Column for April 18, 2004
It is late April and the signs of spring are here. The robins
are back. The leaves are budding out. The grass is growing. Flowers are starting
to appear. The ice cream stands are open again and the drive-in theaters
in Michigan (with the exception of the year-round Ford-Wyoming 1-5 DI in
Dearborn) are opening up for the season. The Capri Twin in Coldwater has
already opened as well as the Ford-Wyoming 6-9 in Dearborn and the Miracle
Twin in Burton. The US 23 Twin in Flint, the Getty 1-4 in Muskegon Heights
and the Cherry Bowl in Honor are about to open. Here in the Flint area, we
are lucky to have two competing twin drive-ins while most areas of the country
don’t have even one operating nowadays. But back in the drive-in’s
glory days of the 1960s there were several drive-ins which didn’t need
to open in the spring as they were open year-round. In the Flint area, there
were once four drive-ins which were open year round. The first year-round
DI was the Northland which opened on September of 1956. But it wasn’t
yet ready for its first winter. It did post ads saying that it will be open
next winter for 1957/58 with RCA electric heaters 
Early on, drive-ins tried to stay open as late in the season as they could as long as they can attract enough hardy patrons to make a profit. The original Dort DI advertised in an ad from November that they had a heated concession and heated restrooms. Long winter nights would be ideal for drive-ins except in the northern climates such as here in Michigan. Hardy drive-in patrons kept the motor running to use the car heaters. Early DI trailers warned such patrons to take precautions to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning. While I haven’t found an ad saying so, the US 23 DI at one time had a 1950s vintage Cities Service gasoline pump next to the screen by the entrance so they could have offered a free gallon of gas to late fall/early winter drive-in patrons which several early drive-ins offered. We should ask US
23 DI owner Lou Warrington next time we visit the 23 if he ever
offered free gas to DI patrons. But the regular car heaters gave insufficient
heat for use in a drive-in. Propane torch maker Bernz-O-Matic once made propane
heaters designed for use in drive-ins. They don’t make propane heaters
any more and even have a bounty on some models because of carbon monoxide
poisoning concerns. A less practical system was a series of tubing which
piped in both warm air and the movie’s sound using a hose similar to
a vacuum cleaner hose instead of using an in-car speaker. The most common
way of keeping DI patrons warm in the winter months was with electric in-car
heaters made by such companies as RCA and Eprad. Because of problems with
patrons stealing in-car heaters, the more common and definitive models operate
on 220 volts (twice the voltage of household electric outlets) and use a
different plug configuration compared to household electric plugs to minimize
theft of the heaters as they could not be used outside the drive-ins.
For the purpose of this column, I will conrc="us23_1973.jpg" align="left" hspace="6" vspace="6"
border="1"> For the purpose of this column, I will consider drive-ins which
were open at least during the weekend in early February to be year-round
drive-ins. Of course, bad roads and blizzard conditions would close even
the year-round drive-ins until the roads and DI fields were plowed. I already
mentioned that the Northland went year round beginning with the winter of
1957/58. The winter of 1963/64 added two more year round drive-ins with the
newly opened South Dort and the retrofitted US 23. After almost 10 years
of near continuous operation, the US 23 had its last show before closing
for the winter on December 3, 1972 with the double bill of "A Fistful Of
Dynamite" starring James Coburn and "Fuzz" staring Burt Reynolds. But another
year-round DI would be added later that winter when the Miracle Twin opened
on February 15, 1973 with one of its two screens in operation and with a
triple bill--"Lady Sings The Blues" starring Diana Ross, "Paint Your Wagon"
starring Lee Marvin and "Hannie Caulder" starring Raquel Welch. The following
winter, both screens of the Miracle Twin were open on Thursdays, Fridays,
Saturdays and Sundays on February of 1974. 
But rising energy prices and a shrinking customer base caused
the year round drive-ins to go seasonal one by one. The Northland was closed
for the season the winter of 1975/76. The co-owned South Dort closed the
following year for the winter of 1976/77. The last holdout was the Miracle
Twin but it started closing for the season the winter of 1979/80. So now that Al Fresco movies are back at what the movie business calls the ozoners, be sure to stock up on Pic mosquito coils (if the drive-in concession stand doesn’t stock them, Walgreen’s has them), get the Windex to clean the windshield with, some blankets, lawn chairs, a boom box to hear the movie on the radio if you’re watching the movies outside your vehicle (mandatory if the DI doesn’t have in-car speakers), and take in a double bill at the drive-in. Just don’t sneak in as the attendants can figure out which cars have trunks full of non-payers. Above all, get your snacks at the drive-in’s refreshment stand. It’s the refreshment stand where the drive-ins make their profit. This URL, http://www.screenattractions.com/catalog/SnackBarAppeal/SnackBarAppeal.html is for an intermission trailer offered to drive-ins which explains why.
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