Memorial Day 2010

Although many people believe Memorial Day is a day to remember all of the nation's dead, the holiday actually honors those who fell while in service to our country. Here's a great website (maintained by the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War) that is dedicated to restoring the original meaning of the holiday.

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day.

Lorain Drive-in Closing Day, 1986

My last few posts were about opening weekends of the Lorain Drive-in through the years. This one's about the closing weekend.

(Before I could post anything, though, I had to figure out exactly when it did close. There's not exactly a lot of sources for things like this. Even my morgue of newspaper clippings through the years only indicated it was either 1986 or 1987. So I headed back to the microfilm reader at the library and slowly began take note of when the theater was in the theater listings and when it wasn't. One stiff neck later, I had my answer!)

I can now safely say that the Lorain Drive-in's final weekend was September 5, 6 and 7, 1986. Here is the ad that ran in the Journal's entertainment tabloid on Friday, Sept. 5

Actually the double feature for Screen 1 looked like a pretty good one: Armed & Dangerous with John Candy and Eugene Levy, and Back to School with Rodney Dangerfield. I'm not so sure about Screen 2's double feature of No Retreat, No Surrender with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Runaway Train with Jon Voight.

I looked at the Journals from before and after the drive-in's closing to see if there was any sort of article about it. As far as I could see, there wasn't. Which was too bad.

Strangely enough, the Lorain Drive-in did show up the 1987 city directory, seemingly just to make it tougher for me in my research. But the show was definitely over by then. My stiff neck confirms it.

Lorain Drive-in Opening Day, 1948

Here's an ad for the 1948 opening weekend of the Lorain Drive-in. It ran in the newspaper on April 16. (Sorry for the rather crummy quality of the ad, which is from the library's microfilm.) At least the 1948 opener was probably a little bit warmer than it was on the 1955 opening weekend, which I told you about here.

I'm fairly impressed with the marketing that the Lorain Drive-in employed to generate interest two years after it opened. The fireworks are a great idea.

It's easy to forget that drive-ins didn't always show monster flicks and teenage epics as popular culture and nostalgia seem to imply; that came later. In the early days, they showed a lot of B-movies. In this case, the drive-in's feature was The Bachelor's Daughters, a movie that was already 2 years old!)

Lorain Drive-in Opening Day, 1946

As I wrap up this series on local (and regional) drive-in theaters, I thought I would do a little more on the Lorain Drive-in.

Last night at the library, I decided to try and find out the exact date when it actually opened. I was pretty sure it opened in 1946, so I popped in a microfilm reel from June, reasoning that it probably opened after school was out.

Lo and behold, I had only scrolled a little bit through the reel when I hit pay-dirt and found this ad on the movie listings page of June 19, 1946:

This kind of thing makes you happy when you don't feel like sitting and staring like a zombie at microfilm for hours! It was only a few days later when this article appeared on Friday, June 28.

The clipping's kind of nice in that it provides a little information as to who was behind Lorain's 'first' (and only) drive-in theater, namely Wilbur F. Ptak.

And so, on Saturday, June 29, this huge ad appeared in the paper, promoting the grand opening of the Lorain Drive-in Theater with a double feature of Guest Wife (with Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche) and A Thousand and One Nights (with Evelyn Keyes and Phil Silvers). Click on the ad so you can read it!

I like the ad a lot, because it does a great job of introducing what was probably a foreign concept to Lorainites back then. 

Madison Skyway Drive-in

To close out this online collection of my old drive-in theater photos (unless I can dig out some more), here's one of the Madison Skyway Drive-in. (Click on it for a closer look.) I know it's not in Lorain County, but I'm casting a wider net on this topic – plus I like seeing all my drive-in photos in one place!

According to this website, which is an index of Ohio's forgotten drive-ins, it was located on Route 20, two miles west of Geneva. I shot it back in August of 1995, a mere fifteen years ago, during a road trip to Geneva on the Lake.

Unlike the Carlisle and Sandusky Drive-ins, the Madison Skyway is still there apparently. When I photographed it, it was already getting obscured by foliage; it's even worse now. If you're interested, this website has some more recent shots, an aerial shot and a few vintage ads. And some nice color shots of the overgrown marquee are on this flickr site.

Midway Auto Drive-in Theater

As long as I've wandered out of the confines of Lorain County with my photos of long-gone drive-ins, I might as well keep going. This photo is of the Midway Auto Drive-in, which was located on US 42 about, uh, midway between Ashland and Mansfield in Richland County. I shot it during the summer of 1987.

There's not much information about this drive-in online. The official address was 3124 Ashland Road in Mansfield.

I was driving by it fairly regularly for a few years in the late 1980's as I was driving up and down US 42 a lot. Each time it looked a little worse until finally there was some kind of "gentlemen's club" located in what was probably the refreshment stand.

Here's a link to the Cinema Treasures website, which has a little information about the drive-in’s history, including its opening on September 18, 1947.

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UPDATE (June 1, 2021)

Here’s a Google Maps view dated Sept. 2019 of the property, as seen from U. S. 42.

And here’s a Google Maps 2021 Aerial View. That’s Bowen Road running alongside the property.

Sandusky Drive-in

Staying with my drive-in theme for a while, here's another photo of a late, great drive-in (although technically it's not in Lorain County, as the name of this blog would have you believe.) The photo is of the Sandusky Drive-in, which was on US Route 6 along the eastern approach to the city. I took the photo back in June 2007.

By that time, the drive-in had closed and I believe it was for sale (I managed to compose my shot without the unsightly 'For Sale' sign.)

Back in the summer of 1991, I had also snapped a shot of it (at left). The theater was still open then, as the marquee was promoting The Perfect Weapon as well as The Flight of the Intruder. The screen tower was in slightly better shape than it was sixteen years later. (Click on either photo for a closer look.)


Looking at these photos, I wonder: Why I was out shooting on such crummy days? Somehow, though, the dismal weather in each of the photos seem appropriate, kind of a visual metaphor for the state of the drive-in industry.

Anyway, I have no memory of ever seeing a movie at this theater. It was just something that my family drove by on the way home from Cedar Point, along with the Lorain Drive-in, which was further east and along the final stretch before getting home.

Here are a few links with a little information. The Agilty Nut, always a great source of information and photographs when it comes to classic roadside Americana, can be found at this link.

A little more information can be found here, and some great photos shot by someone on a sunny day can be found here.