65 Drive-In

Angelo Saccaro and Merl Jones opened the 65 Drive-In on April 25, 1950 with “Oh, You Beautiful Doll” on the big screen. The 45x40' tower with a 27'x38' image was in for the long haul remaining in place until being torn down in 1987, just a year after its 27th and final season completed. Sacarro bought out Jones in 1959 and the theater stayed in the Saccaro family until the final showing. Annual “Mud-a-thons”, Sunday morning drive-in church services, and Kool Kart go-cart racing were just some of the additional features at the 65.

The Saccaros added a car wash in the drive-in’s 16th season to increase revenues which was a good idea as the fortunes of the 65 faded in the 1980s. At the very end, the 65 had turned to X-rated fare and closed with Hyapatia Lee’s “Let’s Get Physical” on September 13, 1986. The announcement of the non-opening in 1987 didn’t come until June of 1987 when the decision was made to not only not open but to raze the 65 occurring that October.

During its final several years in operation, the 65 Drive-In had both a normal policy and an adult policy mixed in one. At first, the 65 Drive-In ran only some X-rated features on most weekdays only (Wednesdays to Saturdays), while first-run features ran on mainly Sundays to Tuesdays. A whole week of first-run features were also presented sometimes as well.

When 1983 rolled along, the management still managed to keep the same exact lineup for only half of the time, but for the other half had shifted days up a bit. When the 1983 season came, they primarily showed X-rated features on Mondays to Thursdays, while normal first-run features (sometimes second-run) were played on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Like I said above, they sometimes shift back-and-forth with both its previous and then-current lineup of movies.

Despite closing with a very short-lived all-X-rated policy lasting for a couple of weeks only, the 65 Drive-In’s last normal first-run feature is “Short Circuit” which ran its final showing on August 30, 1986.