Photo from the Magic City Drive-In Facebook page

It’s Day 346 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. It took only about 40 minutes of driving on State Highway 21 to get from the Lynn Auto Drive In Theatre, northwest of Strasburg OH to the Magic City Drive In, southwest of Barberton OH.

The Magic City has its own About Us history page, so let’s start there. It says “The Magic City Drive-In was built and opened by Vince Lauter (West Theatre) and Lou Ratener (Montrose Drive-In) in 1953 as a single screen drive-in. It was sold just a few years after opening to Selected Theaters who added a second screen in the mid seventies. Gary Greive purchased it in 1980. Capacity 700 cars.”

Whoever posted that page got the opener wrong. (It still amazes me when that happens.) Heritage Ohio knew that the Magic City really opened in 1950. Cinema Treasures wrote that the date was June 22 and has the Grand Opening newspaper ad to prove it.

According to Cinema Treasures the Magic City was opened by Lou Ratener and Vince Lauter, and Ohio Theatre Service. Its marquee showed a genie coming out of a brass lamp, like magic. (More recent photos suggest that wedge of the marquee appears to have been painted over.) In November 1967, the Magic City was sold to Sam, Jay and Don Schultz, dba Jaydon Amusements Corp. and Selected Theatre Management Corp. from Cleveland. They added a second screen in 1978.

In 1980, Jaydon Amusements leased the drive-in to Gary Grieve, and they sold it to him in January 1985. The Cinema Treasures ownership note concludes, “Gary Grieve and Jeff Davis own and operate the Blue Sky Drive-In and the Magic City Drive-In.” As of July 2013, when the Marysville Journal-Tribune noted that he had converted both drive-ins to digital projection, Grieve was still the owner.

And that’s about all I’ve got this time. In Spring 2017, there was a flap about Disney raising its rates to show Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Both the Magic City and Blue Sky showed something else, but nobody commented on the record about the issue.

The drive-in closed for the season in October, and I’m glad it’s in good shape to return next spring.

Miles Today / Total: 31 / 39015 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 200

Nearby Restaurant: A snowy, below-freezing day would seem to be an odd time to head to an ice cream shop, but I just had to search out The Erie Depot. It’s got its own Wikipedia page related to its history as a train station. It was built in 1890 by Barberton’s founder, Ohio Columbus Barber, to promote his new town. It was restored beginning in 2012, and the ice cream came soon after. I was all set for a hot fudge sundae using homemade waffles, but the Depot was closed for the season, just like the drive-in. Maybe next time!

Where I Virtually Stayed: Google said that the closest hotels to the Magic City are in Wadsworth, which was nice because it gave me the chance to stay two nights in the same place. The Comfort Inn looked like the best combination of cheap and good, so that’s where I checked in. There’s a restaurant and lounge adjacent to the hotel. My room had the full set of modern amenities. Breakfast has hot food along with the continental favorites. All in all, it’s a nice place for me to stay put in the snow.

Only in Barberton: As I mentioned above, Barberton was started by OC Barber and was incorporated in 1891. Wikipedia says that Barberton became known as the “Magic City” because of its rapid population growth during its formative industrial years. Barber moved the Diamond Match Company to town, attracting plenty of workers. When an Akron Beacon Journal reporter revisited Barberton in 1893, he noted that since 1891, it had grown so quickly that it appeared to have grown by magic.

Next stop: Blue Sky Drive In Theater, Wadsworth OH.

Photo by Chris1982 via Cinema Treasures

It’s Day 345 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. The drive across Ohio was just a little longer than I’d had recently, still less than an hour and a half from the Winter Drive-In in Wintersville to the Lynn Auto Drive In Theatre, northwest of Strasburg.

The Lynn is a treasure, one of a very few drive-ins opened before World War II that are still in operation today. It started its life as Boyer’s Auto Theatre, but when?

Almost everybody, especially the current owners, says that Boyer’s opened in 1937 after over a year of construction work. However, Kerry Segrave’s indispensable book Drive-In Theaters includes a list of the drive-ins that he could find with start dates that early but Boyer’s wasn’t on that list. On the other hand, The Daily Times of New Philadelphia OH wrote on May 26, 1939, “Boyer’s Auto Theater, the first of its kind south of Cleveland, will be opened to the public tomorrow evening … by Roland and Karl Boyer”. It’s possible that was just a season-opening announcement, but the tone sounds like a grand opening and the first ads I could find follow afterward. Even if its opener was as “late” as 1939, that’s still an amazingly long run.

Karl Boyer, brother of Roland (sometimes written as Rollin), was a partner in Boyer’s through early 1941 when Roland bought out his brother to settle a lawsuit between them.

The Lynn’s official history page says that Ward Franklin and his son-in-law Ray McCombs purchased the drive-in in early 1948. (They changed the name in honor of McCombs’ daughter, Judy Lynn.) Except The Daily Times wrote on Feb. 20, 1950, “The sale of the Boyer (sic) Drive-In Theatre near Strasburg to Ray McCombs of Jewett and Ward B. Franklin of Cadiz was announced today by the former owner, Rollin Boyer.” The drive-in stayed Boyer’s until the start of the 1951 season, when the ad for the Lynn Auto Theatre announced “Many Improvements, Including in-a-car Speakers and Ramped Ground”. I wonder if Boyer’s was still using loudspeakers in the 1940s.

The start of the heartwarming multigenerational era for this drive-in came in the fall of 1957 when Richard R. Reding and his son Richard W. “Dick” and his wife Eunice “Abby” bought the Lynn. They added a second screen in 1967. In 1970, Rick Reding joined his parents in the family business, and for the next two decades they owned and operated 12 theaters. Rick’s two sons Rich and Jamie now run the Lynn.

They added the modern marquee in 2005, converted one screen to digital projection in 2012, then converted the other the next year.

Cleveland.com wrote in 2013 that Rich and his family “live in trailers parked on the drive-in property. He said his life is tied to the place, the second-oldest operating drive-in in the country. … Reding said he learned the business at his grandfather’s side. The drive-in is in his blood, and, tough as it is, he can’t imagine making a living any other way.”

The drive-in closed for the season in October, and I’m glad it’s in good shape to return next spring.

Miles Today / Total: 62 / 38984 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 200

Nearby Restaurant: Campesino’s Grill serves up huge portions of Mexican food with beer on tap. Need more? I’m partial to the margaritas myself to cool off the heat from my carne asada. The fried banana for dessert topped off a wonderful, filling experience.

Where I Virtually Stayed: If you want to stay in Strasburg, you’re probably going to want to stay at the Ramada Limited there. There were cookies waiting at check-in. It had a bar with a putting green on-site and an adjacent McDonald’s. My king bed suite had all the modern amenities. And breakfast had a few hot items to go along with the continental favorites. All at a very nice price.

Only in Strasburg: Just south of Strasburg in Dover is the Auman Museum of Radio and Television. As recounted by Roadside America, the proprietor is Larry Auman, who has done a lot of collecting and restoration of mostly old television sets. “Larry’s museum is designed to appeal to more than just electronic gearheads. ‘I didn’t want to just show the TV sets,’ he said. Pop culture and accessory products thrived in the rich mulch of America’s most important invention, and Larry has lots of them: TV-themed toys, comic books, salt and pepper shakers, a novelty apron emblazoned, ‘No TV Until You Help Me.'”

Next stop: Magic City Drive In, Barberton OH.