from Dodge Creek.”

Next stop: Delevan Twin Drive In, Delevan NY.

Oct. 17: Silver Lake Twin Drive In Theatre, Perry NY

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It’s Day 290 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. Thanks to some interstate highways, it took me less than two hours to drive from the Finger Lakes Drive-In, just west of Auburn NY, to the Silver Lake Twin Drive In Theatre in Perry NY.

The Silver Lake opened as a single-screen drive-in on Sept. 23, 1949. Harry Martin and his wife Mary built the place and operated it until selling it to Jake Stefanon before the 1966 season.

According to a Rochester Democrat and Chronicle article, captured on the Silver Lake’s history page, Jake also opened a drive-in in 1949, in Altoona PA. (That drive-in, the appropriately named Altoona, actually opened in April 1948, so maybe he misremembered the year. But I digress.)

The article said that “while operating a string of outdoor theaters in Buffalo, Jake bought a decrepit drive-in near the eastern shore of Silver Lake that was nothing more that ‘cow pastures and posts.'” Martin was in his mid to late 60s by then, so maybe he was having trouble keeping it up. Anyway, Jake moved to Perry in 1970 “and devoted all his time to transforming the Silver Lake Drive-In into a family entertainment center.”

Why did Jake do all that transforming? “While I was with the Blatt Brothers (a Pittsburgh-based theater chain), we’d build a drive-in out in the country … and pretty soon, a hot dog stand would spring up, and a custard stand – capitalizing on our ability to draw people,” he said. “So I realized, if you draw people, you have to have something to sell to them.”

A hot dog stand outside the gates evolved into the full-service Charcoal Corral restaurant. Then came ice cream, pizza, an arcade, mini golf, and an outdoor bandstand.

That 1995 article said Jake’s son Rick was the one who made those plans work. “He’s the visionary … I get it built and make it go,” Rick said. It also said that Rick, then 45, had been working at his dad’s theaters since he was 14. The son eventually bought the drive-in from his dad in 1993. He also added a second screen before the 1998 season.

The Livingston County News ran an article when the Silver Lake reopened for the 2017 season with Rick showing off a brilliant idea. “Every night, we’ll go out and walk the lot to select a family that has children,” he explained. “We’ll ask them if they want to help us out and start the movie. That always gets a big, positive response. They come in and I give them a little bit of the general workings on how it all goes. Then we direct them to the computer where they take over the controls. They start the movie on the computer as they would at home. For helping out, they always get free popcorn and cotton candy for the entire family.” Wow, that sounds like a great way to get drive-in fans for life!

The emphasis that the proprietors place on the restaurants and fun extend to the title of their Facebook page and web site; both say Charcoal Corral and Silver Lake Twin Drive In. And it extends to their Facebook videos, almost all about the types of yummy food available. That’s why the embedded video of the day starts with the drive-in marquee and shifts to 10 minutes of a relaxing parade of tractors.

I just missed the Silver Lake’s final drive-in showing of the season the Sunday before Columbus Day, but at least the Charcoal Corral is open for the rest of October.

Miles Today / Total: 90 / 33292 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 180

Nearby Restaurant: Obviously, I had to eat dinner at the Charcoal Corral, although it would have been a good choice anyway. It was Southwest BBQ Night, and for me that meant a rack of tender baby back ribs with baked beans and a salad. A trip to the ice cream stand topped off the best way to visit here on a night without a movie.

Where I Virtually Stayed: If you’re going to stay in Perry, you’ll want to stay at the Park-Lake Motel. It’s another one of those clean, comfortable little places with great rates. My efficiency room had all the modern amenities, and there was coffee available in the common area. After a quiet night’s sleep, I was ready to go scout out breakfast at John & Sarah’s nearby.

Only in Perry: As Wikipedia puts it, four men who were out fishing on Silver Lake on July 13, 1855, swore that they encountered a 60-foot-long sea serpent with glowing red eyes. The resulting frenzy that came from this story created an immense boom for the nearby towns of Perry and Silver Lake. About 100 more people later claimed to have seen it. Two years later when the Walker Hotel in Silver Lake burned down, firemen discovered the remains of the legend: a large mass of canvas. Hotel owner A.B. Walker had built the monster to attract business.

Next stop: Portville Drive-In, Portville NY.

Oct. 16: Finger Lakes Drive-In, Auburn NY

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It’s Day 289 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. The scenery was more farmland than forest as I drove for an hour from the Midway Drive-In Theatre, just south of Minetto, to the Finger Lakes Drive-In, a few miles west of Auburn NY.

The Finger Lakes may be the oldest continuously operating drive-in in New York. Its first newspaper ad was for July 15, 1947, and its grand opening was apparently later that month. My reference books all say that Don Wilson was the owner back then, perhaps with Anthony DeNiro. It opened without in-car speakers, according to the magazine Life In The Finger Lakes. “The Finger Lakes Drive-In once had high volume speakers, but the sound reportedly bothered cows in the area.”

By 1978, the owner name in the reference books lists had changed to Fields, which must have been Paul Field, the guy that NewYorkDriveIns.com says built the Finger Lakes. Field also owned Auburn’s other drive-in, the East, and famously operated a circus train there to entertain kids in the 1970s.

The Ithaca Journal of Aug 25, 1971, mentions a charity fundraiser at the “Feocco Finger Lakes Drive-In”, which complicates this ownership history. The Aug 2, 1992 Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester said Frank Feocco bought the business in 1986. He was 80 years old while running the Finger Lakes in that 1992 story, so he was easily old enough to be involved with the place in 1971. Feocco’s 1996 obituary said that he owned and operated the Finger Lakes for 12 years.

The next owner we read about is in that magazine article, published in summer 2002. It said that this was Kevin Mullin’s seventh season, having purchased the Finger Lakes from Feocco’s widow in 1997. “Today the Finger Lakes Drive-In still has speakers on poles which are kept in good working order by 16-year old Brett Mullin, Kevin and Cindy’s oldest son who admits he loves spending summers at the drive-in.” Mullin was still owner when NewYorkDriveIns last updated its listing in 2009.

At some point, Paul Meyer bought the Finger Lakes and helped bring it into the 21st century. After a modest fundraiser, he leased a digital projector in July 2014, telling the Auburn Citizen, “That (donated money) got us through this season. It’s appreciated and touching.” Before the 2016 season, he expanded the screen to almost twice its previous size, now 106 feet by 50 feet raised 25 feet off the ground. And the Finger Lakes now uses FM radio sound.

The embedded YouTube video of the day has some nice drone shots, and I also like the low-level look across the ticket booth toward the screen.

The drive-in ended its 2017 season at the end of September, leaving me without a movie on a rainy, cold October night.

Miles Today / Total: 43 / 33202 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 180

Nearby Restaurant: It’s a diner and a Greek place, and Pavlos’ Restaurant is just a great place for a late breakfast. All you can eat pancakes, plus some bacon and eggs and potatoes and all the coffee you can drink – what a deal! I can drink a lot of coffee.

Where I Virtually Stayed: I felt a little guilty passing up some nice-looking smaller local hotels, but there was the Hilton Garden Inn in Auburn, and I just couldn’t resist. There was lemon water are cookies waiting at check-in. My room had the full set of modern amenities including a Keurig coffee maker. A very nice breakfast was free for me as a Hilton Gold member. Yes, there are reasons I like this place.

Only in Auburn: As recounted by Living On Earth, hundreds of thousands of crows invade Auburn every winter. No one knows exactly why the birds come here, but the scene they create – and the mess – has residents divided over whether to embrace the crows or drive them out. Many of the crows congregate around Fort Hill Cemetery, so some folks believe it’s an omen.

Next stop: Silver Lake Twin Drive In Theatre, Perry NY.