Entertaining Tucson: Volume 1
By Michael Hamilton
June 1988 – Entertainment Magazine. Page 17
This page is from the 3-volume set of "Entertaining Tucson Across the Decades."
Tucson is known in some
cinema circles as quite a movie-going town. Indeed, the price of
admission makes one think that local cinema fans have paid for part of
those giant new letters in H.O.L.L.Y.W.O.O.D.! As searchlights rove
outside the indoor theatres, let’s pay tribute to several of Tucson’s
Drive-In’s– some gone, some refurbished, and some still the same
(editor’s note: the last Tucson Drive-In, the DeAnza, closed in 2009).
Condominiums now rise over the ground where the Prince Drive-In [1]
gave us “Tammy” and “PT 109.” Northbound cars on Campbell
Avenue would often stop to view the showings until landscaping was
installed. Gusts of wind felled one screen, yielding a strange sight,
like that of white dominoes, lying scattered on the ground ...
Downtown was the “shopping center” in
Tucson during the 1950s. Most businesses stretched along a few blocks
between Congress, Alameda and Pennington Streets. Congress Street
was also the hub for the major four indoor movie theaters, including a
Spanish movie house.
The Biltmore Drive-In [2] (the defunct Miracle)
on Oracle Road gave us “Charades” and “The Day the Earth Stood
Still.” Films here were projected after kids vacated the amusement rides
below the tall screen at twilight. Now, only the tumbleweeds are
threatened by encroaching apartment complexes.
The Apache Drive-In [3]
added two screen years ago and was famed for the $3 a carload entry
ticket (others were trunkload). Once a single plane-and-truss sculpture
in the deserted desert, the threes screens are now surrounded by a
gathering of Tucson’s new industrial growth.
But the most fun of all lay just beyond the mid-60s marquee of the Midway Drive-In [4]
that has since yielded to commerce. The white uniformed attendants took
our dollars and my date and I chose a space on a special terraced row
between two monaural speakers, known to be working. No doubt it was
humorous to watch this scramble for favorite spots in the last row.
Thinking about those good old days brings
back memories of lip-reading back-row patrons, lightly pompous Universal
Newsreels, and “squelching Cupids,” attendants with red-nibbed
flashlights whose job it was to interrupt any activity which did not
involve directing your whole attention at the screen.
The July 4th holiday evening was
about 80 degrees (my friends in the east couldn’t believe that our
drive-ins were also open in the winter). I’d tell them we had two feet
of sunshine on the ground. Some jazz music started playing discovered
our first “Pink Panther” cartoon complimented by our homegrown
“Roadrunner” caricature (Beep! Beep!) Yep, truly the funniest one-word
vocabulary around!
The screen dimmed. Floodlights flooded. My
date waited loyally in the car while I went to the snack bar for some
sarsaparilla and “red hots.” Curiously, all Drive-In eateries seem to be
grubby on purpose. Here was an example of a 1949 “adobe abode,” laced
with hard cement which had oozed out of the brick joints. Inside?
Instant California prices! The precursor of today’s inflation, but few
foresaw it.
A look around noted a line of teens,
bikers, cowboys and standard Americans. So, back to my car I strolled
with my unbalanced divided box of beverages and goodies, even as the
rolling topography beneath me was uneven. Tilt! Whew! Almost. … I
located my wheels amid the usual sprinkling of ‘57 Chevies, Corvettes
and a few “T” bucket roadsters. Getting into my car while avoiding the
speaker wire cause me to chip the car paint on the post ... damned
“doorknick city.”
My date said her classmate just had her
friend call at the theatre so she could have her name paged over the
speakers. Oh, those nocturnal shenanigans ...
When it was over, the grove of cars exiting
the theatre formed a flotilla waiting to exchange the Midway for the
Speedway thoroughfare. We joined the late-night traffic in cruising our
favorite “burgerville,” while radio KOMA’s deejay’s dazzled more of the nation’s teen world from Oklahoma City at night.
Those truly were the days-the “sizzling
sixties.” Many drive-ins have been driven out, but the soul or “The Last
Picture Show” remains... [5]
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[1] The Prince Drive-In Theater
was located at 2015 E. Prince on the Northeast corner of the
intersection of Prince Road and Campbell Avenue. It opened in 1953 and
closed around 1979. Two workmen were killed when a 57-foot movie screen
collapsed during construction (“Arizona Daily Star,” January 11, 1953).
[2] The Biltmore Drive-In,
located at 600 W. Glenn at Miracle Mile, opened in the early 1950s. Its
named was changed to the Miracle Mile Drive-In in 1963 and closed in
1978. (driveinmemories.com)
[3] The Apache Drive-In, located at 1600 E. Benson Highway opened in May 1955 and closed in 1994. (driveinmemories.com)
[4] The Midway Drive-In, 4500 E. Speedway, was built in 1948 and closed in 1979. (cinematreasures.org)
[5] At one time, Tucson had 10 different Drive-In theaters. All are now closed. The DeAnza, located just south of 22nd Street at 1401 N. Alvernon, opened in 1977 and was the last to close on October 3, 2009. (Source: driveinmemories.com)
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