One more note. The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal wrote in April 2011 that “The very first drive-in to go digital was the Spud Drive-In in Driggs, Idaho — opening Despicable Me and Robin Hood as its first digital features in July 2010.” It quoted interviews with “Keith Zednick, Spud chief operating officer” in BoxOffice and at DriveInFilmFestival.com.
That lines up with the year that Wydaho Group ran the Spud, but came before 2013’s Save The Spud fundraisers to get a digital projector. If the Spud currently has the projector that was on its way in March 2015, that would mean it has used three different digital projectors in the past seven years. Pretty wild for a tiny little drive-in!
Uh oh! The Spud has been for sale since late 2016. Great photo though. Got a spare $675k?
Also, a March 2015 article in the Teton Valley News said that when the folks who raised money for a digital projector left the Spud, they took the projector with them. A new one was on its way, but that speaks to unsettled management.
“Ace Wood” built the Spud and ran it from 1953 to 1967.
Gladys and Leo Davis ran the business from 1967 to 1987. (That’s when it had the “Gladys burger”.)
Wydaho Group LLC ran the Spud for a single season in 2010 and announced in May 2011 that the business would close.
“Dawnelle Mangum, who with former husband Richard Wood ran the drive-in from 1987 to 2009, negotiated to lease the theater from Wydaho Group and operate it with partner Tyler Hammond, co-owner of a towing company and auto body shop in Driggs.”
Also, the Spud is listed on the National Register of Historic Sites and the Idaho State Historic Registry.
My guess was just verified by a note from the current Idan-Ha crew. “I am uncertain when the name changed but I thought that it happened when Owen owned it in the 80’s.” Since it’s in the 1982 IMPA, the name change probably happened around 1980, give or take a year.
The Idan-Ha was open for the 2014-2016 seasons, about mid-May through August. See its week-by-week notes on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IdanHaDriveinTheatre/
When did it open? The Dawn-A-Vu was listed through the 1976 IMPAs, and my next copy, 1982, shows the Idan-Ha. A 2013 article in the Idaho State Business Journal claimed “The Idan-Ha Drive-In has been a part of Soda Springs for nearly 60 years,” so I’m guessing that the Dawn-A-Vu changed its name in the late 1970s.
And by the way, the IMPAs list the Motor Vu in Ogden and only one screen all the way to 1988, the last IMPA drive-in list. Sometimes I wonder whether the details on the IMPA lists are ever accurate.
There’s a good article from 2016 in the Ogden Standard-Examiner. “The original theater had only one screen. Two more were added in the 1980s, and a fourth was added in 1996.” It said that current manager “Brent Coleman’s family has worked at the cinemas since his dad (Howard Coleman?) started as a Motor-Vu lot boy in 1952. He bought the drive(sic) in 1979.” Regarding current ownership, “(Brent) Coleman now co-owns the Motor-Vu with his two brothers, who also operate theater chains on opposite coasts of the country.”
Much more here: http://www.standard.net/Entertainment/2016/06/26/Riverdale-Colemans-Motor-Vu-drive-in-brings-movies-for-decades
Okay, one more note. A Deseret News article from 1990(!) that is somehow still online provides a possible explanation for the sporadic screen addition. “The (DeAnza) company formerly owned as many as four drive-ins throughout the valley. As they were forced to close those locations due to economic concerns, they recycled the equipment and expanded the Redwood location.”
The screen count was already up to six in 1990. The article separately laments, “Some estimate there are only 1,500 outdoor movie screens left in the country.” Those were the days!
The 1959 IMPA shows the Redwood in Granger UT. Google Maps now shows Granger as a neighborhood in West Valley City.
The 1982-89 IMPAs list the Redwood as a twin, and this time in Murray UT. The Redwood is at least a mile northwest of Murray, so maybe that was its post office address?
It’s down to four active screens now. I could have sworn that it was at five screens for at least a year or two, and the aerial photos show all six still standing, so what’s up with that?
From that website: The Motor Vu Theater in Erda, Utah was built in 1949. The theater has a maximum capacity of 650 cars, although we tend to try to keep things below 400 for safety. The original screen was destroyed by a small tornado in 1993. Our drive in features digital projection and a working FM radio is required for sound.
A 2010 article in The Salt Lake Tribune put the Echo’s opening at 1958, but the folks who run the Basin in Mount Pleasant say the Echo was already open when they bought and moved the Basin out of Roosevelt in 1958.
The IMPAs are no help here. The Echo never appeared in any edition.
An article from April 2016 suggests that a new housing development south of the property may complicate the Holiday Twin’s continued operation. Tons of great history in the article too.
That Denver Post story linked by CSWalczak said the 88 was built in 1972. “Bill and Margaret Holshue bought the 88 in 1976. The previous owner ran X-rated features”. Which means that someone built a drive-in from scratch just to run adult films? That seems unlikely in retrospect.
Anyway, my 1972 and 1976 IMPAs don’t list the 88, but the 1982 edition does, for whatever that’s worth.
My most recent memory of the 88 is that the concession stand sold unbranded sodas from its fountain. Squeezing a penny or two by using cheaper syrup in an almost pure-profit item left a literal bad taste in my mouth. OTOH, they almost always show triple features and stay open for as many weeks as they can, so I’m grateful that they’re around.
When the Mesa added those two screens, they bought them used from two other Colorado drive-ins that had recently down. One of them was the Lake Estes from Estes Park, and the other was the Pines from Loveland.
There was a great article in The Legend about the South. It told how Glen Cooper built the South in 1947 and the Boot Hill Drive-In about a decade later. Glen also owned drive-ins in Garden City and Hays. When son Ron left military service, he moved to Hays to run that drive-in, and when Glen passed away, he and his family moved to Dodge City. At the time of the article, 2011, he was worried about digital conversion. “We’d need a rich philanthropist who’s in love with drive-ins, or some kind of grant to do that,” he said.
Now look at the United Wireless Communications web site. It says, “In 2012, our region was in danger of losing a real treasure in the South Drive-In Theatre, which just happens to be our neighbor on McArtor Road. … So we bought it from the previous owners, made some upgrades for showing films in digital format, and have been having a ball giving our friends and neighbors a great place to have fun on warm evenings.”
Thanks for your photos, Chris1982, but I’m guessing that if the Coopers are still involved, they’re probably just managing the South.
360Wichita.com has a great article with a lot of photos of the 1974 construction work. My favorite is a blurry photo of the old Rainbow marquee holding the message “watch for the happy event / we’re expecting twins”.
The 1976 IMPA still listed it as the single-screen Rainbow, capacity 500. By 1982, it was updated to the twin-screen Landmark, the name the IMPA kept through its final drive-in list in 1988.
The Getty Drive In was originally a one screen theatre built in 1948 called the NK Drive In.
Loeks Theatres purchased the theatre in 1966 and changed the name to The Getty Drive In.
In 1978, Loeks added three screens making the Getty one of the largest outdoor theatres in the country.
Automobile radio sound was introduced in 1993, allowing movie goers more high-quality sound.
In 2013, the Getty Drive-In converted to DLP® Digital Projection, enhancing the quality and brightness of the picture and extending the life of the Getty for years to come!
When did the I-70 split from one screen to four? It had to be before summer 1992, because that’s when I saw A League of Their Own there (in the rain). The 1988 IMPA still listed it as one screen, for what that’s worth.
My 1969 IMPA erroneously lists the “Twin I & II” under Kansas City MO, capacity 1700. That error persisted through at least the 1976 edition. The 1982 edition was more accurate, listing it in Independence with 2 x 850 capacity.
The Barco Facebook page says it opened as the “Starvu drive-in” but that’s not quite accurate. The Grand Opening “poster” (or newspaper ad) that I uploaded from OzarksAlive.com shows the name as the Barco Starvue.
The 1952 Theater Catalog lists it as the Barco Starvue. The 1955 Catalog and the 1959 and later IMPAs list it as just the Barco, so that Starvue part must have been dropped soon after opening.
One more note. The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal wrote in April 2011 that “The very first drive-in to go digital was the Spud Drive-In in Driggs, Idaho — opening Despicable Me and Robin Hood as its first digital features in July 2010.” It quoted interviews with “Keith Zednick, Spud chief operating officer” in BoxOffice and at DriveInFilmFestival.com.
That lines up with the year that Wydaho Group ran the Spud, but came before 2013’s Save The Spud fundraisers to get a digital projector. If the Spud currently has the projector that was on its way in March 2015, that would mean it has used three different digital projectors in the past seven years. Pretty wild for a tiny little drive-in!
Uh oh! The Spud has been for sale since late 2016. Great photo though. Got a spare $675k?
Also, a March 2015 article in the Teton Valley News said that when the folks who raised money for a digital projector left the Spud, they took the projector with them. A new one was on its way, but that speaks to unsettled management.
A 2013 article in the Jackson Hole (WY) News & Guide listed the ownership timeline as:
“Ace Wood” built the Spud and ran it from 1953 to 1967.
Gladys and Leo Davis ran the business from 1967 to 1987. (That’s when it had the “Gladys burger”.)
Wydaho Group LLC ran the Spud for a single season in 2010 and announced in May 2011 that the business would close.
“Dawnelle Mangum, who with former husband Richard Wood ran the drive-in from 1987 to 2009, negotiated to lease the theater from Wydaho Group and operate it with partner Tyler Hammond, co-owner of a towing company and auto body shop in Driggs.”
Also, the Spud is listed on the National Register of Historic Sites and the Idaho State Historic Registry.
My guess was just verified by a note from the current Idan-Ha crew. “I am uncertain when the name changed but I thought that it happened when Owen owned it in the 80’s.” Since it’s in the 1982 IMPA, the name change probably happened around 1980, give or take a year.
The Idan-Ha was open for the 2014-2016 seasons, about mid-May through August. See its week-by-week notes on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IdanHaDriveinTheatre/
When did it open? The Dawn-A-Vu was listed through the 1976 IMPAs, and my next copy, 1982, shows the Idan-Ha. A 2013 article in the Idaho State Business Journal claimed “The Idan-Ha Drive-In has been a part of Soda Springs for nearly 60 years,” so I’m guessing that the Dawn-A-Vu changed its name in the late 1970s.
And by the way, the IMPAs list the Motor Vu in Ogden and only one screen all the way to 1988, the last IMPA drive-in list. Sometimes I wonder whether the details on the IMPA lists are ever accurate.
There’s a good article from 2016 in the Ogden Standard-Examiner. “The original theater had only one screen. Two more were added in the 1980s, and a fourth was added in 1996.” It said that current manager “Brent Coleman’s family has worked at the cinemas since his dad (Howard Coleman?) started as a Motor-Vu lot boy in 1952. He bought the drive(sic) in 1979.” Regarding current ownership, “(Brent) Coleman now co-owns the Motor-Vu with his two brothers, who also operate theater chains on opposite coasts of the country.”
Much more here: http://www.standard.net/Entertainment/2016/06/26/Riverdale-Colemans-Motor-Vu-drive-in-brings-movies-for-decades
Okay, one more note. A Deseret News article from 1990(!) that is somehow still online provides a possible explanation for the sporadic screen addition. “The (DeAnza) company formerly owned as many as four drive-ins throughout the valley. As they were forced to close those locations due to economic concerns, they recycled the equipment and expanded the Redwood location.”
The screen count was already up to six in 1990. The article separately laments, “Some estimate there are only 1,500 outdoor movie screens left in the country.” Those were the days!
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/92035/DRIVE-IN-THEATER-STILL-FLOURISHES-ON-REDWOOD-ROAD—-ALL-YEAR-ROUND.html?pg=all
A blog post with photos purportedly from 1979 shows four screens, apparently proving the IMPAs were behind the times again.
https://slcoarchives.wordpress.com/2016/04/14/redwood-drive-in-theatre/
The 1959 IMPA shows the Redwood in Granger UT. Google Maps now shows Granger as a neighborhood in West Valley City.
The 1982-89 IMPAs list the Redwood as a twin, and this time in Murray UT. The Redwood is at least a mile northwest of Murray, so maybe that was its post office address?
It’s down to four active screens now. I could have sworn that it was at five screens for at least a year or two, and the aerial photos show all six still standing, so what’s up with that?
From that website: The Motor Vu Theater in Erda, Utah was built in 1949. The theater has a maximum capacity of 650 cars, although we tend to try to keep things below 400 for safety. The original screen was destroyed by a small tornado in 1993. Our drive in features digital projection and a working FM radio is required for sound.
A 2010 article in The Salt Lake Tribune put the Echo’s opening at 1958, but the folks who run the Basin in Mount Pleasant say the Echo was already open when they bought and moved the Basin out of Roosevelt in 1958.
The IMPAs are no help here. The Echo never appeared in any edition.
An article from April 2016 suggests that a new housing development south of the property may complicate the Holiday Twin’s continued operation. Tons of great history in the article too.
http://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2016/04/01/whats-next-for-holiday-twin-drive-in/82348898/
That Denver Post story linked by CSWalczak said the 88 was built in 1972. “Bill and Margaret Holshue bought the 88 in 1976. The previous owner ran X-rated features”. Which means that someone built a drive-in from scratch just to run adult films? That seems unlikely in retrospect.
Anyway, my 1972 and 1976 IMPAs don’t list the 88, but the 1982 edition does, for whatever that’s worth.
My most recent memory of the 88 is that the concession stand sold unbranded sodas from its fountain. Squeezing a penny or two by using cheaper syrup in an almost pure-profit item left a literal bad taste in my mouth. OTOH, they almost always show triple features and stay open for as many weeks as they can, so I’m grateful that they’re around.
After the marquee was tagged with graffiti in January 2017, some Commerce Township folks launched a GoFundMe campaign to try to restore it.
http://www.theoaklandpress.com/general-news/20170420/commerce-township-drive-in-movie-marquee-to-be-rehabilitated-following-years-of-neglect
Video: http://www.wxyz.com/news/growing-push-to-revive-decades-old-marquee-in-commerce-township
The 1972 IMPA listed the Evans as capacity 600 cars “plus 120 seats”.
The 1982 IMPA had it at 500, circuit “Deluxe”. By the 1984 IMPA, it was gone.
When the Mesa added those two screens, they bought them used from two other Colorado drive-ins that had recently down. One of them was the Lake Estes from Estes Park, and the other was the Pines from Loveland.
There was a great article in The Legend about the South. It told how Glen Cooper built the South in 1947 and the Boot Hill Drive-In about a decade later. Glen also owned drive-ins in Garden City and Hays. When son Ron left military service, he moved to Hays to run that drive-in, and when Glen passed away, he and his family moved to Dodge City. At the time of the article, 2011, he was worried about digital conversion. “We’d need a rich philanthropist who’s in love with drive-ins, or some kind of grant to do that,” he said.
Now look at the United Wireless Communications web site. It says, “In 2012, our region was in danger of losing a real treasure in the South Drive-In Theatre, which just happens to be our neighbor on McArtor Road. … So we bought it from the previous owners, made some upgrades for showing films in digital format, and have been having a ball giving our friends and neighbors a great place to have fun on warm evenings.”
Thanks for your photos, Chris1982, but I’m guessing that if the Coopers are still involved, they’re probably just managing the South.
360Wichita.com has a great article with a lot of photos of the 1974 construction work. My favorite is a blurry photo of the old Rainbow marquee holding the message “watch for the happy event / we’re expecting twins”.
The 1976 IMPA still listed it as the single-screen Rainbow, capacity 500. By 1982, it was updated to the twin-screen Landmark, the name the IMPA kept through its final drive-in list in 1988.
A KCTV story from 2013 said the Midway opened in 1953. The 1952 Theatre Catalog didn’t list it, but the 1955 edition did.
All Catalog and IMPA references to the Midway assign it to Osawatomie, but as jwmovies noted, it claims a Paola address.
From the Getty Drive-In web site:
The Getty Drive In – Since 1944 (sic)
The Getty Drive In was originally a one screen theatre built in 1948 called the NK Drive In.
Loeks Theatres purchased the theatre in 1966 and changed the name to The Getty Drive In.
In 1978, Loeks added three screens making the Getty one of the largest outdoor theatres in the country.
Automobile radio sound was introduced in 1993, allowing movie goers more high-quality sound.
In 2013, the Getty Drive-In converted to DLP® Digital Projection, enhancing the quality and brightness of the picture and extending the life of the Getty for years to come!
When did the I-70 split from one screen to four? It had to be before summer 1992, because that’s when I saw A League of Their Own there (in the rain). The 1988 IMPA still listed it as one screen, for what that’s worth.
My 1969 IMPA erroneously lists the “Twin I & II” under Kansas City MO, capacity 1700. That error persisted through at least the 1976 edition. The 1982 edition was more accurate, listing it in Independence with 2 x 850 capacity.
The Barco Facebook page says it opened as the “Starvu drive-in” but that’s not quite accurate. The Grand Opening “poster” (or newspaper ad) that I uploaded from OzarksAlive.com shows the name as the Barco Starvue.
The 1952 Theater Catalog lists it as the Barco Starvue. The 1955 Catalog and the 1959 and later IMPAs list it as just the Barco, so that Starvue part must have been dropped soon after opening.