Project Drive-In roundup 3: Dark of the screen

Posted on Sep 6, 2013 by mrdrivein

I warned you that it might come to this. With less than a week left in Honda’s Project Drive-In voting period, I’ve found media reports about a few more of the candidates.

Here’s something confusing: Some of those media reports only partially duplicate other reports. That is, if a new story lists drive-ins A, B, and C, but a story from one of my first two round-ups already mentioned A and C, then I’ve added B as a new candidate in this third round-up. If you click through to the story, it’ll mention all three, but we know that B is the only one that’s new to this list. Okay?

With that in mind, let’s go through a few more:

Stone Drive-In, Mountain View AR, reported (with video embedded above) by KTHV.
Comanche Drive-In, Buena Vista CO, reported by somebody who left a comment here.
Ocala Drive-In, Ocala FL, reported by the Ocala Star-Banner.
Midway Drive-In, Osawatomie KS, reported (with video) by KCTV.
Twin Hills Drive-In, Harrodsburg KY, reported by Central Kentucky News.
Long Drive-In, Long Prairie MN, reported by the Sauk Centre Dairyland Peach.
Fair Oaks Drive-In, Middletown NY, reported by the Middletown Times Herald-Record.
Dixie Twin Drive-In, Dayton OH, reported by the Yellow Springs News.
Motor Vu Drive-In, Dallas OR, reported by the Salem Statesman Journal.
Mahoning Drive-In, Lehighton PA, reported by WHYY and the Pocono Record.
Fairlee Drive-In, Fairlee VT, and Randall Drive-In, Bethel VT, both reported (with audio) by Vermont Public Radio.
Chilton Twilight Drive In, Chilton WI, reported by the Appleton Post-Crescent.

And that should hold us on Project Drive-In news until they start talking about winners. Wouldn’t it be nice if Honda chose more than five?

Boston Public Radio discusses New England drive-ins

Posted on Aug 31, 2013 by mrdrivein

Saco Drive-In, photo by Joe Shlabotnik

We do love our video here, but Carload also appreciates hearing great audio. Boston Public Radio station WGBH hosted a 14-minute interview with film critic Garen Daly to discuss drive-in memories and the outlook for drive-in theaters in the future. You can listen to it here.

Yet another feature of this New England drive-in roundup is a list of all the surviving drive-ins in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, along with the dates they were born.

One thing that often strikes me is when someone, as during this interview, brings up the movie American Graffiti when discussing drive-in theaters. The centerpiece of American Graffiti was a drive-in restaurant, but there were no theaters depicted in that movie. Anyway, despite that minor irritant, I think you ought to go listen.

Project Drive-In roundup 2, The Sequel

Posted on Aug 29, 2013 by mrdrivein

In my last post, I began the task of listing every local media report of every local drive-in that’s participating in Honda’s Project Drive-In. Foolishly, I thought that I might gather up all of them in one sitting. When I hit 20 theaters, each with a similar tale of tenuous finance and this lottery-ticket hope for survival, my eyes had glazed over, and I barely had the strength to finish off the post and click Publish.

Two days later, I’m ready again to see how many more drive-in reports I can list. Again, they’re alphabetized by state. And again, if you click through and find a particularly cool detail we should all know about, please leave a comment.

More of your candidates:

Skyline Drive-In, Barstow CA, reported by the Victorville Daily Press.
Idan-Ha Drive-In, Soda Springs ID, reported by the Idaho State Journal.
Route 34 Drive-In, Earlville IL, reported by the Ottawa Times.
Galva Autovue Drive-In Theatre, Galva IL, reported by the Kewanee Star Courier.
McHenry Outdoor Theater, McHenry IL, reported (with video) by the Lake County News-Sun.
M.E.L.S. at the Starlite Drive-In Theatre, Thorntown IN, reported (with video) by the Lafayette Journal and Courier.
Valle Drive-In, Newton IA, reported by the Des Moines Register.
Franklin Drive-In, Franklin KY, reported by WBKO.
Stanford Drive-In, Stanford KY, reported by Central Kentucky News.
Saco Drive-In, Saco ME, reported by the Bangor Daily News.
I-70 Drive-In, Kansas City MO, reported (with video embedded above) by KSHB.
Pine Hill Drive-In, Piedmont MO, reported (with video) by KFVS and by the Wayne County Journal-Banner.
Skyview Drive-In, Lancaster OH, reported and misspelled (with great photo) by the Louisville KY Courier-Journal.
99W Drive-In, Newberg OR, reported (with video) by KGW and by KATU.
Brownsville Drive-In, Grindstone PA, reported (with video) by KDKA.
Riverside Drive-In, North Vandergrift PA, reported by TribLive.com.
State Line Drive-In, Elizabethton TN, reported by WATE.
Meadow Bridge Drive-In, Meadow Bridge WV, reported (with video) by WVNS.
Field of Scenes Drive-In, Freedom WI, reported (with video) by WLUK.
Keno Drive-In, Pleasant Prairie WI, reported by the Kenosha News.

Whew again! That’s 20 more drive-ins with local coverage of their Project Drive-In eligibility. I don’t know whether there are 20 more that I haven’t mentioned, but if I spot enough new ones, there may be a third episode of this franchise.