New drive-in coming to Mississippi

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Since I don’t have any pictures of the construction site, here’s a photo of John Watzke’s current gig, the Ocala Drive-In, from its web site

Here’s some good news for the New Year. Veteran drive-in operator John Watzke, currently running the Ocala Drive-In in Florida, is building another ozoner west of Bay St. Louis MS. Work actually started a few months ago on the still-unnamed drive-in, but last week we were treated to a full story about the project and Watzke in the Mississippi Free Press.

In reverse of how this usually goes, the new drive-in is being built on the site of an old trailer park. The 10-acre plot has been vacant since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005 and did what hurricanes do to trailer parks. (Seriously, living in a Gulf Coast mobile home seems to me like walking to work across a busy interstate highway. But I digress.)

Watzke said his drive-in should open by April 2023 with a 60×34-foot screen 45 feet up. If all goes well, he’ll add a second screen a few years later. The concession stand will include an arcade, and the menu will have such Ocala favorites as muffaletts and po-boys.

The article has much more, including plenty of Watzke-provided photos, history of his family’s involvement with theaters, and a mention of controlling fire ants. (And you thought mosquitoes were the most annoying insects.) So now you know you need to go read it!

Video: Delta CO’s Tru Vu changes hands

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There’s big news on Colorado’s Western Slope. George Rodriguez is the new owner of Delta’s Tru Vu Drive-In, as reported by KREX, Grand Junction’s News Leader. Actually, there’s been a lot of Tru Vu news over the past five years, so let me get you caught up.

When we last left the Tru Vu Drive-In in Delta CO, it was an early stop in my 2017 Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. I’ve written a lot about it since then, but it’s all been in my book, Drive-Ins of Colorado. If you’re a Carload completist with a copy of that book, you can skip down a couple of paragraphs.

After only a cursory check on the Tru Vu’s history, I wrote in my Odyssey stop there that it opened in 1954. That may or may not be accurate. Another passage was extremely off the mark: “A lot of drive-in theaters have some drama associated with them. They add screens, they lose screens. They shut down for a while, and sometimes reopen. Not the Tru Vu.” I couldn’t have been more wrong – in its first 15 years, the Tru Vu had the most tumultuous life of any drive-in I’ve heard of. That section took up two full pages in the book, and it’s beyond the scope of this post. Everything quieted down in 1968 when Jeannie and Stanley Dewsnup bought it along with Delta’s other theaters.

Stanley passed away in 2008, and Jeannie continued to operate the Tru Vu until she died in April 2019. James Lane and his family stepped in to run the drive-in only to hit the headwind that was the 2020 start to the Covid pandemic. He will always have a warm place in my heart, not just for this unselfish work, but also for giving me permission to use a photo of the Tru Vu for my book cover.

Now that we’re caught up, here’s the news from December 2022. Rodriguez began working with Jeannie Dewsnup in 1997 and became her “right hand” according to KREX. His daughter Jessikah Rodriguez remembered getting on a crane when her dad was painting the screen. Now the family is planning to embrace a 50s vibe and stay open longer. Sounds great!

I’m always happy to have any excuse to embed a drive-in video, and good news from a Colorado drive-in makes it even better. I hope you’ll agree that this was worth the wait.

PA’s Midway has new owners

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The Midway Drive-In marquee. Photo from the Midway web site

Five years ago today, one of my last stops on my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey was the Midway Drive-In in Mifflintown PA. There’s been a good bit of news since then, and an important event earlier this month.

At the time, my best guess on the Midway’s owner was Jeff Favuzza. Maybe that was true in 2017. Since then, an article in the Lewistown Sentinel revealed that Michael and Penny Clark bought the Midway in November 2020. “We wanted to make sure it stayed open,” Penny told the Sentinel. They also owned the River’s Edge RV Park next door and hadn’t really planned to get into the drive-in theater business.

The Clarks put the RV park and drive-in up for sale after the 2022 season, and this time the buyers were Timothy and Lacie Wert. They finalized the sale on Dec. 1, but the Sentinel ran its story about it yesterday. Just like the previous owners, the Werts were mainly interested in the River’s Edge. When the Midway’s fans began to get nervous after the sale, Lacie posted to the drive-in’s Facebook page, “You may have heard, the Midway Drive-In is under new ownership, but that doesn’t change a thing! So, mark your calendars now! We’ll be opening May 12th!”

That’s about all I’ve got, but it’s enough. It’s such good news when a drive-in passes from one responsible owner to another. Getting the chance to write about it on the anniversary of my virtual visit is just a bonus. Happy New Year, everybody!