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Author
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Topic: New drive-in going up in Montana
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Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 05-11-2004 07:08 PM
This is from the Billings Gazette, May 6. This guy has a couple of wacky ideas (wait until you read about where he's going to put the projectors), but I do think he's going to do great with this.)
Couple plans drive-in theater; 2 screens going up near East Laurel exit off I-90
By SUSAN OLP
Of The Gazette Staff
Link: http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/05/06/build/local/25-drive-in.inc
Riley Cooke recalled Wednesday how much he enjoyed the times he spent as a kid going to drive-in movies.
"I can remember going with my baby sitter to the dusk-to-dawn movies," he said, standing with wife Vickie in a weedy field west of Billings.
By the time the last feature ended "you could barely see the screen because it was getting light," he said, and there were only about 10 cars left.
Now Cooke and his wife hope to re-create that kind of family fun when they open a two-screen drive-in movie theater on eight acres not far from the East Laurel exit off I-90. The couple, both Billings natives, hope to open the Park Drive-In by mid-June.
"I've been wanting to do this my whole life," Cooke said.
The couple seems to be part of a trend in bringing back a seemingly lost form of entertainment. Jennifer Sherer, on her Web site www.drive-ins.com, notes that in the past five years, she has seen "drive-in expansion, drive-in reopenings and even brand-new drive-ins."
Sherer, a drive-in theater aficionado, attributes the resurgence to families looking for cheaper forms of entertainment and the chance to replicate their own childhoods. "Parents especially want to give their kids something from the carefree childhood they had," Sherer writes.
By her accounting, five drive-in theaters remain open in various parts of Montana. That number is down from 41 in the heyday of outdoor theaters.
Cooke agrees that making the drive-in a family-friendly place is important. He also sees the drive-in theater as a new entertainment destination for teens who don't have many alternatives in the Billings area.
The Cookes aren't strangers to providing entertainment. For 16 years they worked in the carnival-ride business, traveling throughout the Midwest independently or as part of larger shows.
They finally got off the carnival circuit when their oldest daughter, Jenny, now 11, started school. Now they live with Jenny and younger daughter Annie, 6, in Frannie, Wyo., and they own a used-car lot in Cody, Wyo.
For the Cookes, drive-in movies are actually more than a part of their past, Vickie Cooke said. "We take the girls to the drive-in movie in Powell, and our oldest can't believe there are kids who don't know what a drive-in is."
When the couple noticed the Cody drive-in closed last summer, they began looking into buying the equipment from that theater. They ended up buying the 60-by-80-foot screen and the posts that in older times held speakers for the movies' sound.
Now, in the age of modern technology, people don't use speakers. Instead the sound will be broadcast on a low-power FM radio frequency that can be picked up by vehicle radios.
The Park Drive-In will boast two screens, Cooke said, a larger one facing east that will accommodate 305 vehicles and a smaller one for up to 163 vehicles. Both sides will show two movies a night, five nights a week.
And though the Cookes' movie booking agent said short cartoons - once a staple at drive-ins - are no longer available, the couple hope to track down some to show before the first feature.
The couple also hopes to set up six kiddie rides that will be open until the sky grows dark. Eventually, they would also like to add a miniature golf course.
For another couple of fun touches, one movie projector will be placed inside a 1909 train caboose and the other will be inside an old circus truck. Old-time treats like cotton candy will be sold from an old carnival food wagon.
"We also eventually want to have pizza delivery to the cars," Cooke said.
Once the theater opens, he said, it will run on a Memorial Day to Labor Day schedule and remain open weekends in September. People mistakenly believe drive-ins close in the fall because of the weather.
"That's not true," Cooke said. "They close because it's football season and people are on to other things."
Between now and June, the Cookes still have a lot of work to do. They must put up a fence on the property, prepare the lots for cars and install the two screens and the parking lot posts.
The couple likes the location because it's in an industrial area and close to the interstate. That way, the noise of the movie won't bother nearby residents. The lack of nearby lights also will make viewing the movies much easier.
"I'm real excited," he said with a big grin on his face. "I think it's going to do well."
Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.
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Jack Ondracek
Film God
Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002
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posted 05-11-2004 11:03 PM
What they're dreaming is pretty common. Somebody remembers what it was like to go to the drive-in when they were kids. The place may have had rides, playgrounds, bingo games between shows, cartoons before and maybe even after the features. If an opportunity arises, they go into the business with the intent of resurrecting those memories. It's not uncommon. If they succeed (and surprisingly, a bunch of them have recently), the realities of actually having a real, working drive-in will eventually dictate what kind of format actually emerges.
I hope it works for them. We've raised a terriffic family at our place over the past 18 years. Looking back over the professions I could have engaged in, I believe I could have done a lot worse than run a drive-in for a living.
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Rob Butler
Film Handler
Posts: 91
From: Westford, MA, USA
Registered: Mar 2004
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posted 05-13-2004 07:06 PM
How bout this idea, build an indoor multiplex with an outdoor screen behind the building but utilizing the same booth for all screens. This way, you don't have to only be open in the summer and you have the advantage of the novelty value of the drive-in to draw the crowd. Maybe there might be hope for drive-ins, once electric cars become popular, drive-ins could have electrical hookups for each parking spot, this way people could run their heaters without draining the batteries, once that happens, drive-ins could be open year round, and might get their popularity back once people look at them as a matter of convenience rather than novelty.
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Justin West
Master Film Handler
Posts: 271
From: Peoria, IL, USA
Registered: Jul 2001
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posted 05-14-2004 04:04 AM
Rob, that has, in fact, already been done...at the Moberly (MO) "Five and Drive." The owners (B&B Theatres) had a closed drive-in just north of town (the old Highway 63 Drive-In) and so, they tore down the snack bar, cleaned out the posts, and built a five-plex to the rear of the lot. Using the same booth (just a long one) for all five indoor screens, they also angled one projector out a window towards the old drive-in screen. You can see pics on the drive-ins.com website. It's ok but, it is completely quiet on the lot...w/o speakers...and I like some atmosphere. Also, drive-in patrons walk back to the multiplex and enter to use restrooms or visit the concession stand. The multiplex is first and the drive-in is more an afterthought BUT, at least it is a drive-in that operates!
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