Category Archives: Tennessee

May 11: Birdsong Drive-In Theater, Camden TN

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It’s Day 70 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. It took almost two hours to drive south from Calvert City KY to my next stop, the Birdsong Drive-In Theater in Camden TN.

The Birdsong is Camden’s second drive-in theater. The first was the Midway, which opened in the early 1960s and continued operating at least into the late 1980s. The Birdsong opened in July 2007 and added a second screen in 2011.

This place feels really remote, carved from the forest, accessible only by leaving Birdsong Road (aka Hoghway 191) and traveling down lonely Shiloh Church Road (which ends at Shiloh United Methodist Church).

It turned out that I was one week early for the Birdsong, which opens next Friday, March 17, with Beauty and the Beast.

Miles Today / Total:  83 / 9037 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 39

Nearby Restaurant: It had been a while since I’d eaten a good pizza, but Craig’s Pizza took care of that problem. I really enjoy a thin crust like Craig’s, and I like the place’s “less dough, more topping” philosophy.

Where I Virtually Stayed: The Best Western Home Place Inn was the obvious choice for Camden, and it delivered. I always like having a mini-fridge in my room. The hot breakfast with waffles and eggs were welcome, and the cinammon rolls were a guilty pleasure.

Only in Camden: The freshwater pearl is Tennessee’s Official State Gem, and Birdsong Creek is the only place where they can be grown. The Tennessee River Freshwater Pearl Museum was lost in a fire in December 2016, but the farm is intact, and they’re busy rebuilding for visitors as I type.

Next Stop: Hi-way 50 Drive in, Lewisburg TN.

Nashville to Add Another Thing That Is Not A Drive-In

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It will have cars and a big screen and twinkly lights overhead, but do not be fooled. The August Moon project, to be built in the parking lot of the stadium where the Tennessee Titans play football, will be the latest in the list of Things That Are Not Drive-Ins.

Mind you, it sounds pretty cool. Local artist Michael Counts’ vision starts with an inflatable 40,000 square foot dome like over some athletic fields. He plans to install a tall movie screen and 50 stationary mid-1960s classic cars for viewing it. Like a real drive-in, the August Moon will include trees, grass, gravel walkways, a starry sky, fireflies, and of course the moon. According to The Tennessean, “The entry price is expected to range from $8 to $20 with seating ranging from stadium seats to tree swings and the highest $20 cost for watching a movie while sitting in a car.”

Counts told WTVF, Nashville’s News Leader, that visitors will experience the perfect climate-controlled, mosquito-free viewing experience. “Close your eyes and imagine the perfect Summer night in a classic American drive-in movie theatre in 1965, and that’s where August Moon is going to take you,” he said.

But this isn’t an “indoor drive-in theater,” as some sources have reported. (During the heyday of drive-ins, there were occasional rumblings and trial balloons about true indoor drive-ins, but I don’t believe any made it off the drawing board. But I digress.) One of the basics of a drive-in theater is that you, the patron, must be able to drive your car into the theater. Hence the name.

The closest match to the Harvest Moon is the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Disney World. There diners sit in faux cars and watch a looping 40-minute hash of old movies and extras. That also sounds pretty cool, but not too many people will refer to it as an indoor drive-in theater.

Bonus: Here’s a silly article from the Sep. 19, 2005 issue of the wildly fictional tabloid Weekly World News saying that opening night for the world’s first indoor drive-in movie theater, in Ventnor IA, “ended in disaster when dozens of patrons had to be hospitalized for carbon monoxide poisoning.” It interviewed the suspiciously named owner, Ken Shoddy, presumably because Bat Boy wasn’t available.

So the Harvest Moon is the latest addition to our occasional series. Like grade school kids who sit in decorated cardboard boxes and watch a projector in the gym, like the local Chamber of Commerce lawn-chair night next to the civic center, and like the home theater that you can set up in your back yard, the Harvest Moon is definitely Not A Drive-In.

Jan. 15: Summer, Memphis TN

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It’s Day 15 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey, and I stopped in Memphis TN so my long drive to Texas tomorrow will be a little bit shorter. (The drive from Iuka MS took only about two hours.) This also gave me the chance to check out the Summer Drive-In on a Sunday night.

Thank goodness I broke my string of dark drive-ins. The “Summer Quartet” (as its web site calls its four screens) is open Friday through Sunday in winter. All four of the early movies were films I hadn’t seen yet – Patriot’s Day, The Bye Bye Man, Hidden Figures, and Sleepless. Given a choice, I’ll take the movie that seems the least like a drive-in movie, so I’ll be less likely to encounter it later in the week. Hidden Figures was the best bet.

A Summer Drive-In opened in 1948, but not this one. As well described in a Memphis Magazine article, a 670-car theater with red lights on the speaker poles stayed in business until 1966, when it was sold to land developers. The Malco Summer Twin opened farther east on Summer Avenue, also in 1966, and later expanded to four screens.

Miles Today / Total:  108 / 1313 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: Hidden Figures / 10

Nearby Restaurant: The closest, best restaurant was Vietnamese Lotus Restaurant, where the portions were large for a single diner, but the fresh, authentic taste made the wait worth it.

Where I Virtually Stayed: There’s a cluster of motels just east of the Summer on I-40. From that group, the La Quinta Inn & Suites was the most highly recommended, so that’s what I chose. The price was reasonable, breakfast was solid, and I was ready to set out on one of the longest drives of this odyssey.

Only in Memphis: According to The Tennessean, state Attorney General Herbert Slatery told the Memphis city council in 2015 that it couldn’t subpoena investigative records of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation because of a missing comma. State law allows release of the records “only in compliance with a subpoena or an order of a court of record.” Without a comma after “subpoena,” only court-related subpoenas work, not those issued by any city council.

Next Stop: Sky Vue Drive-In / Apache Drive-In, Tyler TX.