There was a fire in the vacant (projection?) building according to a local news report on March 4, 2018. No one was injured.
The report mentioned an NPR story that said a church bought the place in 2008 and stayed there through 2014 and along the way “had unusual ceremonies where old x-rated movies were burned in a fire pit.”
The author of that article since told me that the Senator closed for good in 1986. She also said “early efforts to resurrect a theater didn’t go. Not deemed economical”. I still think it’s ripe for rebuilding, but what do I know?
The owner was active enough recently to turn down a request “to project a message of love on its tattered screen,” according to a Valentine’s Day 2018 article in the Albuquerque Journal.
Rick Cohen, owner of the Transit Drive-In in Lockport NY, wrote a fine essay about this “Drive-In Without A Name”. According to him, this Olden drive-in was under construction when the owner’s daughter died in an accident. It was never opened, operated, or even named.
According to Google Street View, the skeleton was still there as of May 2013.
There was another article today about the still-standing sign in The Daily Courier of Prescott. An excerpt:
(Jane) Orr and (fellow Class of 1963 alum Stephen) Rogers, along with some other loyal drive-in patrons, have worked to maintain the sign, complete with posting occasional messages on the marquee to commemorate holidays, anniversaries, and at least one marriage proposal. The sole message prohibition: nothing commercial or political.
This past week, Orr and Rogers posted a Valentine’s Day missive: “Senator Drive-In — We Still Love and Miss You.” A big red heart is on the far side.
An article in today’s Cape Cod Times says that site of the West Yarmouth will be used for an Irish festival in 2018. It’s “been a point of contention for the town since it was purchased for recreational use in 1985. In 2015, a Drive-in Site Utilization Committee was formed to consider possible uses … but push back from nearby residents has prevented any projects from moving forward.”
It listed the address for the site as 669 Route 28.
A quick check of the International Motion Picture Almanacs on my shelf show a 1000-car drive-in, sometimes called the Yarmouth, in the census-designated place of West Yarmouth (within the town of Yarmouth) beginning in either the 1958 or 1959 edition and continuing through its last drive-in list in 1988.
Like lorraine1031, I remember the Waldo Theater just a block and a half from the Katz with its soda fountain bar by a row of wooden telephone booths. My strongest memory was when, as a grade-schooler in 1971 or ‘72, I saw a four-movie Beatles marathon there. Little did I know how soon it would close after that. Thanks for keeping the memories alive!
The July 23, 1955 Billboard magazine wrote “Ellis Drive-In, near Wilmington, Del., reopened with accomodations for more than 1000 automobiles, twice its former size. Formerly the Brandywine, it is under direction of A. M. Ellis Theaters Company, Philadelphia. The spot is under the supervision of Larry Ruch, district manager. Don Warner, manager of the Chester Pike Drive-In, Chester, Pa., as also manager of Ellis Drive-In. … Box office has been relocated, new roads have been built, and a fence put around the property.”
Great find, Kenmore. In retrospect, the name “Drive In Road” was a dead giveaway. I really had to strain at that 1989 Historic Aerials photo to see what might be a screen facing south. With the trees already growing in the view field, it’s hard to tell how large it was just from that.
The Crest, or its remains, were still visible in the 1994 photo at Historic Aerials. In the 2005 photo, foliage has begun moving into the viewing area, and in the 2009 photo, the storage units were in place.
The “Cho Co”, capacity 200 and owned by Floyd Cox, was in the first Theatre Catalog list for its 1948-49 edition. It morphed into the “Cho-Co” by 1955-56 but otherwise stayed the same.
The “Choco Cho”, capacity 200 and owned by Floyd Cox, was in the first International Motion Picture Almanac list for its 1951-52 edition. The IMPA eventually changed the listing to Choco, but otherwise kept it the same through 1963. The Choco was off the list for good by the 1966 edition.
The El-Co’s first appearance in the Motion Picture Almanac was the 1955 edition, capacity 140, owner Garland Wilson. (The 1955-56 Theatre Catalog had the same info except its capacity was 141.) It stayed that way through at least 1966. The El-Co was still on the list in the 1976 edition of the MPA, but was gone by 1978, never to return.
The viewing area was still visible in HistoricAerial.com’s 1995 photo at the southeast corner of what is now E0520 Road and Main Street. (Thanks, Kenmore!) Buildings had replaced it by the 2003 photo.
A Dec. 2, 2011 article in the Woodward News said that El-Co owners “Jason Swanson and Lance Schultz, both of whom grew up in Shattuck, built the theatre to provide the community with entertainment.” They formed J&L Oilfield Services there in 2002 and had been board members of the Shattuck National Bank.
The El-Co was only open during the summer in 2017. Based on posts on its Facebook page, its first show was May 26, and its final show was August 5.
A July 4, 2004 article in The Tampa Tribune said that The Dade City Banner said the Joy-Lan opened on March 9, 1950 with the movie Challenge to Lassie. It had “risen from a field in six weeks”. The Tribune itself first listed the Joy Lan in January 1951.
Carl Floyd was listed as the owner in the 1951-52 International Motion Picture Almanac.
As mentioned in that YouTube video that FloridaDriveIns posted, the Joy-Lan was closed in March 1995 by its owner, Floyd Theaters, which had recently sold most of its assets to Carmike. One of the conditions of the sale was that potential competitors such as the Joy-Lan had to be shut down.
Former Floyd Enterprises president Harold Spears formed Sun South Theaters and bought the Joy-Lan along with the Silver Moon in Lakeland, Fun Lan in Tampa, and the Lake Worth, formerly the Trail. The Joy-Lan reopened on Oct. 11, 1996.
There’s a nice YouTube video of how the Pine Hill looked as of summer 2017. The land slopes nicely toward the screen, and it looks like someone could reopen it with just a smidgen of cleanup. And a digital projector. A Jan. 3, 2018 post on Facebook said, “Still have not sold!!! If you’re seriously interested in purchasing, message us.”
The 1955-56 Theatre Catalog listed the owner as A. B. Jefferis, capacity just 200. Its first appearance in the Motion Picture Almanacs was the 1957 edition, same owner, capacity 300. It stayed that way through 1966. Jefferis also owned the indoor theater in Piedmont.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on March 23, 1973 that one Mrs. Maude Jefferis of Piedmont photographed odd blinking lights “high above the drive-in movie screen that stands beyond a pond in Mrs. Jefferis’s front yard.” That must be the adjacent house east of the Pine Hill.
When the MPA resumed owner info in 1978, it was listed as Bazzell, capacity 200. For the 1980-88 editions, the owner was L. Ross.
Victor Weber of Judsonia AR just retired, and he was quoted in a story at Arkansas Online: “I had the big drive-in over at Russellville. I also had three cinemas there. I played Star Wars. I still had it for a first run for a drive-in. I remember I grossed $18,000 on that movie.”
As The Sentinel of Carlisle PA put it later, 28-year-old Donn Mowery’s indoor Newville Theater was destroyed by fire and he “took the insurance money and built the drive-in on the only road between Carlisle and Shippensburg at the time, Route 11. Because of the prime location, the drive-in prospered.” It’s been in the family ever since, (Donn was still in charge in 2003), and its marquee looks the same as it did when advertising the 1952 movie Bloodhounds of Broadway.
Based on articles in the weekly Newville Valley Times-Star, the Cumberland’s opening night (delayed twice by wet weather) was on August 1, 1952, showing Annie Get Your Gun.
One last note from Billboard, June 17, 1950 issue, datelined “PHILADELPHIA, June 10 – … Other drive-in openings in Eastern Pennsylvania area this week included … the new Midway Drive-In opened by the Berneys near Lewistown”
And one more thing – As I type, the main description says the Midway has two screens, but I only see one on Google’s satellite view and the drive-in only lists one double feature on its summer web site (as retrieved from archive.org). Perhaps that note is inaccurate?
An October 1985 article in The Daily Collegian said that Joseph Favuzza and Frank W. Royer had owned the Starlite since 1965, “but are now selling the business.”
Scraping for more clues, I saw that the drive-in’s domain is currently registered to Jeff Favuzza.
Which led me to the Philadelphia Inquirer of Aug. 5, 1992: “Owners of the Midway Drive-In say their patrons were illegally searched by police, who charged 75 people with underage drinking.” Part owner Joseph Favuzza was considering a lawsuit. “What we’re trying to do is right a wrong, said his son, Jeff Favuzza, the drive-in’s manager. The story also got picked up by the Associated Press.
Somebody at the Juniata County Historical Society wrote that the Midway’s opening night was May 17, 1950. “The Berneys, Irvin and Doris, were the first proprietors and showed the film ‘When My Baby Smiles at Me,’ in Technicolor that first night.”
The Daily News of Huntingdon ran a Grand Opening ad on May 17, 1950. The Newport News-Sun also ran a “Grand Opening” ad on April 3, 1952, but clearly that must have been a mere season opener.
The 1950-52 Theatre Catalogs listed the Midway under Lewistown, capacity 400, owned by Irving Berney. The 1955-56 edition listed its capacity at 800.
A note in the April 11, 1953 Billboard magazine read, “Percy A. Niemond … will transfer to the Midway Drive-In, between Lewistown and Mifflintown, Pa., owned by Irvin Berney.”
The International Motion Picture Almanacs also listed the Midway under Lewistown, beginning with the 1951-52 edition. By the next edition, it added the capacity (400) and owner or booker of W. M. Humphreys, which evolved to William Humphreys by 1959. By the 1963 edition, the owner changed to Frank Royer, and that’s the way it stayed through the final IMPA list in 1988.
Norman Gasbarro’s Lykens Valley blog has a great history of the Sky-Vu. “In 1949, the land on which the theatre now stands, was sold by Allen Lincoln Shade and Etta May [Hartman] Shade to Eston C. Artz and Stanford E. Carl. Eston and Stanford established a partnership to create the Sky-Vu Drive-In Theatre in 1950.”
The first newspaper reference I could find was an ad in the Elizabethville Echo of July 13, 1950. It doesn’t quite say so, but it appears to be a grand opening ad: “SKY VU Drive-In Theatre welcomes you to one of America’s most unique outside theatres.” The ad described the Sky Vu’s benefits in copy that wasn’t repeated in the weekly ads that followed. (I’ve uploaded the ad to the Photos section here.)
The 1949-50 Theatre Catalog lists “Drive In” in Gratz, capacity 550, Exec: Artz and Carl (UNC). Did that mean under construction? By the 1952 edition, the listing had evolved to the Sky Vu, capacity 232, Exec: Eston, Artz and Carl, Spring Glen.
The 1951-52 International Motion Picture Almanac listed the
“Skyview”, capacity 230, owned by G. Wolfe, which is how it stayed through at least 1959. For the 1961-66 editions, only the owner changed, to E. Hotz.
When ownership information resumed after a decade off, the 1978 edition listed Trautman, capacity 200. Except for a minor update to M. Trautman, that’s how it stayed through the final IMPA list in 1988.
The Lykens Valley blog fills in part of this period. Around 1969, Marvin Troutman, son of Marvin and Ada Troutman, bought the Sky-Vu and the nearby Halifax Drive-In. “Shortly afterward, he and his wife formed Martro Theatres, Inc.” And they began running X-rated movies at both drive-ins.
The United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association wrote that the Sky-Vu reopened in 1994. Which means it must have been closed for a while before that.
Reports say the Sky Vu closed (again) in 2014. When Tim and Renate Neal leased and reopened it in 2016, Marvin Troutman still owned the place.
The May 8, 1954 Billboard magazine said the Roy Sullender’s National Screen Service Corporation was handling the buying and booking for the Sky-Vu. In Feb. 5, 1955, it said that Tri-States Buying and Booking Service was handling the drive-in.
It had to have been the Halifax, as it was known when it opened in the early 1950s and as it was listed in the 1986 IMPA, for example. By then it was owned by Marvin Troutman operating as Martro Theatres and probably still showing X-rated movies.
There was a fire in the vacant (projection?) building according to a local news report on March 4, 2018. No one was injured.
The report mentioned an NPR story that said a church bought the place in 2008 and stayed there through 2014 and along the way “had unusual ceremonies where old x-rated movies were burned in a fire pit.”
Here’s an amazing 3D-modeled video tribute to the Monte Vista: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNwuDDbIy2E
It would have been a lot easier to restore if the VFW Hall hadn’t expanded into the old viewing field.
You can see the problem in drone footage from June 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URvwIlHKsZc
whitley97, if you’re still interested five years later, Google’s June 2016 Street View showed a for sale sign by 4M Realty, phone number 210.342.4242.
The author of that article since told me that the Senator closed for good in 1986. She also said “early efforts to resurrect a theater didn’t go. Not deemed economical”. I still think it’s ripe for rebuilding, but what do I know?
The owner was active enough recently to turn down a request “to project a message of love on its tattered screen,” according to a Valentine’s Day 2018 article in the Albuquerque Journal.
Rick Cohen, owner of the Transit Drive-In in Lockport NY, wrote a fine essay about this “Drive-In Without A Name”. According to him, this Olden drive-in was under construction when the owner’s daughter died in an accident. It was never opened, operated, or even named.
According to Google Street View, the skeleton was still there as of May 2013.
There was another article today about the still-standing sign in The Daily Courier of Prescott. An excerpt:
(Jane) Orr and (fellow Class of 1963 alum Stephen) Rogers, along with some other loyal drive-in patrons, have worked to maintain the sign, complete with posting occasional messages on the marquee to commemorate holidays, anniversaries, and at least one marriage proposal. The sole message prohibition: nothing commercial or political.
This past week, Orr and Rogers posted a Valentine’s Day missive: “Senator Drive-In — We Still Love and Miss You.” A big red heart is on the far side.
An article in today’s Cape Cod Times says that site of the West Yarmouth will be used for an Irish festival in 2018. It’s “been a point of contention for the town since it was purchased for recreational use in 1985. In 2015, a Drive-in Site Utilization Committee was formed to consider possible uses … but push back from nearby residents has prevented any projects from moving forward.”
It listed the address for the site as 669 Route 28.
A quick check of the International Motion Picture Almanacs on my shelf show a 1000-car drive-in, sometimes called the Yarmouth, in the census-designated place of West Yarmouth (within the town of Yarmouth) beginning in either the 1958 or 1959 edition and continuing through its last drive-in list in 1988.
Like lorraine1031, I remember the Waldo Theater just a block and a half from the Katz with its soda fountain bar by a row of wooden telephone booths. My strongest memory was when, as a grade-schooler in 1971 or ‘72, I saw a four-movie Beatles marathon there. Little did I know how soon it would close after that. Thanks for keeping the memories alive!
The July 23, 1955 Billboard magazine wrote “Ellis Drive-In, near Wilmington, Del., reopened with accomodations for more than 1000 automobiles, twice its former size. Formerly the Brandywine, it is under direction of A. M. Ellis Theaters Company, Philadelphia. The spot is under the supervision of Larry Ruch, district manager. Don Warner, manager of the Chester Pike Drive-In, Chester, Pa., as also manager of Ellis Drive-In. … Box office has been relocated, new roads have been built, and a fence put around the property.”
Great find, Kenmore. In retrospect, the name “Drive In Road” was a dead giveaway. I really had to strain at that 1989 Historic Aerials photo to see what might be a screen facing south. With the trees already growing in the view field, it’s hard to tell how large it was just from that.
The Crest, or its remains, were still visible in the 1994 photo at Historic Aerials. In the 2005 photo, foliage has begun moving into the viewing area, and in the 2009 photo, the storage units were in place.
The “Cho Co”, capacity 200 and owned by Floyd Cox, was in the first Theatre Catalog list for its 1948-49 edition. It morphed into the “Cho-Co” by 1955-56 but otherwise stayed the same.
The “Choco Cho”, capacity 200 and owned by Floyd Cox, was in the first International Motion Picture Almanac list for its 1951-52 edition. The IMPA eventually changed the listing to Choco, but otherwise kept it the same through 1963. The Choco was off the list for good by the 1966 edition.
The El-Co’s first appearance in the Motion Picture Almanac was the 1955 edition, capacity 140, owner Garland Wilson. (The 1955-56 Theatre Catalog had the same info except its capacity was 141.) It stayed that way through at least 1966. The El-Co was still on the list in the 1976 edition of the MPA, but was gone by 1978, never to return.
The viewing area was still visible in HistoricAerial.com’s 1995 photo at the southeast corner of what is now E0520 Road and Main Street. (Thanks, Kenmore!) Buildings had replaced it by the 2003 photo.
A Dec. 2, 2011 article in the Woodward News said that El-Co owners “Jason Swanson and Lance Schultz, both of whom grew up in Shattuck, built the theatre to provide the community with entertainment.” They formed J&L Oilfield Services there in 2002 and had been board members of the Shattuck National Bank.
The El-Co was only open during the summer in 2017. Based on posts on its Facebook page, its first show was May 26, and its final show was August 5.
A July 4, 2004 article in The Tampa Tribune said that The Dade City Banner said the Joy-Lan opened on March 9, 1950 with the movie Challenge to Lassie. It had “risen from a field in six weeks”. The Tribune itself first listed the Joy Lan in January 1951.
Carl Floyd was listed as the owner in the 1951-52 International Motion Picture Almanac.
As mentioned in that YouTube video that FloridaDriveIns posted, the Joy-Lan was closed in March 1995 by its owner, Floyd Theaters, which had recently sold most of its assets to Carmike. One of the conditions of the sale was that potential competitors such as the Joy-Lan had to be shut down.
Former Floyd Enterprises president Harold Spears formed Sun South Theaters and bought the Joy-Lan along with the Silver Moon in Lakeland, Fun Lan in Tampa, and the Lake Worth, formerly the Trail. The Joy-Lan reopened on Oct. 11, 1996.
There’s a nice YouTube video of how the Pine Hill looked as of summer 2017. The land slopes nicely toward the screen, and it looks like someone could reopen it with just a smidgen of cleanup. And a digital projector. A Jan. 3, 2018 post on Facebook said, “Still have not sold!!! If you’re seriously interested in purchasing, message us.”
The 1955-56 Theatre Catalog listed the owner as A. B. Jefferis, capacity just 200. Its first appearance in the Motion Picture Almanacs was the 1957 edition, same owner, capacity 300. It stayed that way through 1966. Jefferis also owned the indoor theater in Piedmont.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on March 23, 1973 that one Mrs. Maude Jefferis of Piedmont photographed odd blinking lights “high above the drive-in movie screen that stands beyond a pond in Mrs. Jefferis’s front yard.” That must be the adjacent house east of the Pine Hill.
When the MPA resumed owner info in 1978, it was listed as Bazzell, capacity 200. For the 1980-88 editions, the owner was L. Ross.
Victor Weber of Judsonia AR just retired, and he was quoted in a story at Arkansas Online: “I had the big drive-in over at Russellville. I also had three cinemas there. I played Star Wars. I still had it for a first run for a drive-in. I remember I grossed $18,000 on that movie.”
As The Sentinel of Carlisle PA put it later, 28-year-old Donn Mowery’s indoor Newville Theater was destroyed by fire and he “took the insurance money and built the drive-in on the only road between Carlisle and Shippensburg at the time, Route 11. Because of the prime location, the drive-in prospered.” It’s been in the family ever since, (Donn was still in charge in 2003), and its marquee looks the same as it did when advertising the 1952 movie Bloodhounds of Broadway.
Based on articles in the weekly Newville Valley Times-Star, the Cumberland’s opening night (delayed twice by wet weather) was on August 1, 1952, showing Annie Get Your Gun.
One last note from Billboard, June 17, 1950 issue, datelined “PHILADELPHIA, June 10 – … Other drive-in openings in Eastern Pennsylvania area this week included … the new Midway Drive-In opened by the Berneys near Lewistown”
And one more thing – As I type, the main description says the Midway has two screens, but I only see one on Google’s satellite view and the drive-in only lists one double feature on its summer web site (as retrieved from archive.org). Perhaps that note is inaccurate?
An October 1985 article in The Daily Collegian said that Joseph Favuzza and Frank W. Royer had owned the Starlite since 1965, “but are now selling the business.”
Scraping for more clues, I saw that the drive-in’s domain is currently registered to Jeff Favuzza.
Which led me to the Philadelphia Inquirer of Aug. 5, 1992: “Owners of the Midway Drive-In say their patrons were illegally searched by police, who charged 75 people with underage drinking.” Part owner Joseph Favuzza was considering a lawsuit. “What we’re trying to do is right a wrong, said his son, Jeff Favuzza, the drive-in’s manager. The story also got picked up by the Associated Press.
Somebody at the Juniata County Historical Society wrote that the Midway’s opening night was May 17, 1950. “The Berneys, Irvin and Doris, were the first proprietors and showed the film ‘When My Baby Smiles at Me,’ in Technicolor that first night.”
The Daily News of Huntingdon ran a Grand Opening ad on May 17, 1950. The Newport News-Sun also ran a “Grand Opening” ad on April 3, 1952, but clearly that must have been a mere season opener.
The 1950-52 Theatre Catalogs listed the Midway under Lewistown, capacity 400, owned by Irving Berney. The 1955-56 edition listed its capacity at 800.
A note in the April 11, 1953 Billboard magazine read, “Percy A. Niemond … will transfer to the Midway Drive-In, between Lewistown and Mifflintown, Pa., owned by Irvin Berney.”
The International Motion Picture Almanacs also listed the Midway under Lewistown, beginning with the 1951-52 edition. By the next edition, it added the capacity (400) and owner or booker of W. M. Humphreys, which evolved to William Humphreys by 1959. By the 1963 edition, the owner changed to Frank Royer, and that’s the way it stayed through the final IMPA list in 1988.
Norman Gasbarro’s Lykens Valley blog has a great history of the Sky-Vu. “In 1949, the land on which the theatre now stands, was sold by Allen Lincoln Shade and Etta May [Hartman] Shade to Eston C. Artz and Stanford E. Carl. Eston and Stanford established a partnership to create the Sky-Vu Drive-In Theatre in 1950.”
The first newspaper reference I could find was an ad in the Elizabethville Echo of July 13, 1950. It doesn’t quite say so, but it appears to be a grand opening ad: “SKY VU Drive-In Theatre welcomes you to one of America’s most unique outside theatres.” The ad described the Sky Vu’s benefits in copy that wasn’t repeated in the weekly ads that followed. (I’ve uploaded the ad to the Photos section here.)
The 1949-50 Theatre Catalog lists “Drive In” in Gratz, capacity 550, Exec: Artz and Carl (UNC). Did that mean under construction? By the 1952 edition, the listing had evolved to the Sky Vu, capacity 232, Exec: Eston, Artz and Carl, Spring Glen.
The 1951-52 International Motion Picture Almanac listed the “Skyview”, capacity 230, owned by G. Wolfe, which is how it stayed through at least 1959. For the 1961-66 editions, only the owner changed, to E. Hotz.
When ownership information resumed after a decade off, the 1978 edition listed Trautman, capacity 200. Except for a minor update to M. Trautman, that’s how it stayed through the final IMPA list in 1988.
The Lykens Valley blog fills in part of this period. Around 1969, Marvin Troutman, son of Marvin and Ada Troutman, bought the Sky-Vu and the nearby Halifax Drive-In. “Shortly afterward, he and his wife formed Martro Theatres, Inc.” And they began running X-rated movies at both drive-ins.
The United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association wrote that the Sky-Vu reopened in 1994. Which means it must have been closed for a while before that.
Reports say the Sky Vu closed (again) in 2014. When Tim and Renate Neal leased and reopened it in 2016, Marvin Troutman still owned the place.
The May 8, 1954 Billboard magazine said the Roy Sullender’s National Screen Service Corporation was handling the buying and booking for the Sky-Vu. In Feb. 5, 1955, it said that Tri-States Buying and Booking Service was handling the drive-in.
It had to have been the Halifax, as it was known when it opened in the early 1950s and as it was listed in the 1986 IMPA, for example. By then it was owned by Marvin Troutman operating as Martro Theatres and probably still showing X-rated movies.