Category Archives: Video

Aug. 15: The Boonies Drive In Theatre, Tilbury ON

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It’s Day 227 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey, and my second day in Ontario. I turned south again from the Starlite Drive-In Theatre, a few miles east of Grand Bend, to reach a drive-in that’s closed on Mondays. After about two hours, I arrived at The Boonies Drive In Theatre just west of Tilbury.

This drive-in began life in July 2012 as Stevie-Ray’s Southwestern Drive-In. Real-estate blogger Wayne Liddy wrote that year that  “(t)he project is a dream come true for Steve Impens, his wife Kelly and long time partner Rick Schiefer.” The Windsor Star ran a story with photos on opening day, which had been pushed forward by overwhelming demand. The article noted, “Kelly and Steve Impens are opening Stevie Rae’s South Western Drive-In Theatre on Richardson Sideroad in Tilbury today with the premiere of the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises.” Schiefer was mentioned only in photo captions.

In June 2013, the Star ran a much sadder story, that the drive-in’s owners had announced on Facebook that it would not reopen. “I received very unsettling news this past Sat that is inevitably going to put a stop to this project,” the post said. “I cannot express how sorry we are that we are not able to re-open. … You all deserve an explanation, and it is unfortunate that I am not able to go into detail at this time regarding the internal company conflicts that have resulted in the closing of the operation.”

The drive-in surfaced in August 2015, as the Chatham Daily News reported that The Boonies had opened, owned by Richard “Ziggy” Schiefer and managed by his son Jarod. BlackburnNews.com also noticed, writing that the site had been “sitting empty for a couple of years” and quoting Jarod as saying his family took over the facility when it closed. “We’ve been working on it for the past few years trying to get it back up and running and to get the interior all done up,” said the younger Schiefer.

And that leads us up to today. The Boonies had a camping day to celebrate Canada Day this year, and it’s still a mostly grassy field that accommodates about 200 cars. It’s got a single screen, FM radio sound, and its online concession stand menu lists coffee twice. I like coffee that much too.

At multi-screen drive-ins the past few days, I’ve been consistently choosing the movie Dunkirk over The Nut Job 2 in the belief that I’ll eventually be stuck with the latter on a single screen. That single screen arrived this night, and what it was showing was Dunkirk.

Miles Today / Total: 103 / 27344 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: Dunkirk / 141

Nearby Restaurant: At Rose’s Family Restaurant in Tilbury, they serve breakfast all day, which is a sure way to lure me in the door. I enjoyed some blueberry pancakes, and since I was in Canada, I added some peameal bacon on the side. It wasn’t exciting, but it fit the bill for solid comfort food.

Where I Virtually Stayed: There really aren’t any hotels in Tilbury, so I stayed in Chatham, which was on my way to my next stop on the odyssey. The Comfort Inn there had soup and cookies waiting when I checked in, a fine Comfort-standard breakfast in the morning, and a comfortable room with all the modern amenities in between.

Only in Tilbury: The section of Highway 401 that runs through Tilbury, on its way from Windsor to London, has often been referred to as Carnage Alley, according to Wikipedia, in reference to the numerous crashes that have occurred throughout its history. That includes the worst in Canadian history, an 87-vehicle pile-up in 1999 that left eight dead and 45 injured. Since then, “no significant highway improvements have been made to the stretch of road between Tilbury and London, due to its rural nature and long distance.” Which I find significant because …

Next stop: The Mustang Drive-in, London ON.

Aug. 13: Ford Drive In Theatre, Dearborn MI

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It’s Day 225 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. Driving from the outer Detroit suburbs to the inner, it took only a half hour to get from Plymouth MI to the venerable Ford Drive In Theatre in Dearborn MI.

Karen Dybis wrote the book on the Ford. In fact, that’s the name of the 2014 book – The Ford-Wyoming Drive-In: Cars, Candy & Canoodling in the Motor City. Shortly after World War II, brothers James, Clyde and Harold Clark bought a vacant parcel to build the Ford-Wyoming. It opened for business in May 1950 with one screen, a glorious Streamline Moderne tower typical of drive-ins of the time.That tower is still there today. There was room for about 750 cars.

The Clarks ran the Ford-Wyoming for over 30 years before selling it to Charlie Shafer in 1981. Shafer was a big believer in multiple screens. He added two more within two years. By 1984, he had added a fourth screen, and manager Ed Szurek told the Detroit Free Press he wished he had room for five more. That wish would come true soon enough.

Screen number five was squeezed in before the 1988 season. Three years later, the drive-in expanded by taking over a plot of land two blocks north and setting up screens 6-8. The ninth and final screen was added before the 1995 season. At that point, all those viewing areas added up to a 3,000-car capacity, and the theatre began to make the claim of being “the largest drive-in in the world.”

In early 2010, the second parcel was closed and those four screens demolished. The drive-in was renamed the Ford, but its layout matches its 1988 five-screen configuration, and as of Dybis’s book, Shafer is still the owner.

Kristen Gallerneaux, Curator of Communication & Information Technology at The Henry Ford, has a great blog post about a 2013 visit to the Ford Drive-In and its manager that you really should read. It’s a great verbal picture of a venerable institution with new digital projection.

The video of the day is a bit of a prank. It was uploaded in 2010, and it’s just over two minutes of the old Ford-Wyoming marquee with its moving lights. There are also two fine videos of the place from Outdoor Moovies; they are really old (1995 and 2007) and low-res but great time capsules.

Here I was in the middle of the metro area, so it was only appropriate to choose Detroit as my movie of the night. It was a hard movie to watch, but I doubt that I’ll run into it too often in the weeks to come.

Miles Today / Total:  23 / 27124 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: Detroit / 139

Nearby Restaurant: Ford’s Garage is such a natural fit for Dearborn that it’s hard to believe that most of the restaurants in this small chain are in Florida. There are Model T cars suspended from the ceiling here. I had the signature burger, including barbecue sauce, cheddar and bacon, with fries and a beer.

Where I Virtually Stayed: I was back to my mid-level favorite, the Hampton Inn of Dearborn. It’s close to The Henry Ford (see below), full of friendly people, and has all the standard Hampton elements that make me feel a certain continuity. There were cookies when I checked in, a room with all the standard amenities, and the solid Hampton breakfast in the morning.

Only in Dearborn: The Henry Ford is a museum of American innovation, an old-time village (that happens to have Thomas Edison’s lab), a factory tour, and the home of the Saturday morning show Innovation Nation, hosted by Mo Rocca. With all the car memorabilia around, it’s a great place to visit for any drive-in theater fan.

Next stop: Starlite Drive-In Theatre, Grand Bend ON.

Aug. 12: Summer Drive-In, Plymouth MI

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It’s Day 224 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. From suburban Toledo OH to suburban Detroit took only an hour. My destination was the Summer Drive-In in Plymouth MI.

According to stories catalogued by Water Winter Wonderland, the Summer got its start in 2004 as the Slap Shot Drive-In Theater. Then as now, it was set up with three screens in the parking lot of what was then the Compuware Sports Arena parking lot. That arena was home to the Detroit Whalers (then Plymouth Whalers) of the Ontario Hockey League, a junior league.

In 2007, the “Sports” was taken out of the arena name to emphasize its other uses. By 2008, the drive-in was being called the Compuware Arena Drive-In. In 2015 the USA Hockey Foundation purchased the arena, renaming it the USA Hockey Arena, and the drive-in became the Summer.

Most of the arena facilities are available to drive-in patrons, particularly a full menu at CJ’s Brewing Company, which has a golf cart to deliver food to cars.

The video of the day comes from Metro Parent. It shows off how the place looked in 2012, which is pretty much how it still looks today.

Once again I had the choice between The Nut Job 2 and Dunkirk. (A third screen was showing Despicable Me 3, which I had already seen nine times, so that wasn’t much of an option.) I picked Dunkirk for the third time, since I remain convinced that I’ll be subjected to The Nut Job 2 often enough over the next few weeks.

Miles Today / Total:  65 / 27101 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: Dunkirk / 138

Nearby Restaurant: It’s time for another regional restaurant chain. Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken is centered around Kentucky and Ohio, stretching over to Missouri and up to Michigan, but not too much farther. Their honey-dipped, pressure-cooked chicken is moist without so much grease. Interesting sides such as green beans and red beans and rice make a good thing even better.

Where I Virtually Stayed: There are a few really nice choices in Plymouth, and I chose the Comfort Inn. Everyone seemed happy to see me. My room had the full set of amenities, and the breakfast was a little better than some Comfort Inns with eggs and meat. The price was great. Just another good night.

Only in Plymouth: At the Plymouth Historical Museum, there’s yet another one of Robert Wadlow’s old shoes. Sure, there’s also a large collection of Abraham Lincoln memorabilia, and the history of Plymouth itself, but after sighting Wadlow shoes in Cuba MO and Billings MT, I’m starting to wonder whether every city with a drive-in has one lying around somewhere.

Next stop: Ford Drive In Theatre, Dearborn MI.