Living the Drive In Dream

Somewhere back in the mid 80's my big sister Sorta Braver and I explored the idea of buying the Marquette, Michigan area's local drive in theater. It had closed down like so many of them around the country had been doing since their heyday. Home video was the final nail in the coffin for many of these members of the cinematic endangered species list.

Owning a drive in theater sounded like a lot of fun and that was all we needed to determine that this was something we needed to do. There was no need to research the financial feasibility of such a venture. There was no need to know anything about running a drive in theater. All that was necessary was the will to do it.

Fortunately for us will was all we had. We took out an ad in Premiere magazine (a now defunct national monthly magazine about movies) trying to sell t-shirts as a way to fund our venture. Thinking back on it now I realize that we didn't even know how much money we would need.

Ahh, the idealism of youth. Knowing what I know now I am thankful that we were not able to own a drive in theater because that ownership if it ever happened would have been very short-lived and the drive in would be right back to what it is now. Closed.

Fast forward thirty years to a time where time and wisdom (at least some wisdom anyway) have supplanted youth and ideals. I have been living in Manistique, Michigan for the last two decades and have become a bit active in the community. At a meeting about these community activities I met Fuzzy "Duck" Kaiser.

Duck was talking about how he was trying to show a movie out at the local drive in theater. This drive in was the only one that was largely still intact anywhere in the Upper Peninsula. Most of the drive in screens had fallen down or had been removed and any buildings on the grounds were in ruins or had been re-purposed. The Manistique drive in was largely intact having ceased operation a mere fifteen years earlier. A mutual acquaintance of ours owned the property and had given Duck permission to put on a show.

The idea was to host a one-time, free-of-charge event for the public. A fun thing for the community to do.

I wanted in on the project.

I told Duck about my dream of owning a drive in and offered up the digital projector I own to test out if it was good enough to show the film. I knew that it probably wasn't bright enough for such a large screen in such a big area but this was my in. This was my ticket to the big time world of drive in movies.

I WOULD GET TO PLAY AT THE LAST DRIVE IN THEATER IN THE UPPER PENINSULA!!!

As it turned out I was able to offer up more than just a rather dim projector. Having a fair amount of technical knowledge I worked out the details of connecting a dvd player to both the projector we were using and the theater's sound system. Not a big challenge on the surface but when you consider that these things were over one hundred feet apart it becomes a bit more daunting. I just so happened to have the gear to make the connections.

On top of that I had the idea to clear out and clean up the concession stand so it could be used. Duck was going to sell candy outside under a tent as a fundraiser for the school he taught at. I suggested that the drive in experience would be complete if the concession stand were truly open. He thought it was a bad idea but since we had had a couple of beers I was able to convince him otherwise. 

As always I was right. Using the concession stand was the right thing to do.

Movie night arrived and we were on pins and needles trying to make sure we had every base covered and contingency plans in place for every catastrophe. 

Duck walked out to the gate to assess the line of cars waiting to get in. He radioed me and informed me that the cars were lined up as far as he could see down the highway. We needed to start letting them in out of concern for safety.

We tried to count the cars and the number of people who showed up that night but it was too hard to do. Estimates were around 350-400 cars and 1200 people or so. The lot was completely full. There was one spot left for the very last car in line.

We showed Back to the Future as our film of the evening. A throwback to the days when drive ins were still viable. While the projector was a bit dim it did the job and the people were happy. At the end of the show they all filed out in orderly fashion. The whole thing was an unqualified success.

That was almost two years ago now. 

After that show I started a Gofundme campaign to purchase a better projector in the event that we should decide to try doing this again. Funds were quickly raised and a pro-level projector was purchased. 

Even though we have always touted these drive in events as "one last time" we have had five of these shows now and the production has gotten a little better every time. This coming Saturday will be our sixth show and will kick off our third summer of "one more time" drive in movies.

I must say that it is very cool to be able to live out a dream of youth even if it isn't exactly how you imagined it.

Honestly it is probably better this way.