Drive-Ins of Route 66, Expanded Second Edition

Table of Contents

Introduction

A Brief History of Drive-Ins

A Brief History of Route 66

Illinois

Cicero

Bel-Air Drive-In

Countryside

66 Drive-In

Romeoville

Bel-Air Drive-In

Joliet

Hilltop Drive-In

Pontiac

Pontiac / Star Chief Drive-In

Bloomington

Phil-Kron / Bloomington Drive-In

Lincoln

Bennis Auto Vue Drive-In

Lincoln Drive-In

Springfield

Springfield Drive-In

Bonus: (Kerasotes) Twin Drive-In

66 Drive-In

Green Meadows / Route 66 Drive-In

Litchfield

Sky View Drive-In

Mount Olive

Sunset Drive-In

Pontoon Beach

Bel-Air Drive-In

Collinsville

Mounds / Falcon Drive-In

East St. Louis

Shop City Drive-In

Intermission: Route 66 paths through greater St. Louis

Missouri

St. Louis

Thunderbird Drive-In

Broadway Drive-In

Jennings

North Drive-In

Crestwood

66 Park-In

Des Peres

Manchester Drive-In

Bridgeton

Skyline Drive-In

St. Ann

Airway Drive-In

St. Ann 4-Screen Drive-In

Overland

Holiday Drive-In

Sappington

Ronnie’s Drive-In

Valley Park

I-44 Drive-In

Sullivan

Grande Drive-In

Cuba

19 Drive-In

Rolla

Rolla Drive-In

St. Robert

Woodlane Drive-In

Lebanon

Ski-Hi Drive-In

Marshfield

Skyline Drive-In

Springfield

Holiday Drive-In

Springfield Drive-In

Sunset Drive-In

Carthage

Sunset Drive-In

66 Drive-In

Webb City

Webb City Drive-In

Joplin

Crest Drive-In

Tri-State Drive-In

Intermission: Autoscopes

Kansas

Baxter Springs

Twilite Drive-In

Intermission: Common Denominators

Oklahoma

Miami

Tri-State / Sooner Drive-In

Sooner Drive-In

Vinita

Lariat Drive-In

Claremore

Rogers Drive-In

Tulsa

Hi-Way 66 / 11th Street Drive-In

Airview Drive-In

Modernaire / Admiral Twin Drive-In

Apache Drive-In

Sheridan Drive-In

Riverside Drive-In

Bellaire Drive-In

Sapulpa

Tee-Pee Drive-In

Bristow

Pirate Drive-In

Davenport

Rig Drive-In

Edmond

Woodstock / Edmond Drive-In

Sundown Drive-In

Oklahoma City

N’eastern 66 / 66 / Cinema 66 Drive-In

Fair Park Drive-In

Northwest Highway Drive-In

North Penn Twin Drive-In

Twilight Gardens Drive-In

Cinema 70 Drive-In

Circle / Cinema C Drive-In

Bethany

Lake Air Drive-In

El Reno

El Reno / Squaw Drive-In

Weatherford

40 West / 66 West Twin Drive-In

Clinton

Clinton Drive-In

Elk City

66 Drive-In

Erick

Bearcat Drive-In

Intermission: Concession Stand Evolution

Texas

Shamrock

Pioneer Drive-In

McLean

Derby Drive-In

Amarillo

Trail Drive-In

Skyway Drive-In

Tascosa Drive-In

Twin Drive-In

Palo-Duro Drive-In

Sunset Drive-In

Intermission: The Trail That Wasn’t

New Mexico

Tucumcari

County / No Name Drive-In

Canal Drive-In

Santa Rosa

Sky-Ranch Drive-In

Albuquerque

Terrace Drive-In

Wyoming Drive-In

Tesuque Drive-In

Duke City Drive-In

Cactus Drive-In

San Jose / Tri-C / Route 25 Drive-In

Sunset Drive-In

66 Drive-In

Grants

Sahara Drive-In

Milan

Trails Drive-In

Gallup

Zuni Drive-In

Yucca Drive-In

Intermission: Route 66 Motel Neon

Arizona

Holbrook

Western Star Drive-In

66 Drive-In

Winslow

Tonto Drive-In

Flagstaff

Mt. Elden Drive-In

Kingman

Sage Drive-In

Intermission: Wigwam Motels

California

Needles

Sands Drive-In

Barstow

Skyline Drive-In

Lenwood

Bar-Len Drive-In

Victorville

Joshua Drive-In

Bonus: Balsam Drive-In

San Bernardino

Mt. Vernon Drive-In

Rialto

Foothill Drive-In

Fontana

Bel-Air Drive-In

Montclair

Valley Drive-In

La Verne

Mt. Baldy Drive-In

Azusa

Azusa Foothill Drive-In

Duarte

Big Sky Drive-In

Arcadia

Edwards Drive-In

Pasadena

Hastings Drive-In

Los Angeles

Los Feliz Drive-In

Gilmore Drive-In

Pacific / Pico Drive-In

Olympic Drive-In

The End

Bonus Gallery

Acknowledgments

Drive-Ins of Route 66

Second Edition

Michael Kilgore

Drive-Ins of Route 66, 2nd Edition Copyright © 2022 by Michael Kilgore All Rights Reserved.

Published by Neon Jukebox, Denver, Colorado Except for Fair Use, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without the express permission of the author. (That permission is typically easy to get if you ask.) This includes, but is not limited to, reprints, excerpts, photocopying, recording, interpretive dance, semaphore, Aldis lamp, Morse code, or any other way of reproducing this book.

For permission requests, or just to say Hello,

please send an email to [email protected].

Published in the United States

ISBN: 978-1-7333655-8-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022901330

First printing, February 2022

Introduction

Welcome to the expanded, revised second edition of Drive-Ins of Route 66.

I’ve learned a lot since the publication of the first edition in September 2019. More information from more contributors means better details and improved accuracy. More photos make this second edition more attractive to read. And a small shift in emphasis, toward telling the stories of the drive-ins and their people, should make it more fun to read.

This should be (knock on wood) a complete list of every drive-in theater that was ever active within three miles of US 66 or its official alternates. Versions of 66 that were decommissioned before a nearby drive-in could open don’t count. (I’m thinking of you, Santa Fe NM.) Ditto for drive-ins that opened after US 66 was decommissioned, such as the I-270 in Florissant MO.

Before we get to the trip from Chicago to L. A., there will be a couple of short chapters, one on the history of drive-ins in general, and the other on the history of Route 66. As we pass state borders on our journey, we’ll pause for intermissions — interesting topics tangentially related to drive-ins and Route 66.

(By the way, when I refer to a drive-in or other cinema house, I use the theater spelling, which is more common in today’s American English. A century ago, theatre was more common, so quotes often use that spelling. Whichever way it’s spelled, I meant to do that.)

Important disclaimer: Despite my best efforts, probably at least one detail in this book will turn out to be wrong. There are so many dates and names from so many sources that it’s unlikely that they’re all perfect.

There’s also a lot of stuff missing from the drive-in entries in this book. Though the pool of information sources grew since the first book, there are still more that I couldn’t get to. If you know about something that should have been included, please drop me a line.

Now sit back and relax as we get ready to travel 2400 virtual miles and decades into the past. This should be fun!

Michael Kilgore

Carload.com

Find a good place to park - the show’s going to start soon! 2021 photo by the author of the Litchfield IL Sky-View.

A Brief History of Drive-Ins

One of the drawings from Richard Hollingshead Jr.’s original drive-in theater patent.

Although silent-movie drive-ins had previously popped up now and then, their history really starts with inventor Richard Hollingshead Jr., who got the first drive-in theater patent on June 1, 1933. What he really invented wasn’t the outdoor theater — it was the drive-in ramp, which angled each car up to better point at the screen. You might also give him credit for most viewing fields’ clamshell design, shown above.

The Shaky Start

Hollingshead’s first location, which opened June 6, 1933, near Camden NJ, was not a success. It was popular enough, but as with most 1930s drive-ins, its main problem was sound — no one had invented in-car speakers. Loudspeakers supplied the sound to the drivein’s patrons and often beyond, to its annoyed neighbors.

A front-seat view of the first drive-in theater in Camden NJ, as it appeared in Motion Picture Herald.

An equally serious problem was that distributors weren’t eager to rent films for it. Decades later, Hollingshead told the Philadelphia Inquirer that one of his first rentals was three years old and cost us $400 for four days. The last time the film had run was in a little (theater) that paid $20 a week for it. He sold that Camden drive-in theater within three years to an indoor theater owner (with better film connections) who moved it to Union NJ.

The Hollingshead patent didn’t fare much better, as most competitors built similar sites without paying royalties. But potential drive-in builders weren’t sure they could safely ignore the patent. That uncertainty, along with the early sound problems, kept the drive-in business from growing quickly. Fewer than two dozen permanent drive-in theaters were built in the first five years, often using naming alternatives such as motor-in or outdoor theatre. Some small-town entrepreneurs operated short-lived versions using little more than bedsheets, loudspeakers, and film projectors. When the Film Daily Year Book published the first national drive-in theater list in 1942, it could find only 95 of them.

An early advancement in sound came in 1940 in Providence RI. That city’s drive-in added in-car amplifiers, which were attached each night by attendants. The installation for 550 cars cost $10,000, or about $200,000 in today’s dollars. In this photo from The Exhibitor, manager Walter D. McGhee shows off one of the eight-inch devices.

The Postwar Explosion

World War II ended, and American soldiers returned home ready to start families and enjoy some entertainment. For most, their choices were live performance, radio, or the movies. Television was only available in some of the big cities, and it was really expensive. A typical 1951 set cost over $2500 in today’s dollars and could receive just three black and white broadcasts on a screen smaller than today’s computer monitors. The only way to watch a movie was to see whatever was showing, a current film or a reissue, at a theater.

One factor that accelerated the drive-in boom was the postwar availability of the inexpensive in-car speaker. Its classic shape symbolized the drive-in age. 2019 photo by the author at the National Route 66 Museum in Elk City OK.

So in the early postwar years, every factor lined up in favor of drive-ins. The rapidly growing population increasingly moved to suburbs and away from traditional downtown theaters. For those indoor theaters, parking could be difficult or expensive, patrons were expected to dress up, and families with children needed to find babysitters.

Outdoor movies had none of those drawbacks. Patrons were urged to come as you are and bring the kids along. Daylight time wasn’t widespread yet, so drive-ins could start at a decent hour. Hollywood slowly switched to movies in color, even as it continued to create films suitable for the whole family. Plentiful cheap land at the edge of town beckoned developers. As car ownership rapidly became ubiquitous, families had a fun new place to go.

Drive-in theaters built increasingly elaborate playgrounds, which drew children, who brought their parents along. They were often monitored by attendants, such as the clown shown above at Long Island NY’s Bayshore-Sunrise DriveIn, which also had a motor-driven Ferris wheel. Photo from the 1955-56 Theatre Catalog.

The number of drive-ins grew steadily, but the real explosion came after October 1949 when the US Supreme Court ruled, in effect, that Hollingshead’s ramp could not be patented. In one year, the number of US drive-ins more than doubled, from about 750 in 1949 to over 1700 in 1950. That number would have grown even higher, but in September 1950, as the Korean War flared, the US National Production Authority began requiring its approval to use certain building materials for entertainment facilities. Despite that speed bump, drive-in construction resumed normally within a couple of years, and the drive-in population grew to over 4300 by 1955. After that high point, the number leveled out for the next decade.

The Long Decline

After the drive-in population plateaued, most of the factors that led to their growth peeled away one by one. Television expanded to almost every city, and TV set prices dropped from unthinkable to merely expensive. Families snapped them up; 83 percent of American homes had TV in 1958, up from a mere 9 percent in 1950.

At all theaters, fewer films worked for the whole family; most explored more mature topics, and some were too childish for grown-ups to enjoy. Casual wear became acceptable at indoor theaters, and there were more of them close to home near suburban shopping centers. National adoption of Daylight Saving Time in 1967 sliced a crucial hour off already limited drive-in schedules.

Possibly the greatest single factor in the death of so many drive-ins was the arrival of the video cassette recorder (VCR). Few drive-ins survived the 1980s, the decade when VCRs became common in homes. Photo © olegkrugllyak | Depositphotos.com.

Movie-viewing at home became more convenient. Home Box Office launched in 1972, the first of a wave of commercial-free, uncut movie channels for home viewing. Perhaps the final, most lethal drive-in killer was the video cassette recorder. As VCRs dropped in price, video rental stores popped up. A family could line up a double or triple feature with homemade snacks for less than the cost of a night out.

Part of a 1980 St. Louis Post-Dispatch ad for a triple feature of racy movies at two nearby drive-ins, both included in this book.

Many drive-ins reacted by trying to provide viewers with an experience they couldn’t get on television. In the mid-1950s, that meant wide-screen movies, and most pre-existing drive-ins added wings to their screens. Westerns and other family fare faded. As the typical car became less likely to include children, drive-in movie-makers shifted their attention to teenagers and young adults. In the 1960s and 1970s, that often meant horror or titillation films, which were eventually labeled as R-rated. Some drive-ins went even further, showing softcore sexy R movies or even hardcore adult films.

As cities and suburbs expanded, they often encircled previously remote drive-ins. When a developer wanted a contiguous piece of land for a shopping mall or a housing tract, he could offer to buy a drive-in. Some landowners had figured this out decades earlier, offering short-term leases to drive-in theaters while planning to cash out once their parcels became valuable. Combine that with the dwindling crowds and neighborhood pressure against X-rated movies, selling out was often the landowner’s best choice.

21st Century Rediscovery

Most drive-ins that persisted past the year 2000 were either popular in small but not tiny towns (about 5,000-10,000 people), or were in metropolitan areas stuck on parcels of land that were unappealing for other uses. For the survivors, a few new factors tilted back their way.

When most cars included FM radios, that allowed drive-in operators to switch to less expensive FM radio sound. Photo of a 1982 AMC station wagon by Christopher Ziemnowicz.

Disney had always produced family-friendly movies, and it kick-started a modern-day trend with Best Picture nominee Beauty and the Beast (1991). Hoping for similar success, other filmmakers returned to making animated movies that the whole family could enjoy. Studios expanded production of comic book adaptations and other cartoonish action movies, so drive-ins once again had a product to sell to both children and their parents. The FM radio transmitter supplemented and often replaced window-hanging speakers since most cars now had FM stereo radios. Patrons enjoyed richer movie audio than they had from a single, tinny speaker, and drive-in owners didn’t have to maintain and replace speakers every month.

The USPS issued a drive-in theater stamp in 1999 as part of its Celebrate the Century set. It was one of 16 representing the 1950s. Photo © Mmphotos2017 | Dreamstime.com

Near the close of the last century, when the US Postal Service asked its users to vote on the topic that best commemorated the 1950s, they were surprised that the big winner was drive-in movies. Postwar baby boomer children had become parents themselves and grew nostalgic for the advantages and fun of the drive-in. Surviving drive-ins showed an uptick in attendance around the turn of the century.

But that didn’t mean they were out of the woods. Almost no new drive-ins were being built, and every year, a few drive-ins closed as their aging owner-managers cashed out, retired, or both.

Drive-In Economics

Let me pause for a moment to describe a typical drive-in theater’s sources of income. In the early days, drive-ins often rented or even purchased films and kept the ticket proceeds. In 1954, concession stand sales accounted for just 22% of the average drive-in’s income. Those days are long gone. Today, a very high percentage of each ticket goes to the movie’s distributor, so modern drive-ins make most of their money through the concession stand.

In effect, most drive-in theaters operate as seasonal outdoor restaurants with an entertainment theme. They’re popular and a lot more fun, but keeping that in mind, you can see how it’s hard to get rich by running a drive-in. It also explains why some drive-in owners get really cheesed when patrons bring in their own food. The best drive-ins sell food so good that you’d look forward to choosing it for dinner. Even for the bad ones, I still make a point