Sundance Drive-In

4550 Navarre Avenue,
Oregon, OH 43616

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Drive-In 54
Drive-In 54 on May 1, 2024 at 4:40 am

The drive-in has been renamed to the Sundance Drive-In and is reopening with a new owner Todd Williams. He owns and operates the Memory Lane Drive-In, in Monroe, MI. He is going to make improvements such as:

  1. New bathrooms will be built in a separate building located behind the concessions stand.
  2. A 3rd screen will be added.
  3. Playground under screen 1.
  4. New fencing throughout the property.
  5. The old men’s room will be an arcade.
  6. The old ladies room will be a fair food stand by itself.
  7. The main concessions will be renovated to achieve speedy service while offering fantastic menu items.

He said these changes will not happen overnight and will not happen without your support of the Sundance. We will not ask for handouts or donations, we will simply ask for your patronage and concessions support as it is what keeps all theatres open.

dansdriveintheater
dansdriveintheater on April 6, 2023 at 12:49 am

Still has not reopened it is April!

Drive-In 54
Drive-In 54 on October 28, 2022 at 12:31 pm

It has reported that Sundance AKA Parkside has been saved and will reopen in 2023..

BigScreen_com
BigScreen_com on June 21, 2022 at 10:19 am

2022 will likely be the last season for the Sundance Drive-In:

Oregon, OH: After 73 Years, Movies Under the Stars May Be Ending in Oregon [Jun 21, 2022]

Drive-In 54
Drive-In 54 on September 3, 2019 at 5:48 pm

Hey Earl64 thanks for update on the marquee’s. I did not know that. But I did wonder why the marquee at the Parkside looked good but it looked funny also. I tell people to becareful using theatre catalogs and MPA’s in theatre reseach.

Earl64
Earl64 on September 3, 2019 at 4:32 pm

Additionally to my above comment, Jack Armstrong operated Parkside, Starlite, Telegraph, Jesse James, Eastside drive Ins from the early 60’s as well as Princess, Esquire, Valentine, Maumee indoor as well as a few other theaters in the area. Parkside and Telegraph were “PT Theaters Inc” DBA “Armstrong Circuit Inc.” I used to deliver concession supplies to all our theaters along with Bill Herring who was General Manager of Concessions for Armstrong Circuit.

Earl64
Earl64 on September 3, 2019 at 4:17 pm

To MichiganDriveins.com The Starlite Drive in Marquee was moved to the Parkside (Sundance Kid Drive In) When the Starlite was closed and torn Down. Ed Searles who owned both drive ins had it moved to his Parkside Drive In and had the “Star and Lite” changed to “Park and Side”. Parkside originally had a smaller marquee located on the bottom front of the screen in front and we continued using that for coming attractions etc. for years until it was taken down later on. Also Mike Kilgore, the capacity of the drive in was 840 plus not 500 as listed in your facts book. I was company supervisor for Armstrong Theaters and managed Parkside when we added the second screen. I have pictures somewhere of the second screen and the truck body used for back projection booth before it was installed in back of theater, plus pictures of the marquee when we had Mr No Leggs (Ted Volrath) appearing in person for his movie. Stupidly I have photos of him chopping a potato off my neck with a sword…LOL

davidcoppock
davidcoppock on August 11, 2017 at 10:08 pm

Did it ever screen the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?

MichaelKilgore
MichaelKilgore on August 11, 2017 at 7:59 pm

Data dump on the Parkside from my Theatre Catalogs and Motion Picture Almanacs. Note that every source listed it in Toledo.

TC 1949-50: Exec: J. Dempsey, capacity 800.

TC 1952-56: J. Dempsey and Cooperative Ths. of Ohio, 622.

MPA 1953-59: Coop. Theatres, Ohio, 500.

MPA 1963: J. Armstrong, 500.

MPA 1969-76: 500.

MPA 1982: Armstrong, 500. (If the second screen was up, it didn’t notice)

MPA 1984-88: “Parkside 1 & 2”, Armstrong.

Chris1982
Chris1982 on October 1, 2014 at 9:13 pm

According to Great Eastern this drive-in has been converted to digital projection.

KenLayton
KenLayton on May 8, 2014 at 2:03 pm

That is good news!

Drive-In 54
Drive-In 54 on May 8, 2014 at 12:53 pm

New screen tower is up!!

Drive-In 54
Drive-In 54 on November 23, 2013 at 6:01 am

The Sundance lost it’s main screen tower during a tornado on November 17, 2013. It is the original screen tower that was put in 1949. Great Eastern Theatres is planning to replace it.

Drive-In 54
Drive-In 54 on March 29, 2012 at 5:37 am

Just updated with some Toledo Blade movie section ad’s and pictures of the various marquee’s over the years.

Michigandriveins.com
Michigandriveins.com on January 24, 2011 at 4:36 pm

The Parkside Drive-In actually opened 4/27/49. It’s second screen opened in July 1978, and it was renamed the Sundance Kid in 1987. It was advertised alongside the Butch Cassidy Drive-In with similar ads, so I’m assuming they were under the same ownership.

Michigandriveins.com
Michigandriveins.com on January 2, 2011 at 6:56 am

It’s a shame they replaced that beautiful original marquee with an unattractive plastic sign. The Starlite on the other side of Toledo had a very similar marquee, check it out here.

Michigandriveins.com
Michigandriveins.com on June 21, 2009 at 10:10 am

Thanks for posting the links to the americanclassicimages.com site Lost Memory, there’s some great old shots on that site! Here’s a 1999 shot I took of the original marquee.