Skyway Drive-In

Mike Rogers on April 26, 2010 at 2:31 pm

Put these NASHVILLE Drive-ins on and I will add what little i HAVE.

Imaxguy on November 3, 2012 at 4:23 pm

Cecil Ferguson and his wife Euela Mae ran this theater when I was a union projectionist. They had carbon arc lamphouses, and Euela Mae would give me left over hamburgers and hot dogs at the end of the night. I’d heat ‘em up during a 20 minute reel in the lamphouse and they’d be piping hot! Euela Mae was struck by lightning not once, but TWICE on the front porch of their home.

lawdawg51 on February 24, 2013 at 12:57 pm

In the late 1960’s, the fellows from Maplewood High School worked at the Skyway. We were about 15 yrs. old in 1966-1967 and would take tickets and work in the concession stand. Toward the end of the movie, on appropriate days, we would also change the marquee.

John Cullman managed the Skyway in the late 60s and his wife, LeeAnn, would sometimes help in the concession. Ms. Allie was the manager of the concession and we kids would help her.

The manger’s office was always sort of dank and dark feeling. John Cullman had a relatively new Corvair Corsa with a turbo-charged engine and spring-loaded 4-speed. What a car! Sometimes, he would toss us the keys and we would go out in the gravel drive-in, spinning donuts and acting ‘afool’ :) The individual that worked there the longest was Roger Shulz, who has for years now been a Senior Pilot for United Airlines. Roger would often ask us to help on particular nights. One of the other fellows that worked up there was Chad Smith, who later served 2 terms as Principle Chief of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma.

After we took the tickets, we would help in the concession stand. Popcorn leftover from the night before would be dumped in a CLEAN metal garbage can and served up in the red-striped boxes the next evening haha! I vividly remember when they started having us prepare pizzas, on one occasion being in a real rush…the pizza was made up, thrown in a box and was never close to an oven! I remember how angry the man was, coming back with the pizza, and told us that we forgot to cut it. We took the raw pizza in the back, cut it in quarters, threw it back in the box, and apparently, he was satisfied!

The ice-cooler below the fountain drinks was a special place. The manager would ask why we were constantly having to bend over into the ice-cooler and there was always some excuse. The fact is…there would frequently be a can of beer with a soda straw which we nursed throughout the evening.

There are probably other things that happened but after nursing the beer in the cooler, I can’t remember them! Working at the Skyway was a real joy. One evening, we had to change the marquee and the movie that had just ended was “The Ten Commandments”. Chad Smith became overwhelmed, standing on the catwalk, as we took the letters off the marquee. He suddenly became Moses! Those of us below that were getting the letters for the new marquee were almost hit by Chad with the letters he was casting down, as though he were Moses breaking the tablets after his return from Mt. Sinai…it was a hoot!

Working at the Skyway meant that you could always slip in the back way and just park your car. If we knew our friends' cars, we would leave them alone, no matter how steamed up the windows got! Of course, in the winter, they would give you a separate heater box to hang in your car with the speaker. If you parked backwards, with the rear facing the screen, this was simply a signal that you wanted to be left alone.

What times!

JJVladimir on December 5, 2015 at 3:03 am

In the “Photos” section, I posted a picture of a newspaper advertisement for movies at the Skyway. One of the movies (“Evil Dead”) is from 1981, which means that the “Overview” above is inaccurate. The Skyway couldn’t have closed in the “mid to late-1970s,” as stated. Early 1980s is probably more accurate.

brucefan5220 on January 26, 2020 at 12:50 pm

seems like i remembering a friend from high school seeing Give me some with fuller luller playing there.