Category Archives: Ohio

July 16: Field of Dreams Drive-In, Liberty Center OH

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It’s Day 197 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. I paid for my last-minute detour to Michigan’s upper peninsula, driving six and a half hours from Manistique to a drive-in that’s only open on weekends, the Field of Dreams Drive-In northeast of Liberty Center OH.

Just last month, The Toledo Blade ran a great, long article about the Field of Dreams and its owners, Rod and Donna Saunders. They had lamented the closing of the Star Auto Theater of Wauseon OH, where Rod grew up. The Star shut down in 1999, and the Saunders were reminded of its passing whenever they drove by and saw its abandoned screen.

“Finally, after a couple of years of hearing her say that, I said somebody ought to open one,” Rod said.

After researching some other sites, they settled on the most logical – the backyard of their home. It required plowing down acres of cornfields, so it was natural to name it the Field of Dreams after the 1989 Kevin Costner movie.

This place is really remote, so it doesn’t have to worry with a lot of light pollution. As the Blade put it, “The theater has been known to fool more than one GPS or cell phone, and — when corn’s about ready to be harvested — it’s easy to drive by the site without knowing it.”

The Saunders added a second Field of Dreams Drive-In in Tiffin OH, about 70 miles away, in 2011 after learning that its previous owner was about to shut it down. I’ve got more drive-ins in Michigan and Indiana left to visit, but I should get back to the Tiffin in early August.

Thank goodness the Field of Dreams has two screens, giving me a chance to dodge Despicable Me 3 this night. War for the Planet of the Apes was the early movie on Screen 2, and it makes a good drive-in movie, but I bet I’d have enjoyed it more if I’d seen the movies that led up to it.

Miles Today / Total:  420 / 25305 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: War for the Planet of the Apes / 113

Nearby Restaurant: This was my first exposure to Pisanello’s Pizza, a local chain centered around Toledo. After the decadent food I’d had the previous couple of days, I grounded myself with a large Italian salad. Then I smelled the pizza, and compromised on a small pizza sub sandwich. That way, I had my pepperoni and lettuce too.

Where I Virtually Stayed: There’s no place to stay in Liberty Center. The closest hotels to the drive-ins are in Napoleon, and the Comfort Inn there took care of me for the night. My room had the full range of amenities, breakfast was solid Comfort Inn quality with a waffle maker, and the location was quiet away from the highway. Just what I needed after a couple of days of hard driving.

Only in Liberty Center: Just next door in Napoleon OH, the Campbell’s Soup plant has a water tower decorated like a Campbell’s Soup can, and a grounded stationary 20-foot tower painted to look just like a huge can of Campbell’s tomato soup. That’s it!

Next stop: Capri Drive-In Theater, Coldwater MI.

What it takes to be almost a drive-in

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photo from the MAIN Facebook page

photo from the MAIN Facebook page

When you think of a drive-in theater, you’ve got a picture in your head. If someone asks you whether a given business is a drive-in theater, it’s usually a pretty easy call. I wrote about this a couple of months ago, and now there’s a fledgling business in West Virginia that illustrates the gray area between Yes and No.

From all indications, MAIN Movies has been doing a great public service. This summer, it launched by showing free movies on a field owned by the Belpre OH Volunteer Fire Department, selling concession items and asking for donations to defray licensing fees. As chronicled in the Parkersburg News and Sentinel, owners JD and Leann Nicolais named their company after three daughters (Madison, the late Arabella, and Isabelle) and their family name.

MAIN used an inflatable screen and a “compact but powerful projector” that couldn’t handle rain. They had earlier tried something similar in Parkersburg’s City Park. “We just saw a need for cheap entertainment, for families to come out and literally spend $10 for a whole family to watch a movie,” JD said. It was outdoors, but everyone used lawn chairs or blankets, so it definitely wasn’t a drive-in.

According to the prolific posts on MAIN’s Facebook page, in early August they decided to switch to a true drive-in format and needed a “place to leave a screen up”. After asking around, the family settled on the 4H campground across the Ohio River in Mineral Wells WV. MAIN ran a haunted woods attraction in October and movies most weekends, though the battles with precipitation were exacerbated by the possibility of flooding.

A few days ago, the Marietta OH Times ran a story of the new drive-in. The MAIN charged just $8 per carload and sold pizza, snacks and sodas. From the story and a few Facebook posts, after a few weeks at the new location, they built a new 24-foot screen, larger than the inflatable one. “The screen is temporary and completely movable,” JD said. “But the goal is to find a permanent location that will allow us to have a larger, permanent screen.”

The Times story ran on November 5. The same day, MAIN posted on Facebook, “Looking for a business opportunity? We have decided to move and would like to leave the business here. You will receive every single thing we have for movies including an inflatable screen.”

A campground with a permanent drive-in screen and regularly scheduled movies? That sounds like Sokol Park in suburban Omaha NE. But a temporary screen, erratic schedule, and an owner that’s leaving the business? New management might change the situation, but for now I’d say that MAIN Movies is almost a drive-in.

Elm Road celebrates Wicked Weekend

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Long-time readers of this blog know that I love to have the opportunity to embed some drive-in video. Today’s video is courtesy of WKBN, Youngstown’s News Leader, which recorded Elm Road Drive-In‘s annual Wicked Weekend celebration last weekend in Warren OH.

Sheri Hocevar, granddaughter of the guy who opened the Elm Road in 1950, now manages the place with her husband Mark. The theater has grown from one screen to three, but like all drive-ins, it’s dependent on good weather. An early end to winter got 2016 off to a good start, and they plan to continue the season until it gets too cold.

That’s about all there is to it, but I always enjoy spreading the word about an old drive-in that’s still doing well. And the video makes me feel like I’m there.