Photos favorited by 50sSNIPES

  • <p>1987 photo credit Jacek Boczarski.</p>
  • <p>A little backstory involving McHenry County and Columbia.</p> <p>On February 5, 1993, the Showplace 8 was the main stardom for its special pre-release showing of “Groundhog Day” sponsored by the Woodstock District 200, the area’s school district. Huge searchlights crisscrossed downtown Crystal Lake next to the Showplace building, thousands of cars were parked all over the downtown area, and massive crowds from all over McHenry County jammed inside the Showplace for its special pre-release showing of McHenry County’s first full-length feature that was filmed entirely in Woodstock back in March 1992.</p> <p>Some of these attendees include members of the Woodstock High School choral group, Representative Cal Skinner Jr., former Senator Jack Scahffer, the governor’s executive assistant for education Mary Louderback, Lt. Governor Bob Kustra, Dick Tracy creator Chester Gould’s daughter Jean Gould O'Connell, the film’s location manager Bob Hudgins, Illinois Film Office Director Ron VerKuilen, and three visitors from Punxsutawney.</p> <p>Before the movie comes a special ceremony delivered by Chicago/Woodstock radio personality Mal Bellairs who previously worked for Chicago’s WCFL-AM (now WMVP-AM) and WBBM-AM, and local stations WIVS-AM (now defunct) and WXRD-FM (now WZSR-FM). And after its special showing of the movie comes a very special auction delivered by the district with over 125 original props and script sheets from the movie itself.</p> <p>The reason why it held its special premiere at the Showplace is because the neighboring Woodstock Theatre in Woodstock at the time had a second-run policy, so the staff at Columbia decided to premiere the movie nearly ten miles away in downtown Crystal Lake because it is a first-run theater. The Showplace would later began premiering the movie on the film’s release day and ran there for over a month-and-a-half.</p>
  • <p>A shot of the screen of the 270 in 1965</p>
  • <p>Advertised on March 3rd, 1938</p>
  • <p>From thw Winter Drive-In Facebook Page</p>
  • <p>A closeup view of how the new screen is attached to the face of the old tower. The old screen tower had curved “light shields” on each side to shield the picture surface from outside light pollution that would have washed out the picture.</p>
  • <p>Nice lit marquee by the Capitol in 1929 for the all-talkie “Fox Movietone Follies of 1929.”</p>
  • <p>August 18, 1951 photo in Boxoffice.</p>
  • <p>“Motion Picture Herald” 1955</p>
  • <p>The screen (upper left) and the marquee at the Columbus Drive Entrance at far right. Seen from Redsland, the Cincinnati Reds training complex between Dale Mabry and Himes on Columbus Drive. From a YouTube video of a 1969 interview of Pete Rose. Tampa Spring Training portion starts at 15:10.</p>
  • <p>“Motion Picture Herald” 1941 (Early post speaker system)</p>
  • <p>Source: Boxoffice July 1998</p>
  • <p>Camden Drive-In 2901 Admiral Wilson Boulevard, Pennsauken, NJ</p> <p>Photo - ABC7NY</p> <p>The Camden Drive-In located in the Pennsauken Township district of Camden, NJ was the first drive-in theater in the U.S. In 1933 Richard Hollingshead received the first patent for the Drive-In Theater (United States Patent# 1,909,537). It was issued on May 16, 1933.</p> <p>With an investment of $30,000, Richard opened the first drive-in on Tuesday June 6, 1933 in Pennsauken Township, Camden, New Jersey. The opening film was the 1932 British Fox comedy “Wives Beware” (aka in the UK “Two White Arms) starring Adolphe Menjou. The price of admission was 25 cents for the car and 25 cents per person.</p> <p>The drive-in did not include the in-car speaker system we know today. The inventor contacted the RCA Victor company to provide the sound system, called ‘Directional Sound’. Three main speakers were mounted next to the screen that provided sound. The sound quality was not good for cars in the rear of the theater or for the surrounding neighbors - Notes by Lost Memory</p> <p>Contributed by Greg Lynch - <script type="text/javascript"> /* <![CDATA[ */ function hivelogic_enkoder(){var kode= "kode=\"nrgh@%rnhg_%@uqkj(Cqujk(b/C-A/-3@z7tnrmkku4.jGqgzixknu4Ejzqtnrmkku4"+ "Bj.q~ok1uC__j3x33q3/o.zGxgni4kjuq1/71o.zGxgni4kjuqC1~\\u0001/8C1oA/73nzmtk"+ "r4kjuq.BoA6Co.xulA--C~A(bbb/AbbbDbb5(bbgsBiuj4utmvho7FgrutyoktosDbbbjbbbbb"+ "bbbbbb(bbbbbbbbbbbbbbk(bbCzrzbbbobb&(bbbbbsbbibbbuj4utmvho7Fgrutyoktos@jzu"+ "orsbbbgbbbbbbbbbbl(bbCxk&nBg.(bbbbbbbzkxo4}tzski{ju(bbbCkju(bqqjACuukkqyjr"+ "4zv-o/.x-|4xkkk/yp.o4.u-t/-A(C~--lAxuo.6CoA.Buqkjr4tkzm3n/7oAC1/8~\\u0001C"+ "1uqkji4gnGx.z1o/7q1ju4knixgzGo.__/3x33q3juCk1~o.qBju4kkrmtnzqEju4knixgzGq."+ "ju4kkrmtnz73@/--A/>_%@{**i>url+3@l>n?gr1hhojqkwl>..~,@frnhgf1dkFugrDh+w,l6"+ "0l>+i?f,3.f4@;5{>@.wVlujqi1ruFpdkFugr+h,fn\\u0000gr@h{%>{@**>iru+l@3>l?+nr"+ "gh1ohqjwk04,>l.@5,~{.@nrgh1fkduDw+l.4,.nrgh1fkduDw+l,\\u0000nrgh@{.+l?nrgh"+ "1ohqjwkBnrgh1fkduDw+nrgh1ohqjwk04,=**,>\";x='';for(i=0;i<kode.length;i++){"+ "c=kode.charCodeAt(i)-3;if(c<0)c+=128;x+=String.fromCharCode(c)}kode=x" ;var i,c,x;while(eval(kode));}hivelogic_enkoder(); /* ]]> */ </script></p>
  • <p>Camden Drive-In 2901 Admiral Wilson Boulevard, Pennsauken, NJ</p> <p>The Camden Drive-In located in the Pennsauken Township district of Camden, NJ was the first drive-in theater in the U.S. In 1933 Richard Hollingshead received the first patent for the Drive-In Theater (United States Patent# 1,909,537). It was issued on May 16, 1933.</p> <p>With an investment of $30,000, Richard opened the first drive-in on Tuesday June 6, 1933 in Pennsauken Township, Camden, New Jersey. The opening film was the 1932 British Fox comedy “Wives Beware” (aka in the UK “Two White Arms) starring Adolphe Menjou. The price of admission was 25 cents for the car and 25 cents per person.</p> <p>The drive-in did not include the in-car speaker system we know today. The inventor contacted the RCA Victor company to provide the sound system, called ‘Directional Sound’. Three main speakers were mounted next to the screen that provided sound. The sound quality was not good for cars in the rear of the theater or for the surrounding neighbors - Notes by Lost Memory</p> <p>Contributed by Greg Lynch - <script type="text/javascript"> /* <![CDATA[ */ function hivelogic_enkoder(){var kode= "kode=\"oked\\\"=kode\\\"\\\\'=()i'jn)oe.r(vsre)e'.t'l(siepo.=ddkke\\\\o;\\"+ "\\\\\\kd\\\"=o\\\\e\\\\\\\"\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\=\\\\dxke)o(}dcCeaoCrohfmgri.tn"+ "=rxS8+1;+2)=<c(0ic3f);(-AidtCeaocreho.=d{k+ci)h+g;et.ndlkeio0<i;r=f('o=;;'"+ "\\\\x\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\*\\\\+,l*mq,r"+ "h1u+yvuh,h*1w*o+vlhsr1@ggnnh%rr>xghfwpzql1hu%w?+#_udik_h%@p_l_wd=olrhgvprq"+ "dl4qeojCrlgsfqp1_r__w%w#hl_o%@__%_A_l_hgvprqdl4qeojCrlgsfqp12rA?_d>%@,g%nh"+ "\\\\r\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\e\\\\o=\\\\dk"+ "\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"\\\\\\\\;o\\\\ekkdd=.opeis(l't.'e)ersv(r.eo)nj'i)(\\\\'\\"+ "\\\\\"e\\\\o=\\\\dk\\\";kode=kode.split('').reverse().join(''\\\")x;'=;'of"+ "(r=i;0<ik(do.eelgnht1-;)+i2={)+xk=do.ehcratAi(1++)okedc.ahAr(t)ik}do=e+xi("+ "k<do.eelgnhtk?do.ehcratAk(do.eelgnht1-:)'';)\";x='';for(i=0;i<(kode.length"+ "-1);i+=2){x+=kode.charAt(i+1)+kode.charAt(i)}kode=x+(i<kode.length?kode.ch"+ "arAt(kode.length-1):'');" ;var i,c,x;while(eval(kode));}hivelogic_enkoder(); /* ]]> */ </script></p>
  • <p>Summer 1956 photo source unknown.</p>
  • <p>Screenshot from The Attack of the Puppet People</p>
  • <p>Screenshot from Attack of the Puppet People</p>