I couldn’t find anything about the closing of this drive-in. But I did find something about the opening back in 2012. Riley Cooke runs the Amusement Park drive-in in Montana. It appears that based off some reviews/complaints on their Facebook page, that the good intentions of the Cooke family trying to expand their theater empire and not having good enough management at the Missouri location was a recipe for disaster. Too bad.
The Mooney closed because the owner, Larry Rodkey, did not own the dirt. And the landlord was probably looking for a better deal with a new tenant. Larry also runs 2 other theaters further south in San Luis Obispo & Arroyo Grande. He had troubles finding the right staff to run the Mooney in his abcense.
I think I made about 3 or 4 stops here before it closed.
The Rio suffered some water damage on Dec. 5th 2013, one of the biggest snowstorms to hit the Willamette Valley. The lobby, concession area and bathrooms were all damaged. However, the auditorium and the new digital projector were spared. It appears they have made all the repairs and is open again this Friday Jan. 31st.
There is a drive-in at 3480 Mission Ave. that is now a swap meet. It looks like it has 3 screens, website is oceansideswapmeet.com. I will try and find out more info next month when I’m down there on vacation.
The Auto-Vue has found a ‘new’ screen, I believe its from the Park drive-in in Lakeview, WA. Look for them to open for the 2014 season in May. No word on what kind of digital projection for the drive-in.
This theatre has bounced all over Coos Bay thru the years. They are currently a guest of Little Theater On The Bay. The old location across from the Egyptian seems to be vacant, although its nice to see some signage of its former life.
While taking a theater tour thru my old hometown, I happened to be in the right place at the right time. The pastor noticed me looking thru the windows and gave me a quick tour. Calvary On The Bay has been at the Port for 8 years. Not much as changed since it became a church, but they are making more improvements this year. Acoustical treatments, more classroom space, tweaking the old snack bar. Thanks to some urban renewal funds, the exterior will be remodeled to resemble what it looked like back in the day as the Port Theater.
As a movie theater, it had 475 seats, now about 450. The booth has been remodeled as classrooms.
The Silver Bow is about 4 miles south of Butte on I-15. It used to be in Deer Lodge, but was moved because of a new highway coming in.
It is family-oriented, no R rated films & they are single feature only.
Reasonable prices, but cash only. I’ve been here twice now, it is a pleasant drive-in experience
After the Valley 6 closed in Auburn, I thought I would make more visits to the Skyline. However, after my last trip on Labor Day weekend, I remain convinced that the Rodeo (which is about an hour’s drive north) is the best drive-in left in Washington.
What I liked about the Skyline: 2 lines at the box office, with the left lane being cash only, remodeled bathrooms (and they had the space to do it) the digital projector is a big improvement. They also have an Annual Rocky Horror night and other retro films.
The dislikes: it might have been that night only, but the line in the snack bar was super long. They only have one popper and its too small for that kind of crowd, plus it went down that night. I tend to notice more of the smaller details that makes a drive-in unique. Seeing the totem pole out front decay, peeling paint on the snack bar,
the glo-tops getting fried when they added the FM transmitter.
I am glad they are still open, and managed to transition from film to digital. But I’ve seen better operations on the West Coast.
I worked as an usher here in 1988 while going to college. There are/were 2 ramps (from the mall & exterior entrance) that lead down into the center snack bar. Which is circular shaped. And the theaters were split into 2 hallways, 3 on each side. I remember 3 Men & A Baby playing for most of that year, I can still recite the dialogue of the last 5 minutes. We also had midnight movies on the weekends, including Rocky Horror & Heavy Metal. At some point, I was allowed to make popcorn, which was made upstairs in a room next to the booth. We popped about a week’s worth of corn and stored it in plastic trash bags, yumm.
I’ve had the pleasure of attending a few concerts here. Fantastic acoustics and intimate atmosphere. They have a regular film series each year, which I believe is DVD projection.
Their Facebook page has a picture of the marquee listing May 9, 2014 as the opening day for next season. They are also 80 miles north of Toronto. So, they are dealing with a possible colder climate and defintely later sunsets.
Nice family run drive-in. I made my only visit back in 2002. It looks like they have remodeled the snack bar since then, gone the ‘retro’ look. I got the chance to talk to the owner, Howard Coleman. He basically worked his way up in the theater business over 30 years.
The drive-in is right off I-84, but there is enough of a buffer in between, that I didn’t really notice any distractions. The last field to added, #4, has no ramps, so the screen is higher up than normal.
Each field has their own booth as well & they are going open the 2014 season with digital pictures.
I made 4 trips up here in the final years. What a fantastic drive-in, I miss it so much. My first night here in 2000: Where The Heart IS, X-Men & Fight Club ( A Fox program) We had thunder & lightning that night. By the time Fight Club was over at 4:15, only 12 cars were left.
the new Twilight down the road in Aldergrove has the same layout.
They seperated the snack bar & booth though, and have had problems keeping the grass ramps maintained. It’s not quite the old Hillcrest, but glad the Daulat family has kept the drive-in tradition going in the lower mainland.
It would be a shame for the Hollywood to go out this way. Good luck to the faithful fans to help keep it going. I made 2 visits here, saw a movie in ‘08. Got the grand tour from Vince as well.
I made at least 2 visits here: For Love Of The Game & The 13th Warrior. Then Viva Rock Vegas & Scream 3. It’s a smaller version of the Starlite drive-in in Roseburg, OR. The box office was right off the side of the building with no signage. I always drove right past it into the field. As of 2010, the city/county paved a cul-de-sac on the field, perhaps to make it more of a business park. And the snack bar roof has been changed, more of a pitched roof.
I made a theater tour thru eastern Washington back in 2002. The North Cedar was one of the last drive-ins standing in Spokane along with the E. Trent, E. Sprague & West End. It was demolished sometime between 2006 & 2009 for housing. It looks like the hillside behind the original screen tower is still there.
I made 2 visits in 2012. I was impressed with their approach to the glamour of old Hollywood mixed in with new technology. For the sake of trying it out, I checked out the VIP room which is 21+. It has potential & more comfortable than the other theaters. But the 2.50 upcharge isn’t worth repeat visits. The ‘special’ snack bar items & beer out of a bottle didn’t cut it for me.
This is a cool drive-in, although in a remote part of the state. The screen blew down in January of 2008. Instead of closing down, they bought a new Selby tower. The snack bar has good food & prices.
I have been out to the Auto-Vue drive-in about 5 times in the last 10 years. But never had a chance to see inside of the Blue Fox until my last trip thru Grangeville. It is a very well preserved small town theater, with alot of vintage touches throughout the lobby and auditorium.
Warner Bros. Studio opened the Cameo on Aug. 20th, 1937. The program that night was a Merrie Melody cartoon “With Plenty Of Money & You” followed by the main feature “Ever Since Eve” with Marion Davies. Although WB was hoping to put Ted Francis out of business, he eventually prevailed and bought the Cameo in 1939.
It was an “Adults Only' theater for a long time. Not for content, but as in ‘no kids allowed’.
I have records of a drive-in further up north in Burlington, that might be the Skagit drive-in. The address is the corner of Andis Rd. & Burlington Blvd. Which is the current home of the Burlington Outlet Mall. Cinematour also lists the same info.
I couldn’t find anything about the closing of this drive-in. But I did find something about the opening back in 2012. Riley Cooke runs the Amusement Park drive-in in Montana. It appears that based off some reviews/complaints on their Facebook page, that the good intentions of the Cooke family trying to expand their theater empire and not having good enough management at the Missouri location was a recipe for disaster. Too bad.
The Mooney closed because the owner, Larry Rodkey, did not own the dirt. And the landlord was probably looking for a better deal with a new tenant. Larry also runs 2 other theaters further south in San Luis Obispo & Arroyo Grande. He had troubles finding the right staff to run the Mooney in his abcense.
I think I made about 3 or 4 stops here before it closed.
Great, one more excuse for checking out this theater.
I found some more info: the first film was “The Living Desert” from Disney, which puts the opening around 1954. It closed sometime in the 1980’s.
The Rio suffered some water damage on Dec. 5th 2013, one of the biggest snowstorms to hit the Willamette Valley. The lobby, concession area and bathrooms were all damaged. However, the auditorium and the new digital projector were spared. It appears they have made all the repairs and is open again this Friday Jan. 31st.
Thanks Scott, I guess I didn’t look thru all the DI’s in Oceanside. At least I’ll be able to shoot some new pics of the interior to share.
There is a drive-in at 3480 Mission Ave. that is now a swap meet. It looks like it has 3 screens, website is oceansideswapmeet.com. I will try and find out more info next month when I’m down there on vacation.
The Auto-Vue has found a ‘new’ screen, I believe its from the Park drive-in in Lakeview, WA. Look for them to open for the 2014 season in May. No word on what kind of digital projection for the drive-in.
This theatre has bounced all over Coos Bay thru the years. They are currently a guest of Little Theater On The Bay. The old location across from the Egyptian seems to be vacant, although its nice to see some signage of its former life.
While taking a theater tour thru my old hometown, I happened to be in the right place at the right time. The pastor noticed me looking thru the windows and gave me a quick tour. Calvary On The Bay has been at the Port for 8 years. Not much as changed since it became a church, but they are making more improvements this year. Acoustical treatments, more classroom space, tweaking the old snack bar. Thanks to some urban renewal funds, the exterior will be remodeled to resemble what it looked like back in the day as the Port Theater.
As a movie theater, it had 475 seats, now about 450. The booth has been remodeled as classrooms.
The Silver Bow is about 4 miles south of Butte on I-15. It used to be in Deer Lodge, but was moved because of a new highway coming in. It is family-oriented, no R rated films & they are single feature only. Reasonable prices, but cash only. I’ve been here twice now, it is a pleasant drive-in experience
After the Valley 6 closed in Auburn, I thought I would make more visits to the Skyline. However, after my last trip on Labor Day weekend, I remain convinced that the Rodeo (which is about an hour’s drive north) is the best drive-in left in Washington.
What I liked about the Skyline: 2 lines at the box office, with the left lane being cash only, remodeled bathrooms (and they had the space to do it) the digital projector is a big improvement. They also have an Annual Rocky Horror night and other retro films.
The dislikes: it might have been that night only, but the line in the snack bar was super long. They only have one popper and its too small for that kind of crowd, plus it went down that night. I tend to notice more of the smaller details that makes a drive-in unique. Seeing the totem pole out front decay, peeling paint on the snack bar, the glo-tops getting fried when they added the FM transmitter.
I am glad they are still open, and managed to transition from film to digital. But I’ve seen better operations on the West Coast.
I worked as an usher here in 1988 while going to college. There are/were 2 ramps (from the mall & exterior entrance) that lead down into the center snack bar. Which is circular shaped. And the theaters were split into 2 hallways, 3 on each side. I remember 3 Men & A Baby playing for most of that year, I can still recite the dialogue of the last 5 minutes. We also had midnight movies on the weekends, including Rocky Horror & Heavy Metal. At some point, I was allowed to make popcorn, which was made upstairs in a room next to the booth. We popped about a week’s worth of corn and stored it in plastic trash bags, yumm.
I’ve had the pleasure of attending a few concerts here. Fantastic acoustics and intimate atmosphere. They have a regular film series each year, which I believe is DVD projection.
Their Facebook page has a picture of the marquee listing May 9, 2014 as the opening day for next season. They are also 80 miles north of Toronto. So, they are dealing with a possible colder climate and defintely later sunsets.
Nice family run drive-in. I made my only visit back in 2002. It looks like they have remodeled the snack bar since then, gone the ‘retro’ look. I got the chance to talk to the owner, Howard Coleman. He basically worked his way up in the theater business over 30 years.
The drive-in is right off I-84, but there is enough of a buffer in between, that I didn’t really notice any distractions. The last field to added, #4, has no ramps, so the screen is higher up than normal. Each field has their own booth as well & they are going open the 2014 season with digital pictures.
I made 4 trips up here in the final years. What a fantastic drive-in, I miss it so much. My first night here in 2000: Where The Heart IS, X-Men & Fight Club ( A Fox program) We had thunder & lightning that night. By the time Fight Club was over at 4:15, only 12 cars were left.
the new Twilight down the road in Aldergrove has the same layout. They seperated the snack bar & booth though, and have had problems keeping the grass ramps maintained. It’s not quite the old Hillcrest, but glad the Daulat family has kept the drive-in tradition going in the lower mainland.
It would be a shame for the Hollywood to go out this way. Good luck to the faithful fans to help keep it going. I made 2 visits here, saw a movie in ‘08. Got the grand tour from Vince as well.
I made at least 2 visits here: For Love Of The Game & The 13th Warrior. Then Viva Rock Vegas & Scream 3. It’s a smaller version of the Starlite drive-in in Roseburg, OR. The box office was right off the side of the building with no signage. I always drove right past it into the field. As of 2010, the city/county paved a cul-de-sac on the field, perhaps to make it more of a business park. And the snack bar roof has been changed, more of a pitched roof.
I made a theater tour thru eastern Washington back in 2002. The North Cedar was one of the last drive-ins standing in Spokane along with the E. Trent, E. Sprague & West End. It was demolished sometime between 2006 & 2009 for housing. It looks like the hillside behind the original screen tower is still there.
I made 2 visits in 2012. I was impressed with their approach to the glamour of old Hollywood mixed in with new technology. For the sake of trying it out, I checked out the VIP room which is 21+. It has potential & more comfortable than the other theaters. But the 2.50 upcharge isn’t worth repeat visits. The ‘special’ snack bar items & beer out of a bottle didn’t cut it for me.
This is a cool drive-in, although in a remote part of the state. The screen blew down in January of 2008. Instead of closing down, they bought a new Selby tower. The snack bar has good food & prices.
I have been out to the Auto-Vue drive-in about 5 times in the last 10 years. But never had a chance to see inside of the Blue Fox until my last trip thru Grangeville. It is a very well preserved small town theater, with alot of vintage touches throughout the lobby and auditorium.
Warner Bros. Studio opened the Cameo on Aug. 20th, 1937. The program that night was a Merrie Melody cartoon “With Plenty Of Money & You” followed by the main feature “Ever Since Eve” with Marion Davies. Although WB was hoping to put Ted Francis out of business, he eventually prevailed and bought the Cameo in 1939. It was an “Adults Only' theater for a long time. Not for content, but as in ‘no kids allowed’.
I have records of a drive-in further up north in Burlington, that might be the Skagit drive-in. The address is the corner of Andis Rd. & Burlington Blvd. Which is the current home of the Burlington Outlet Mall. Cinematour also lists the same info.