J.T. ‘Ted’ Francis moved to Newberg in 1926 and reopened the Star & Baker theaters. In 1930, he added sound to the Baker, renamed it the Francis. The Star was closed at this time.
I can’t confirm the M&R theater statistics just yet. But there was an indoor theater named the Ivy at 297 Redwood Hwy., in town and is a quonset hut. I believe it closed around 1999 when the owner decided to focus on his other business ventures. It has been been Bi-Rite Auto parts for some time now and is under new ownership.
There is still some good info on this site, A shame that some listed as Open are now Closed and gone forever.
There is a new Washington drive-in tribute site. Hopefully Rob Norenberg will be able to start posting more info & pics soon.
http://westernwadriveintheatres.weebly.com/index.html
Thanks to Ken and Jack O. from the Rodeo for telling me about the Twin City. My first stop was in 2000, relatively still intact. After the marquee was removed in ‘02, I stopped my visits because I would see transients hanging around the box office, which eventually burned down. By 2005, the county decided to raze the property and fence off the perimeter. You can still see some of the pavement for the main entrance and exit lane coming out of field one.
The Ceres reopened as a Flea Market only in 2012. But there has been some talk about showing movies again in the near future. Screen 2 is still standing, and they would have to rebuild the booth and put up a new screen in field 1 for it to happen.
I stopped by labor Day weekend for one last visit. The screens were the first to be torn down and now all that scrap metal has been hauled away. Both snack bar/ticket booths have been demo'ed. All signage is gone, the exterior fencing is up still. But the speakers posts remain, standing guard in each field.
Both theaters are still open, but the website remains down. They do have a Facebook page though for movie listings, it appears the drive-in has been a single feature only for years. In 2010, Jeff & Shauna Bowen sold the property to Craig Davis, but continue to operate both theaters. Thyy have signed up for the Honda Projectdrivein competition for a new projector. As well as setting up their own Save The Drive-In fundraiser to keep it from closing.
The bankruptcy of Jerry Lewis & NCC is well documented. However, the JLC business model soon fell apart after a few years. Most franchises probably distanced themselves by running more mature, and in some cases ‘adult’ films, when the family film theme ran out of gas. I know my local theater was doing that.
You can change the status to demolished now. All screens are down as well as the south side snack bar & ticket booths. I would imagine they will be done by August.
A previous FB post gave an update on fixing the screen. Apparently, all of the contractors who bid on the project decided it was ‘too dangerous’ to replace the broken bolts etc. Go figure. The image on screen is so-so. You can only do so much cropping with the dimensions they have.
Whatever issues the two sides had, apparently have been solved. They
had a Re-Opening on April 13th with a free concert. I, however, have yet to see inside this theater. I drove over 5 hours to spend a birthday weekend in Aberdeen. Sadly, the concert was canceled and the only communication to ticket holders was thru their Facebook page. Management dropped the ball big time. The artist that night, Scot Bruce, said as much to me later. He eventually booked another gig at the 7th Street Theater in nearby Hoquiam.
I made 2 stops here, in ‘02 & '03. I’m pretty sure it was demo'ed in 2004. Take a look at the Google Earth timeline from 8/12/03 to 5/2/04. You can see that the screens, snack bar, booths & marquee
were removed in that timeframe. What was fascinating was the conditions in '02, almost pristine for being abandoned for so many years. When I came back the next summer, the main screen was reduced to a skeleton frame and the snack bar was tagged by vandals.
It appears that a new swap meet has taken up residence here, website is sunnysideswapmeet.com
The overview is incorrect. I don’t know when the drive-in closed for the season last year. But the link from Aug. 23, 2008 is for Sept. 2005, that’s when 40 Year Old Virgin & Deuce Bigalow came out.
It appears the Kings has closed for good. Drive-ins.com has updated their status to Closed. Last year, there were news reports from the owners about the uncertainty of opening in 2013. Constant vandalism and the high cost of repairs seem to be the culprit. Then there is the massive cost of digital conversion on top of that. I never did make it out here for a night at the Kings drive-in. Only a few daytime visits, and those were depressing enough.
The Blue Fox is the first Washington drive-in to open with digital projection. A fantastic picture on screen. I like the new pre-show, they will add some variety in the next few months. My last 2 trips here have been in late winter. I’ve been happily surprised to see the turnout in such cold conditions.
J.T. ‘Ted’ Francis moved to Newberg in 1926 and reopened the Star & Baker theaters. In 1930, he added sound to the Baker, renamed it the Francis. The Star was closed at this time.
I drive by Athena all the time on the way to the M-F drive-in, but i don’t plan on a trip out there until spring.
I can’t confirm the M&R theater statistics just yet. But there was an indoor theater named the Ivy at 297 Redwood Hwy., in town and is a quonset hut. I believe it closed around 1999 when the owner decided to focus on his other business ventures. It has been been Bi-Rite Auto parts for some time now and is under new ownership.
There is still some good info on this site, A shame that some listed as Open are now Closed and gone forever.
There is a new Washington drive-in tribute site. Hopefully Rob Norenberg will be able to start posting more info & pics soon. http://westernwadriveintheatres.weebly.com/index.html
Thanks to Ken and Jack O. from the Rodeo for telling me about the Twin City. My first stop was in 2000, relatively still intact. After the marquee was removed in ‘02, I stopped my visits because I would see transients hanging around the box office, which eventually burned down. By 2005, the county decided to raze the property and fence off the perimeter. You can still see some of the pavement for the main entrance and exit lane coming out of field one.
Karen closed the Linden 3 back in 2006.
The Ceres reopened as a Flea Market only in 2012. But there has been some talk about showing movies again in the near future. Screen 2 is still standing, and they would have to rebuild the booth and put up a new screen in field 1 for it to happen.
I stopped by labor Day weekend for one last visit. The screens were the first to be torn down and now all that scrap metal has been hauled away. Both snack bar/ticket booths have been demo'ed. All signage is gone, the exterior fencing is up still. But the speakers posts remain, standing guard in each field.
Congrats to the Starlite for winning a digital projector from projectdrivein.
Congrats to the Stateline for winning a digital projector from projectdrivein.
Congrats to Richard Boaz & ‘The Big Mo’ for winning a new projector from projectdrivein. With 3 screens, every little bit helps to stay open.
The Ocala is one of the lucky winners from projectdrivein. ‘How sweet it is’ for the new owners to be able to convert to digital.
The 99W is winner #5 from Honda’s ProjectDriveIn. Still waiting to hear when the conversion process will be done.
The Cherry Bowl is winner #2 of Honda’s ProjectDriveIn. They are getting a new digital projector. WOOP WOOP
Both theaters are still open, but the website remains down. They do have a Facebook page though for movie listings, it appears the drive-in has been a single feature only for years. In 2010, Jeff & Shauna Bowen sold the property to Craig Davis, but continue to operate both theaters. Thyy have signed up for the Honda Projectdrivein competition for a new projector. As well as setting up their own Save The Drive-In fundraiser to keep it from closing.
The bankruptcy of Jerry Lewis & NCC is well documented. However, the JLC business model soon fell apart after a few years. Most franchises probably distanced themselves by running more mature, and in some cases ‘adult’ films, when the family film theme ran out of gas. I know my local theater was doing that.
Take another look from the other angle. I’m guessing the Bowling Alley is between the Granada & the Columbia.
You can change the status to demolished now. All screens are down as well as the south side snack bar & ticket booths. I would imagine they will be done by August.
Its supposed to be installed by the end of May. Interesting note that for the opening weekend of Iron Man 3, they are showing it on both screens.
A previous FB post gave an update on fixing the screen. Apparently, all of the contractors who bid on the project decided it was ‘too dangerous’ to replace the broken bolts etc. Go figure. The image on screen is so-so. You can only do so much cropping with the dimensions they have.
Whatever issues the two sides had, apparently have been solved. They had a Re-Opening on April 13th with a free concert. I, however, have yet to see inside this theater. I drove over 5 hours to spend a birthday weekend in Aberdeen. Sadly, the concert was canceled and the only communication to ticket holders was thru their Facebook page. Management dropped the ball big time. The artist that night, Scot Bruce, said as much to me later. He eventually booked another gig at the 7th Street Theater in nearby Hoquiam.
I made 2 stops here, in ‘02 & '03. I’m pretty sure it was demo'ed in 2004. Take a look at the Google Earth timeline from 8/12/03 to 5/2/04. You can see that the screens, snack bar, booths & marquee were removed in that timeframe. What was fascinating was the conditions in '02, almost pristine for being abandoned for so many years. When I came back the next summer, the main screen was reduced to a skeleton frame and the snack bar was tagged by vandals.
It appears that a new swap meet has taken up residence here, website is sunnysideswapmeet.com
The overview is incorrect. I don’t know when the drive-in closed for the season last year. But the link from Aug. 23, 2008 is for Sept. 2005, that’s when 40 Year Old Virgin & Deuce Bigalow came out.
It appears the Kings has closed for good. Drive-ins.com has updated their status to Closed. Last year, there were news reports from the owners about the uncertainty of opening in 2013. Constant vandalism and the high cost of repairs seem to be the culprit. Then there is the massive cost of digital conversion on top of that. I never did make it out here for a night at the Kings drive-in. Only a few daytime visits, and those were depressing enough.
The Blue Fox is the first Washington drive-in to open with digital projection. A fantastic picture on screen. I like the new pre-show, they will add some variety in the next few months. My last 2 trips here have been in late winter. I’ve been happily surprised to see the turnout in such cold conditions.