Category Archives: Ohio

Aug. 8: Field of Dreams Drive-In Theater, Tiffin OH

Posted on by

It’s Day 220 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. I returned to two-lane highways through farmland, driving a little over an hour from Mansfield OH to the Field of Dreams Drive-In Theater in Tiffin OH.

Cinema Treasures has a complete history for this Field of Dreams, which spent most of its life as the Tiffin Drive-In. The Tiffin opened in June 1949, built and owned by Brinkman & Shults Inc. and H. Horsteimer. Brinkman had opened the Defiance (OH) Drive-In the year before.

Ed Suffecool, who helped Shults build the drive-in, remembered “Howard and I had to go out and oil the ramps and driveways with used motor oil to keep the dust down.” In front of the screen there was a kids’ playground with a teeter totter, a slide and a sand box. I hope that used motor oil stayed clear of the playground.

To entice families to come early, Shults opened the Tiffin’s Fun Farm in May 1951. It featured miniature horses, deer, Shetland ponies, sheep, prairie dogs, wild ducks, rabbits, and other animals for kids to enjoy. The star of the Fun Farm was ‘Little George’, a one-ton Texas Longhorn steer. In 1963 they added a buffalo calf. The Fun Farm also featured a miniature prairie schooner with matched teams of ponies that would pull kids around the drive-in for a dime. Shults had two miniature Model Ts that could be driven around the drive-in for a quarter.

A root beer/ice cream stand was built in front of the screen tower, but the business quickly failed and was converted into a house. After the 1955 season, the screen was rebuilt and widened, and the old concession stand was replaced with a new 50×70-foot concession stand/projection booth.

After just one year with that widened screen and new concession stand, Shults sold the Tiffin in December 1956 to Leonard Mishkind, owner and president of General Theatres in Cleveland. Tiffin Drive-In Theatre Inc. was formed to operate the drive-in. In the following half-decade, the drive-in weathered the storms, real and economic, and also just weathered.

In 2010, the president of General Theatres Management and Tiffin Drive-In Theatre Inc., Norman M. Barr, told a drive-in owners’ convention that he was retiring. Rod and Donna Saunders, who had built the Field of Dreams Drive-In from scratch in Liberty Center, bought the Tiffin in April 2011. They renamed the drive-in, gave it plenty of overdue maintenance, and added a second screen.

The Saunders’ son, Denton, a Fremont Middle School special education teacher nine months of the year, runs the Tiffin drive-in throughout the summer. At the time of the purchase, they told the Toledo Blade that Denton would live on-site in that former ice cream stand.

The YouTube video of the day comes from Dead Shark Productions, and it’s an amazing time-lapse of an evening at the Field of Dreams. I especially like the patterns of clouds passing by.

Thank goodness for the Saunders’ second screen! With Screen 1 showing The Emoji Movie, I turned away to watch The Dark Tower for the first time. It’s nowhere near as bad as The Emoji Movie.

Miles Today / Total:  53 / 26850 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: The Dark Tower / 135

Nearby Restaurant: I’m a huge Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan, so I dropped in at the MST Pub in Tiffin. Turns out that it stood for Madison Street Tavern, and I guess they didn’t want “Tavern Pub” in the name. Those folks sure know how to serve up a bacon burger with lots of pub food appetizers to boot, plus Oreo pie for dessert.

Where I Virtually Stayed: I promise that I’m not a slave to the Hampton Inn, it’s just the most attractive hotel in a lot of towns. This one had a nice indoor pool and a workout area. My room had the full set of amenities, and the breakfast was the same Hampton quality as the previous three nights.

Only in Tiffin: Tiffin was once known for its ceramic and glass products; it was home of Tiffin Glass Works from 1889 to 1980 and the American Standard Company, maker of ceramic kitchen and bath products, from 1899 to 2007. It’s still home to the Tiffin Glass Museum, where over 1000 pieces of Tiffin Glass are arranged chronologically in oak cabinets. Admission is free.

Next stop: Hi-Road Drive In, Kenton OH.

Aug. 7: Springmill Twin Drive In, Mansfield OH

Posted on by

It’s Day 219 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. It took a couple hours of driving mostly two-lane highways north from Lancaster OH to the Springmill Twin Drive In in Mansfield OH.

Cinema Treasures has a complete history for the Springmill, one of the few remaining drive-ins with an original, ornate screen tower. It opened in June 1950, built and owned by Charles & William Mosser (dba Fremont Drive-In Theatres) and had a capacity for 620 cars. The Mossers also owned the Fremont Drive-In in Fremont OH and the Fremont Construction Co., which built both drive-ins.

Charles Mosser passed away in 1971, and daughter Janet Sweeney took control of Fremont Drive-In Theatres Inc. Later on, the theatre was part of the Jack Armstrong Circuit and Robert Tilton Associates. Although I can’t find a date for it, by looking at the screen it’s obvious that at some point the original screen was expanded to accommodate wide-format movies.

In 1982, the Great Eastern Theatre Co began operating the Springmill, and in November 1985, they bought it from Janet Sweeney and Fremont Theatres. A second screen went up in 2008; the second viewing field, carved off from the original, can accommodate 150 cars.

A 2014 article in the Mansfield News-Journal wrote that Chris Davis, “who leases the Springmill Drive-In from owner Great Eastern Theatres of Toledo,” spent about $150,000 to update both projectors that spring. “We had to make some structural changes to the projection rooms as far as the HVAC is concerned,” Davis said.

A commenter on Cinema Treasures wrote that around late 2015, “the manager of the DI who worked for Great Eastern” had purchased the Springmill from the company. I hope that means that Davis now owns the place he spent so much time improving.

I was saved again by a second screen. With Screen 1 showing The Emoji Movie, I turned away to watch Girls Trip, a surprisingly funny movie, for a second time.

Miles Today / Total:  82 / 26797 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: Girls Trip / 134

Nearby Restaurant: After the museum (see below) got me thinking of New York, I was glad to find the Coney Island Diner just a few blocks away. Just as you’d expect, the specialties here are coney dogs and fries, and I saved just enough room for the Nutty Professor Banana Split, which was really just a regular banana split made with butter pecan ice cream.

Where I Virtually Stayed: Mansfield is large enough to present me with a tough question: Should I save some cash and stay at a perfectly good La Quinta? Or should I go ahead with the safe choice of my third straight Hampton Inn? I went with the fresh new Hampton on the south side of town. My room had the full set of amenities, breakfast looked very familiar, in a good way, and all was well.

Only in Mansfield: You can find Elektro, the seven-foot robot that was a hit of the New York 1939 World’s Fair, at the Mansfield Memorial Museum. Built at Westinghouse’s Mansfield plant, Elektro could walk by voice command, speak about 700 words (using a 78-rpm record player), smoke cigarettes, blow up balloons, and move his head and arms. Elektro’s more sedate these days, but his custodians hope to restore some of those capacities one day, along with a replica of his robot dog pal, Sparko.

Next stop: Field of Dreams Drive-In Theater, Tiffin OH.

Aug. 6: Skyview Drive-In Theatre, Lancaster OH

Posted on by

It’s Day 218 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. It took less than an hour to drive from the South Drive-in Theater on the south side (of course!) of Columbus OH to the Skyview Drive-In Theatre just east of Lancaster OH.

The Lancaster Eagle-Gazette had a great article about the Skyview just this May. It was built in 1948 by Carlos Crum, who ran it until 1994, when he sold it to Walt Effinger. Starting in junior high school as a projectionist, Effinger had worked at the Skyview on and off for about 30 years. He still owns and runs the place today.

As seen on the back of the main screen, this drive-in opened as the Skyview Cruise-In. By 1952, industry lists had switched to calling it the Skyview Drive-In instead, although newspaper ads kept the Cruise-In name until 1970.

One one hand, Effinger is old-fashioned enough to not only keep the in-car speakers but repair them as needed himself. (FM radio sound is also available.) On the other hand, the Skyview was the first drive-in in Ohio to convert to digital projection in 2013. “Everyone knows eventually that you’ll be digital or you’ll close your doors,” he told the Delco Times that year.

“While the picture that appears on Skyview’s original 80-foot screen is upgraded, the rest of the grounds remain intact and similar to how they appeared on opening day,” the Eagle-Gazette wrote. “The decor and food concession still embody the time.”

And Effinger stressed that the Skyview is open rain or shine. “The snow don’t bother us,” he said. “The rain don’t bother us. We’ll have people on Facebook asking if we’re open. As long as I have electric, I’ll be running the movies.”

There was a note on the Skyview web site that this was the “(l)ast week for this movie,” but that did little to blunt the impact of my fifth viewing of The Emoji Movie. The Guardian wrote, “The Emoji Movie could in theory have been witty and sophisticated, … juxtaposing its apparently dumbed-down world with a smart script. But no. This is just a boilerplate animation, zestless, pointless.” So it’s not just me.

Miles Today / Total:  33 / 26715 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: The Emoji Movie / 133

Nearby Restaurant: With an eye towards historic sites, I ate lunch at the Cherry Street Pub. The bar, circa 1910, came from the town’s Last Chance Saloon. The building is 100 years old and feels it. The cuisine is really good bar food. I enjoyed the signature pecan chicken and waffles, complete with honey pecan butter. Topped that off with a Cherry Street Float made with Jack Daniels ice cream. Great stuff!

Where I Virtually Stayed: Another city with enough population meant another Hampton Inn this night. The one in Lancaster had cookies to greet me in the evening, the standard nice Hampton breakfast, and a comfortable room with a mini-fridge (though no microwave) in between. Another safe choice.

Only in Lancaster: Lancaster is home to the Ohio Glass Museum. In 2003, the Ohio legislature designated Lancaster as the “Pressed Glass Capital of Ohio”, and the museum was built soon after. There are theme collections on display, a glass-blowing demo, and every year it collects registrations for the National Marbles Tournament.

Next stop: Springmill Twin Drive In, Mansfield OH.