Travels With Steve Swanson

Steve's Mid-Summer Report

2009-7-29T14:58:00-0100

It's been a fun summer so far, I'm having some drive-in withdrawal though. Let's start off with my June road trips.

I started off with a 3 day weekend, June 5-7. Valley 6, Twilight and Wheel-In. Once again, I'm happy the Valley 6 is still open with the impending closure still in the air. However, Valley 4 which has been closed for 5 years was not fixed over the winter. Kieth is getting by on a meager budget, he might do some classic films gain later in the summer. I finally had a chance to see the Twilight during peak season. Although Land Of The Lost was a dud, I was rewarded with some good photo ops of a sold-out crowd. On the way over to Port Townsend, I stopped by the Samish Twin site. It's still a park-n-ride lot for Western Washington University, but the students took the opportunity to create the Lincoln Creek Restoration Project. They diverted the creek bed and landscaped most of the entryway. I think it turned out very well and they posted some before and after photos of their progress. I didn't have time to stop by the Blue Fox without risking missing the ferry. A quiet Sunday night at the Wheel-In for Terminator with Angels & Demons. Not much new to report here.

I went up to Newberg on the 19th for a second viewing of Museum 2 and The Hangover. The Hangover is one of those dark horses that come out each year. It may be rated R but the people seemed to enjoy it. It just passed Beverly Hills Cop as the highest grossing R comedy.

Brian held it over with Terminator the next week. More 99W news later on.

Inspired by the SoCal DIMS trip out to Barstow, I made my own drive-in trip to nowhere on the 26th & 27th. A trip I had not done since 2000, Milton-Freewater and LaGrande in eastern Oregon. It is a brutal itinerary, 850 miles in 54 hours. Both drive-ins are in small towns, they don't get the big crowds. It's is a social gathering place just like a swimming pool or library. And the community support to rebuild 'our drive-in' was worth the investment. I saw Star Trek (for the 3rd time) and Angels & Demons at the M-F, LaGrande had Up & Hannah Montana. M-F is doing good business, the LaGrande has seen their attendance increase as well. They had 150 cars one night the week before. With a 200 car capacity, they were a little overwhelmed at the turnout. Their County Fair is the last weekend of July, manager Edna Henderson would like to show Grease that week as part of her high school reunion and also a slow weekend for the drive-in.

I wish I could get out here more often. The M-F reminds me a little of the Lebanon Motor Vu while the LaGrande 'kinda' reminds me of the Roseburg Starlite with the rolling hills and country setting. Except for the meager snack bar offerings, I'm getting a great vibe off LaGrande.

More remodeling news at the 99W. The marquee is almost done, the SOLD OUT sign is running and 4 new green flags sit on top, with another batch installed on top the box office soon.

The base is still the same green color with a brighter shade of red above, a new standing platform will be purple. I filled in this last weekend, 17th & 18th, 3rd week of Up and 1st week

for Transformers. We had a casual sell-out Friday, turned away about 25 cars. Saturday is always bigger and I think we reached capacity by 8:30, showtime at 9:30.

Hot August nights, Newberg style as the VW's, mini-Coopers & Coffin Cruisers converge on the 15th, Corvettes a week later. We're bringing Grease back Sept. 11-13, Brian might be able

get Saturday Night Fever if the terms are good. Old Fashioned Festival next weekend.

This is going to be fun! A Saturday morning parade, I'll be driving a '69 Red Mustang with movie

posters as decoration. The Cameo will be showing Ted's Home movies from 1-3pm Sat & Sun.

i'll have a display table upstairs, put a new photo album together along with other Francis theater

history. There is an effort to get the Cameo placed on the Nat'l Register of Historic places. It opened in 1937 under Warner Brothers in an effort to put Ted out of business, but he took over 2 years later. So it's the 70 year anniversary of operation. Ted got his start in Newberg in 1926 taking over the Star theater.

A much needed drive-in road trip July 31 - Aug. 1. I will hit the Valley 6 & probably Rodeo.

Paul Allen's Seattle Music Musuem is hosting a Muppets exhibit that I would like to check out too.

WINTER: the forgotten drive-in season

2009-1-12T13:54:00-0100

There was a time when drive-ins were open year round. You looked forward to freezing your hands around the car speakers, ice cold soft drinks would stay cold and at the end of the night, a field attendant would guide your car out of a snow bank.

Drive-ins are still open year round but only in the 'warmer' regions. However, a rouge drive-in is still open in the Northwest. The Blue Fox on Whidbey Island, Washington. They usually close for the holdays, but opened Marley & Me on Christmas Day. We had a 2 week period of snowstorms, not the best time to hit the roads. But by the 26th, it had warmed enough to head north. Some wonderful photo ops at the Skyline, Rodeo & Wheel-In along the way. I forgot my boots though and soaked my feet at every stop, a sacrifice I was willing to make. The Blue Fox had received 14 inches of snow. They plowed the field, nothing but big puddles of water left when I got there.

A bitter wind chill but no rain made for a good night. The movies were watchable, but the anthem, cartoon and intermission reel make up for it. And I can finally say, Mission Accomplished! I was able to go to a drive-in once a month for the whole year.

Here's the list:

January: Santee, Santee CA. First visit, great little 2 screen drive-in.

Feb: Twilight, Aldergrove B.C. Worth seeing Rambo again.

March: Skyline, Shelton, WA. First visit in 4 years. Still not the same under new ownership, but they did remodel the bathrooms which is a good sign.

April: Parkway, Maryville TN. I also went to the new Stardust in Watertown. But the vintage ambience of the Parkway gave it the edge.

June: Motor-Vu, Dallas OR. First time seeing Wall-E.

July: Van Buren, Riverside CA. The remodeled snack bar, light traffic on a Sunday night & meeting up with Kathy Beyers for Hellboy 2. And the carne asada... good times.

Aug: M-F, Milton Freewater OR. Brand new screen for Wall-E & Incredilbe Hulk.

Sept: Rodeo, Bremerton WA. Death Race, high octane drive-in fare.

Oct: Valley 6, Auburn WA. Eagle Eye & Indy 4, Shia LeBouf double feature.

Nov: 99W, Newberg OR. Closing night Nov. 1, just barely made it.

Dec: Blue Fox, Oak Harbor WA.

29 visits in all for '08, about average for me these days. A quick Rodeo update...

This drive-in was tri-plexed in 1978, 30 years of use and abuse in the concessions building have taken their toll. They have started the remodeling process. A diamond polishing system to seal the floors, took 6 days but what results. Restored bathrooms with new dividers. In the kitchen: a new grill, corn dog fryer, 2 more pizza ovens, extra space for food prep and a new water heater. Plus, you can now use your cell phone to be paged when your order is ready.

I feel optimistic about the '09 season. Business seemed to be down all over. With the economic crisis, we may take another hit. Seems like another strong slate of films though. Universal has bumped up Fast & Furious to April 3rd. I thinks its a good move and will do well in the spring instead of being buried in the summer chaos.

Grease at the 99W

2008-9-25T16:50:00-0100

I'd have to say that Grease is my all time favorite movie.

It's the nostalgia, music and characters. And because of the cast involved & how they brought to play to the big screen, it harkens back to the golden age of movie making. I have fond memories of seeing Grease for the first time, a Saturday matinee at the Garden Valley Cinema. Fast forward 30 years, another chance to see Grease at the drive-in. I've been lucky enough to see it at the Hillcrest in B.C. in 2001 and again last year for the 'Grand Closing' at the Starlite in Roseburg, Oregon. The idea of showing classic films at the 99W has been tossed about but Brian would say it wasn't worth it. no one would show up. So I was surprised to hear he was going try something in September, after peak season. We set a date, Sept. 12-14 weekend with Grease and Tropic Thunder, a Paramount package deal. We had a few things in our favor. The weather, turned out to be in the mid 80's, the Grease poster in the snack bar is pretty popular and maybe just maybe we get about 150 cars or so.

I came up before the Labor Day weekend to help decorate. Put some posters up and made a new collage of pictures of the cast reunion this past July. Friday finally came round and I got there early to take pictures and help out a little. 240 cars that night, couldn't believe it. And we were competing against high school football. Most theaters see a decline this time of year and this felt like we were still in the middle of summer. I knew Saturday would be better but no way a sell-out. The first car in line showed up at 4:30, 90 minutes before gates opened. Turned out to be a casual sell out, almost 300 cars. There were some classic cars out both nights, a few folks were dressed up, everybody was having a good time. It has opened to door to more films next year, which I think will be just as successful. A lot of requests for movies as well.

Grease was held over for a 2nd week, since the weather was a lot cooler, the

attendance dropped. Typical of a fall crowd. And then Brian moved it over to the Cameo downtown. Speaking of revival cinema: the Capitol in San Jose has a Customer Appreciation Night with free films. Although this last event had the best of 2008, they have screened Wizard of Oz, Grease and other classics.

Goin' South 2: The Parkway DI

2008-8-14T14:07:00-0100

Sat. 4/26
We toured The Hermitage ( Andrew Jackson's estate) then headed back to Knoxville about 3pm. I had a vague idea of a drive-in at Maryville. But since we took a dinner break and lost an hour coming back east. I wasn't real confident that we could get there by showtime. Dad pushed thru and managed to get there at 8pm.

Still enough daylight to check out the surroundings, better yet...they were only open Friday and Saturdays so it was our good fortune to be there that night.

The Parkway opened in 1948 and closed in 1984. The front lawn was used as a go-kart track for a while. The drive-in reopened in 1998 and is now part of the Blue Moon Theater Chain. They also own drive-ins in Sparta and Harriman. This is one of classics I've only seen in pictures. The box office is well-kept and has glass bricks in front.

The Selby tower has plenty of trees surrounding it which keeps light pollution down. The screen size is 43' by 93'. The field holds about 400 cars. Doug Freeman is one of the owners and he plays oldies music before the show plus gives out free popcorn for trivia time.

The Blue Moon Cafe has alot to offer, burgers made to order Although the A/C decided to stop working that night. This snack bar was also remodeled in 2005, with a retro decor. There are separate entrance and exit doors to help with flow.

Another thing I noticed were garbage cans scattered about the field, definitely helps keep the trash problem down. The program that night was Nim's Island and 21. This gave me more time to talk to Doug during the show and take some more shots. All in all, a fun time.

We managed to eat some great food and see part of the show. I never thought I would be able to make it back here....but I did. Turns out the drive-in was only 5 miles from the airport where I was to fly out next Saturday. After a week of more sightseeing, I came back the following Friday for Leatherheads and Prom Night.

This time, I made sure to watch the film. The A/C was working again and I won some free popcorn. Good times !!!

Goin' South

2008-5-27T11:41:00-0100

For these next 3 columns, I will be going over my road trip back  
east.  

My dad decided to take a cross-country trek and after  
debating on where I could join up with him, we decided on Tennessee  
and North Carolina. If there was a chance to see some drive-ins  
along the way, I was happy. More trip details later, how about a  
drive-in stop first. 

Friday, April 25. Watertown is about a half-hour north of Nashville and  
home of the Stardust.  This is a new build, opened in 2003 and a  
2nd screen was added in 2005.  It's in a good location outside of  
town.  They did a good job with the layout, snack bar in the middle  
with screens on either side.  I was able to walk around and get a  
good feel for the place. They have a small cliifside in field 1  
with provided a nice overlook. 






The concessions building is split up into 2 parts, the snack bar/projection booth and bathrooms with a  
breezeway in the middle. There are 2 walk up windows to place your  
order, some Christmas lights and ceiling fans for air circulation  
accentuate the breezeway.  A full service menu, everything from  
burgers to pizza and popcorn.


Field 1 is laid out with ramps & parking posts.  Field 2 needs some improvements.  There are no  
ramps and some pretty big ruts makes it hard to find your way  
around during the show.  Still, picture and sound are great, the  
food was tasty.  Their season runs from later February to October -  
November, depending on crowds & weather.



They have 2 pajama party weekends each season. Everyone who shows up in their PJ's has a  
chance to win a party pack.  I ended up seeing 21 & Vantage Point  
in field 2.  This was a good choice to come out here. Although  
Tennessee has 17 drive-ins.  I knew we couldn't stray too far off  
our path, Watertown was within our means.



Next stop, the Parkway in Maryville, Tennessee.

Tennessee Drive-Ins

2008-4-27T22:25:00-0100

Hey y'all
I'm in Asheviille, NC right now but just wrapped up a 2 day drive-in road trip. I went to the Stardust in Watertown on Friday. (about 30 miles north of Nashville) This is a new build, opened in 2003 and added a 2nd screen in '05. Great atmosphere, perfect spot in a country setting. Although the snack bar has that softball field design, the food is awesome. OK, moving onto the Parkway in Maryville (about 20 miles south of Knoxville) This drivein was built in 1948, closed in 1994 and reopened in 1999. This is part of the Blue Moon Theaters chain. Vintage is the word here, the box office has glass bricks in front, a Selby curved screen about 25 up in the air (43' by 93') Great food and oldies music before the show. One of the few drive-ins that has season passes. All in all,
a great crash course in the Tennessee drive-ins. Gotta go, so much to do so little time. As for the rest of my trip: toured the Ryman Auditorium and The Hermitage ( President Jackson's estate) We drove thru the Smoky Mtn's Nat'l Park today. Going to the Biltmore Estate tomorrow. I will have a full report when I get back, check out socaldims.com

Long live those drive-in nights
Steve

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