The Tyler TX drive-in that no one talks about

Posted on by

There’s a drive-in east of Tyler TX that doesn’t seem to engender much civic pride. It’s one drive-in that doesn’t need to worry about converting to digital projection because it apparently dumped film a long time ago. I’ve never been there, but according to two reports, the Apache Drive-In now shows adult-rated movies, and business is pretty good. According to Google Maps, as of April 2013, the place looks pretty much the way it did when Captain Chicken and someone from filmmaker Lucid, Inc. visited, separately.

Captain Chicken, aka Terry Moore, runs (ran?) a Texas Drive-In page. His report from 2002 is the more extensive of the two, including more photos. He determined that the reason the image on the screen was so dim was that the movie was being delivered by a home theater-type projection system in a box a short distance from the large, damaged screen. That’s what he saw, and we’ll have to take his word for it. As he wrote, “The duty manager was less than cooperative. He refused to discuss the projection source. In fact, he was unwilling to discuss anything related to the theater.”




The page at Lucid, Inc. is undated, but Archive.org first noticed it in 2012, so that’s likely to be the year it was written. It includes a few photos suggesting that the Apache didn’t change much for 10 years. The “bite” at the upper-right corner of the screen had widened, validating Captain Chicken’s theory that nearby trees had grown to knock down that piece. The projection box, entrance sign, and ticket booth looked pretty much the same as they had a decade earlier. And the folks there were just as uncooperative. “On the porch sits a husky, overall-clad man fiddling nervously with a large diamond stud in one ear,” the Lucid-eer wrote. “He has very little to say about who owns the still up and running XXX drive-in theater – except that she is a private person who is quite happy to remain unknown. ‘This is East Texas, honey. The big shiny buckle of the bible belt. Ain’t nobody gonna talk to you about what they do here.’ ”

I don’t know what else to say. The 1955 Theatre Catalog showed three drive-ins in Tyler, the Crest, Rose Garden, and Starlite, but it’s unclear if any were what would become the Apache. This spring, I had the opportunity to snap a picture of an allegedly similar drive-in near El Paso, but I routed my Arizona-New Mexico trip through Alamogordo NM instead. I’d rather see another family-oriented drive-in near Tyler, but if that’s what the locals want, I guess that’s their business. Still looks kinda creepy to me.

Update: On March 9, 2023, the Apache Drive-In Facebook page, the apparently official account posted “Sad to announce the Apache Drive-In Theatre is permanently closed and the property has been sold.”

Tyler drive-in asks for conversion help

Posted on by

According to KLTV, Tyler TX’s news leader, the Sky Vue Drive-In there is asking for help in converting from its vintage film projector to new digital equipment. Skyvue is offering future advertising space and long-term passes to earn the remaining $64,000 it needs for the conversion. Ominously, the Sky Vue’s web page features a clock counting down to August 31.

As you’ll see in the embedded video, the Phillips family opened the Sky Vue in 2006. “My husband’s the guy in the ticket booth, my son does the projection, Tracey does the cash register, and I’m back in the kitchen making pizza,” said Rhonda Phillips, one of the owners.

As KLTV’s Summer Dashe put it, the conversion process would mean the drive-in’s “five foot tall film player will be replaced by a server about the size of a small box.” I’d never heard it described that way, but it makes perfect sense. Servers are the size of a small box, as long as your idea of a small box matches the size of a server. And coining the term “film player” is a great advancement; I hope they also call pay phones “standup corded money phones” in Tyler.

One interesting part of the story is what KLTV didn’t mention: Tyler has a second drive-in. That drive-in stopped using film a long time ago, and it’s unlikely to ask the community for help. I’ll tell you the story of that second Tyler drive-in tomorrow.

Honda to spend a month promoting drive-ins

Posted on by

What does Honda have in common with drive-ins? Until recently, I’d say the closest link was The Beach Boys’ 1964 album All Summer Long, which included the songs Little Honda and Drive-In. The former was an international hit, and I often hear the latter at drive-in theaters. In fact, I’d say that Drive-In is probably the best drive-in celebration song of all time. But I digress.

Almost 50 years later, Honda is about to give us a much better reason to connect it with drive-in theaters. This Friday, Honda will launch Project Drive-In, a month-long effort to raise awareness of the wonderful, fragile state of drive-ins today. The best part is that Honda will effectively rescue five drive-ins from oblivion, paying for new digital projection equipment. And you get to pick which drive-ins get saved.

According to Jessica Fini of Honda Public Relations, visitors to Project Drive-In will be able to cast their votes for their favorite drive-in out of a list of over 50 that need help. Some of those drive-ins were chosen by Honda, and others were added after they heard about the promotion and asked to be included. Voting will run through September 9, and a couple of weeks later, Honda will present checks or equipment to the five winners.

Fini said that she hopes that raising general awareness about the drive-ins in need might even help the theaters that don’t finish in the top five. And why is Honda so interested? “A lot of people have an emotional attachment to drive-ins,” Fini said. “We started hearing about all the drive-ins that are in trouble. It’s just a natural connection for us to raise this effort further through a social media promotion.”

As the Maine Sun Chronicle reported recently, Honda has been busy filming some videos to run in conjunction with this promotion. Fini told me that they won’t be used as TV ads (darn!) but will be featured on the Project Drive-In site. So spread the word, and get ready to vote early and often to keep your favorite drive-in alive.