Drive Invaders hit Atlanta

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There’s a fun, long blog entry in the Saporta Report about a group of drive-in enthusiasts in Atlanta. Last week, a group calling themselves Drive Invaders “gathered to watch ‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation’ at the Starlight Six Drive-In, the last outdoor movie theater in metro Atlanta. Instead of a playground, (ringleader Suellen) Germani and her grown-up movie companions each paid $7 to tailgate in the rain and watch the movie through wet windshields.”

The article explains in lengthy detail the beginnings of the group, including early missteps. “For the first two years we met year round and that was really stupid because it’s really cold in February,” Germani said.

For over a decade, this little band has made it a point to patronize the Starlight Six, partly with the goal of keeping it alive. The article is a lot more fun than I’ve made it sound, so I’ll stop typing so you can just go read it.

Here’s some video of the Skyline Drive-In

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I know I ran a note just a few weeks ago about the Skyline Drive-In of Shelton WA, but I saw that KING, Seattle’s news leader, ran a story about its progress raising money to finance the conversion to digital projection. There’s not a whole lot new about the story except that the Skyline has raised about $12,000 of the $40,000 needed for its Kickstarter campaign. Well, that and the fact that the Skyline has a Director of Marketing. I don’t know any other drive-ins that employ a marketing director. But I digress.

No, the reason I returned to the topic of the Skyline is the lovely video footage embedded here. It’s such a nice look at the projection room, and the Skyline’s old equipment, that I wish it lasted a little longer. For just a little more information, feel free to visit the KING site.

SW Michigan drive-ins face digital conversion costs

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Ticket booth at the Capri Drive-In

Ticket booth at the Capri Drive-In.
Photo by All Things Michigan.

The MLive Media Group, which includes a bunch of newspapers in Michigan, published a set of stories over the weekend about the state of southwest Michigan drive-ins. Glenda and Neal Edwards own two of them, the 5 Mile of Dowagiac and the Sunset in Hartford, and they’re hoping to get films for the rest of this summer while they save to convert at least one of their drive-ins to digital projection. “We’ll do it for as long as we can hold on, as long as we can get prints,” Glenda Edwards said. They say it’s possible that they’ll have to close one or both drive-ins.

Meanwhile, the Capri of Coldwater made the change just a week or two ago, according to The Daily Reporter. Its owners, Susan and Tom Magocs, wanted to let their patrons know that “the Capri will still be here.” MLive reports that the cost to convert the two projectors was $144,000, and those funds came from selling their lake house.

MLive also has a five-photo slide show of the three drive-ins, so you probably really ought to go read it!