Couple Hopes To Build Drive-In NW Of Omaha

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Miniature drive-in theater, as from a model train set

This is definitely NOT a scale model for the Nebraska project, but I’ve been waiting a long time for an excuse to share it. Photo by dididumm from the Carload Flickr pool

The Omaha World-Herald (subscription) reported yesterday that Jenny and Jeff Karls of Fremont NE want to break ground on what would be the Quasar Drive-In on state Highway 36 a few miles east of US Highway 275. They project that to be about a 25-minute drive northwest of Omaha.

The couple are seeking a permit from Douglas County for their plan to convert farmland to a single-screen drive-in, with the possibility of adding a second screen later. This morning, the Douglas County Board postponed a vote on the project until Feb. 6, according to the World-Herald, to give the Karlses time to work with their neighbors about concerns they raised.

“There are more new-construction drive-in theaters being built now than there have been in decades,” Jeff Karls said. The couple told the World-Herald that the idea came to them while watching a movie at a drive-in “in Pittsburgh” (maybe the Dependable in suburban Moon PA?) on their honeymoon in 2013. It looks like Jeff has a Pinterest page titled Quasar Drive In Theater, so you can go there to see some possible inspirations for his project. That appears to be the first time a drive-in theater has used that name, probably because the word “quasar” wasn’t coined until 1964.

The Karlses first tried a site in Gretna only to be turned back by not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) neighbors and the Gretna Planning Commission. For the current site, that NIMBY neighbor might be Tanner Hoffman, who raised the objections that caused the board to postpone the vote. Board Chairman Chris Rodgers told the Karlses that they aren’t required to make the neighbors happy, but to give negotiation a chance. Let’s hope that the county sees the wisdom of adding a bit of life to this sparsely populated part of the state.

Shankweiler’s Is For Sale

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The oldest active drive-in theater, probably the second commercial drive-in ever, is for sale. Owners Paul and Susan Geissinger say the asking price for Shankweiler’s Drive-In Theatre is $1.2 million. The Orefield PA landmark is in great shape by all accounts, but the Geissingers want to retire.

I was virtually there less than a month ago during the final week of my 2017 Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey, so its history is fresh on my mind. You can read more in that post, but the most relevant part is that the Geissingers bought the place around 1984 and have been running it ever since.

The Morning Call of Allentown wrote that the couple “actually put the property up for sale in 2015, but it was relisted last week after their real estate agent joined a new company, Paul Geissinger said Wednesday.” They want to clear enough to retire comfortably, and although they’d prefer that the drive-in would stay open, they’ll sell to the highest bidder. The current plan is for a normal operating season in 2018. I’ve embedded a YouTube video of an interview with Paul Geissinger posted just a few months ago.

The Morning Call wrote, “The Geissingers have received a few offers, Paul said, but not at the price he was looking for.” Whenever I read about any real estate that has taken longer to move than the sellers wanted, I hear the voice of the old radio financial advisor Bruce Williams in my head. Assuming that you have sufficiently publicized your listing, he would say, the market is telling you that your price is too high. You may think that you need to get X dollars from the sale, or insist that you’ve invested Y dollars into the property, but none of that matters to the buyer. Regardless of other factors, anything is worth only what a customer is willing and able to pay for it. I hope that all drive-in owners with current listings and future sales take that to heart so these great institutions can stay in operation.

A Late Discovery: The El-Co Drive-In, Shattuck OK

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A crane lifts a drive-in screen into place during construction

Photo from the El-Co Drive-In’s Facebook page

When I built my database of active drive-ins in the summer of 2016, I relied on Google for about 90% of my finds. There was also a magazine list and a few odds and ends. I thought I had it pretty well covered, but I was proven wrong twice. Once was when a colleague passed along several Canadian drive-ins I’d missed. The other was when I happened to see a mention in passing of the El-Co Drive-In Theatre in Shattuck OK.

I dug into it a little, and on Google Maps I could see a typical drive-in viewing arc north of town. Next I found the El-Co’s web site and notified Google of this place it had overlooked. A few days later, I used the Google-verified info to add the El-Co to my database.

Trouble was, this correction didn’t happen until the middle of 2017, and my Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey had already finished virtually driving through Oklahoma. So let me correct that omission with the type of profile you might have read for any of my virtual stops.

This is the second El-Co to have shown movies in Shattuck, in Ellis County. The first was south of town, owned by Garland Wilson. From the info in my reference books, it looks like that tiny, 140-car El-Co opened around 1954 and stayed active only until the mid-1970s. Cinema Treasures wrote that the original wooden screen burned down around 1963. “A new theatre was built of concrete blocks, which operated until at least 1975. It was toppled in a wind storm.” Historic Aerials still showed the viewing field in a 1995 photo, but it had been replaced by buildings by 2003.

What I know about the second El-Co comes almost exclusively from a 2011 article in the Woodward News. It said that after it had “been in the works for around a year”, the new drive-in opened on Thanksgiving weekend that year. “Owners of the drive-in, Jason Swanson and Lance Schultz, both of whom grew up in Shattuck, built the theatre to provide the community with entertainment.” Swanson and Schultz had formed J&L Oilfield Services there in 2002 and had been board members of the Shattuck National Bank. You can see what they look like in their YouTube video.

One of the buildings on the site of the old El-Co is marked as J&L Services on Google Maps; I don’t know if that had anything to do with the new drive-in. Despite a November Grand Opening in 2011, its 2017 season was quite short – just May 26 to August 5. And that’s about all I know, except that this little place did a great job of staying under Google’s radar for several years.

My choice of Restaurant in Shattuck would be Gustos Italian Grill & Pizza, which serves a ribeye steak that looks like it would fit well on my plate.

According to Google, Shattuck is in the middle of a Hotel desert, with the closest decent accommodations about 28 miles northeast in Woodward. There’s a Hampton Inn there, but the Comfort Inn is less expensive and has a higher ranking on TripAdvisor.

And for my Only In, I’d point to the Shattuck Windmill Museum, which has over 50 vintage windmills on display outside, plus an example of a dugout sod house.