Video: Ruskin Drive-In reopening after hurricane damage

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Great news for the Ruskin Family Drive-In Theatre this week. According to WFLA, Tampa’s News Leader, the Ruskin is about to reopen for another season. It had sustained damage from three (?!) hurricanes in its off-season and needed help to get back on its feet. The community rallied to support the Ruskin; I was the most impressed by TECO (née Tampa Energy Company), which donated poles for the refurbished screen.

The WFLA video embedded above is unusually nice for this sort of report. It’s longer than usual, and it ends with a personal appeal to patronize the civic treasure that is the drive-in. We get to see a lot of views of the Ruskin, along with some shots of the devastation. And we get a lot of commentary from owner Karen Freiwald, who stressed the inclusive nature of the Ruskin’s early days. (There were whites-only drive-ins in the Tampa area in the 1950s, as well as some catering to African-Americans.) I’ve seen a lot of drive-in news videos, and this is one of the best.

One thing that I rarely see mentioned is that the Ruskin was called the Rustic Drive-In for at least a while in the 1950s. My guess is that it opened as the Rustic, though I’ve never seen a grand opening ad. A 1957 movie flyer, posted at Cinema Treasures, used that name. When the Tampa Tribune widened its movie coverage in 1959 to include Ruskin’s drive-in, it was the Rustic. When Carl Floyd bought the place from Harry Jones in 1960, he changed the name (back?) to Ruskin after a bit of remodeling, probably to touch up a couple of letters.

Speaking of letters, I looked back to my virtual visit to the Ruskin during 2017’s Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey, and that post was mostly interested in the animated double feature that night: Moana and Sing. At nine characters, that was close to the shortest drive-in twin bill that I’ve ever encountered: Epic and 42. Sure, there are theoretically shorter pairs of movie titles, but has there ever been another double feature at an actual drive-in with six characters or fewer? (Thank you, I already know that some of the things I care about are extremely trivial.)

Back to the present. Freiwald told WFLA that the drive-in had one its best years in 2020, when the pandemic made it the only entertainment spot in town. More recently, when the hurricanes knocked down the screen, long-time fans donated time, labor, and money to get it fixed. The Ruskin sure seems like a nice place, and it’s great that it’s so well-loved.

Video: Capri Drive-In added to National Register of Historic Places

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Time again for some good news. The Capri Drive-In Theater of Coldwater MI was added to the National Register of Historic Places this week. I took the opportunity to grab its very nice, drone-shot 60th anniversary video from last year. That follows up the 50th anniversary video that I embedded in my post on the Capri about eight years ago.

Back then, during my 2017 virtual visit, I wrote that the Capri was built by John and Mary Magocs and opened in August 1964. Back then it was a single screen serving up to 1000 cars. As the Capri’s story page relates, the snack bar at the time was leased to Auto City Candy Company of Detroit. Operating a Drive-In for the Magocs was a family affair. John and Mary, John Jr. and Tom, spent many a night making sure the show went off each night.

In 1977, the operation of the Capri Drive-In was leased to William Clarke of Coldwater while the Magocs resided in Florida. In 1980, Tom and John Jr. resumed operation of the theatre. One of their first decisions was to install AM radio transmission of the movie sound. All but 5 rows of speakers were removed.

In 1986, the Capri became a twin. Screen Two was added on the back side of theatre. Screen One’s car capacity was decreased to 550 cars, with Screen Two parking 300 more. That’s about the way it looks today.

In 2016, USA Today readers voted the Capri the second-best drive-in in the US, behind only the 99W of Newburg OR. It certainly deserves this latest recognition. Here’s a YouTube short with a few more recent details.

Video: Santee Drive-In has closed

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As I work my way through drive-in events that happened while I was occupied, that includes sad milestones such as this one. The Santee Drive-In Theatre, which opened in 1958, ran its final movies on Dec. 31, 2023. The Times of San Diego reminded me this week that I need to note the Santee’s passing.

As I wrote during my 2017 Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey, the Santee’s neon letters and star looked great after dark. What I uncharacteristically overlooked was the drive-in’s history. The Times wrote that John Forte and Walt Long opened the place in 1958. “With experience operating drive-ins in Stockton and La Verne, the duo built the original 50×100-foot screen by hand, hammering it together with wood and nails.” The Times claimed the Santee’s capacity was over 1000 cars, but the Motion Picture Almanac reported it at the time as 700.

Based on aerial photos, I can say that the Santee added a second, smaller screen between 1971 and 1978. The Times wrote that it was 1972. The drive-in also ran a popular swap meet, or flea market, or whatever you want to call it, that operated for decades and continued for a few months after the Santee stopped showing films.

Although the drive-in was profitable (probably), there’s usually a more lucrative use for a big chunk of land like that. It sure is a shame when we lose another historic drive-in to economic progress.