Midway Drive-In

According to WaterWinterWonderland.com, the Gladwin County Record wrote a week earlier that the Midway Drive-In would open May 20, 1953 with “Northwest Stampede” and “Loaded Pistols”. It was located “Half-way between Gladwin and Beaverton on M-18, at Elmer Kings Grocery”. The snack bar was in the grocery, the drive-in started with “three power speakers with ample sound-on-screen” and performances were only on Wednesday nights. MichiganDriveIns.com wrote that he found the Midway Drive-In while looking for more information about the nearby Meredith Drive-In, and found a newspaper advertisement showing the Midway Drive-In’s planned movies through October 13, 1954.

Billboard wrote in its September 5, 1953 drive-in column, “The Midway Drive-In has just been opened in the Northern Michigan resort area, located between Beaverton and Gladwin”.

Looking at a USGS aerial photo reportedly taken on July 24, 1953, I can’t find a screen tower or set of ramps, but I see a cleared field that matched the location of an auto salvage yard that had sprung up in a 1968 aerial. It’s still operating there today.

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