Big Dusk-to-Dawn Drive-In Show this weekend in Pennsylvania!

Drive-In Review: MESA DRIVE-IN (Pueblo, CO)

MESA DRIVE-IN
2620 Santa Fe Drive
Pueblo, CO 81006
(719) 542-3345

Date of visit: 5/21/2010
Grade: A

The Mesa Drive-In was opened in 1951 as a single screen ozoner and, according to Cinema Treasures, two more screens were added in celebration of the theater’s 50th anniversary. All three screens are of average size and appear well-maintained. We caught a double bill of IRON MAN 2 and SHUTTER ISLAND on screen 1 back in May and found the experience satisfying overall.


The box-office opened at 7:30 that evening and the best spots filled quickly, so if you plan to attend a show at the Mesa, especially on a weekend, it’s recommended that you arrive early. We did, nailing a front row center space, and with over an hour to go before sundown had plenty of time to make a few phone calls while folks in the vehicles around us set up lawn chairs and sprayed themselves with insect repellent, kids gathered under the screen to play Frisbee or just hang out, and a nearby car radio blared a head-scratching mix of music ranging from Thin Lizzy, AC/DC and Rainbow to early ‘80s R&B hits like Mtume’s “Juicy Fruit” and Lakeside’s “Fantastic Voyage.”


The concession stand is reasonably priced and the staff friendly and helpful; two different employees, a male and a female in their late teens/early 20s, apologized for keeping us waiting when a problem arose with the soda machine, but the delay was negligible. A typically filling dinner at a Cracker Barrel a few miles away had eliminated our need for food, but we ordered a large Diet Coke to keep us awake during IRON MAN 2 and went back for a pretty good soft ice cream cone at the intermission. We’re happy to report that there were no green meatball sightings.


We walked the grounds twice during the course of the night, once before the first feature and again during the intermission. The men’s room is large and seemed to be clean during both of our visits, and we assume the same can be said for the women’s room (There was no line to get inside anyway). The theater boasts a 1000 car capacity and is certainly family friendly. Kids of all ages were everywhere, with teenagers roaming in packs, but everyone was well-behaved and security guards were plentiful. At the start of SHUTTER ISLAND, a few boys in their early teens camped out in lawn chairs next to our car and asked if we could keep the windows open so they could hear the movie. We obliged, and at two in the morning when the movie ended they thanked us. [Whatever happened to teen-age independence? We remember sneaking into the DeWitt Drive-In on ten-speed bikes with our Walkman headsets for a double bill of HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY and HORROR PLANET and there was no interaction with adults whatsoever].


In fact, everyone was so friendly that we feel like jerks for having to point out their ignorance of proper drive-in etiquette -- but there it is, and we place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the management for not telling the residents of Pueblo to turn off their goddamn headlights when entering or leaving the theater. If it had only happened two or three times during the course of the double bill we would’ve overlooked the faux pas (along with the occasional stereo interference during the first feature) and awarded the Mesa Drive-In an A+ rating, but every two or three minutes some affable know-nothing was lighting up the screen. Memo to the manager: You have a potentially great theater. Put up a sign and tell the patrons to turn off their headlights. They seem like really nice people. They’ll listen to you. :)





For more photos of the Mesa Drive-In, check THESE out.

Drive-In Super Monster-Rama 2009

As much as I enjoyed Drive-Invasion at the Starlight Six in Atlanta last Labor Day, the primo drive-in experience of 2009 -– for horror movie fans, anyway -– occurred the very next weekend at the Riverside Drive-In in Vandergrift, PA. The third annual Drive-In Super Monster-Rama provided two exciting nights of quadruple-bill horror programming and was easily the best time I’ve had at the movies since my friend Harry Guerro of Exhumed Films hosted an all-night Italian horror fest at the now defunct Pioneer Theater in Manhattan back in 2004. Not surprisingly, Harry is involved with Monster-Rama as well -- four of the eight prints screened last year were from his personal collection -- but the real mastermind behind the event is DVD Drive-In founder George Reis. Several years ago George e-mailed all the surviving drive-in theaters in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania and proposed a weekend-long dusk-to-dawn festival similar to Drive-Invasion but more streamlined, dispensing with the live music and concentrating solely on horror movies of the 1960s and ‘70s. The only respondents to his query were Riverside Drive-In co-owners Emma Ross and Todd Ament, who welcomed the idea with open arms, and the inaugural Drive-In Super Monster-Rama took place in September 2007. George tried to get me out to Vandergrift for that first program, as well as the sophomore one in ’08, but my plans were thwarted both times by work schedule conflicts. Last year I made an extra effort to attend and ended up having such a great time that I was immediately sorry I’d missed it the first two years. I’ll be there this year and hopefully every year after that, ‘cause this event’s just way too cool to miss.


After a harrowing 8-hour drive in torrential rain, including 20 minutes heading in the wrong direction thanks to a construction detour with crapola signage, I arrived in Vandergrift in a terribly depressed state, convinced the whole weekend would be a literal washout. My foul mood wasn’t lessened one iota when my tired, bloodshot eyes fell upon the Riverside’s screen, which at first glance resembles little more than a whitewashed Stuckey’s billboard nailed across ten telephone poles. Luckily things started to look better once I got inside and was greeted by Harry and George. I snagged a cold beer and some barbecue chicken pizza and was introduced to Emma and Todd, who have owned the Riverside since 2005 (The theater was previously known as Lee’s Woodland Drive-In and the Galaxy Drive-In). Todd is also the projectionist, and a damn fine one at that. Any concerns I had about the screen promptly vanished once dusk arrived and the show began, and although the rain came down off and on during the first two movies, it never approached the severity of what I had endured earlier in the day.

The early birds (left to right: Chris Poggiali, Harry Guerro, George Reis)

Todd begins each evening at the Riverside with a short film of the National Anthem and instructs everyone to step out of their vehicles and properly pay respect to the Red White & Blue. Because the first night of Monster-Rama '09 happened to be September 11th, he asked that we also have a moment of silence for the 2,976 people who lost their lives on 9/11/01. I can’t remember what was shown right after that, but rest assured that Harry and George packed both nights with all sorts of goodies. There was a wide array of vintage monster movie trailers in between each feature plus cartoons, Three Stooges shorts and classic concession stand advertisements. The four feature attractions screened on Friday were WITCHFINDER GENERAL (a British print, uncut except for a few seconds), SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN (another British print, featuring footage not included in any of the versions previously available), THE CRIMSON CULT, and TERROR CREATURES FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE. All the prints looked great on the drive-in screen. During the intermissions we hung out around the concession area, where Ron Adams of Creepy Classics had a dealer table and was selling DVDs, t-shirts and posters.


The show ended about 4:30 a.m., and everyone took off except for a few of us who stuck around to see the first reel of a faded BLUE SUNSHINE print that Harry wanted to run for inspection. After that, I said goodnight and headed for bed -– or rather, the backseat of my car. I was one of a handful who had paid the extra $10 to camp out at the Riverside overnight, instead of risking death by falling asleep at the wheel or getting lost trying to find a motel at that hour. Others had pitched tents, but my idea of “camping out” was to crawl into the backseat with pillows and blankets and pass out for a few hours.


The next afternoon, after Emma made breakfast in the concession stand for the campers (“Was I dreaming, or did I really stick my head out of the tent flap and see BLUE SUNSHINE playing at like five o'clock this morning?” one guy asked in between bites of eggs and French toast), I joined forces with another camper - “Pete from Cleveland” - and the two of us went off on a used bookstore hunt. We quickly found ourselves stuck in horrendous traffic approaching the nearby Monroeville Mall (more likely hordes of back-to-school shoppers and not DAWN OF THE DEAD fans), so we headed back to Vandergrift to hit the public library and instead stumbled upon the Reads, Inc. Bookshop (171 Washington Avenue, Vandergrift, PA 15690). An hour later we left with two bags of paperbacks and made our way back to the Riverside to have lunch and hang out until dusk. Michael San Giacomo showed up to sign copies of his excellent graphic novel Tales of the Starlight Drive-In (Winner of the 2009 Comic Buyers Guide Fan Award for “Best Graphic Novel of the Year”), and we helped him set up shop next to Ron in the concession stand.


Saturday's program was "Hammer Studios Night" consisting of THE VAMPIRE LOVERS (the beautiful MGM archival print), THE 7 BROTHERS MEET DRACULA, COUNT DRACULA AND HIS VAMPIRE BRIDE and VAMPIRE CIRCUS. There were more trailers, more cartoons, more Stooges shorts, more concession stand ads…and more rain, unfortunately, but not enough to spoil the show for anyone (Well, except for the two folks who ran their windshield wipers too long and had to get their cars jumped at 4:30 in the morning. D’oh!). When I regained consciousness around 10 a.m. I was the only patron left. Emma and Todd wished me a safe trip home, to which I replied “See ya next year!” and on that note I hit the road.


Two uncomfortable nights spent sleeping in the backseat had nearly done me in, and by the time I got back to New York I had spent - by my best estimate - nearly 50 hours in my car that weekend. I had a great time though, and I'll be the first one in line for Drive-In Super Monster-Rama 2010 this September. I just have to reserve a hotel room this time or remember to bring a tent!


For more information about DRIVE-IN SUPER MONSTER-RAMA 2010, go HERE.

"'Grand Old Lady' Turns to Kung Fu for Survival"

Burbank? Saturn? No, it's the DeWitt Drive-In

Above and below are the covers for the first two DVDs in a certain company's "Saturn Drive-In" series. We'd rather not mention the name of this company, because we don't want to seem like we're supporting them or endorsing their products. When they apologize to our friends and do the right thing regarding THE NAME OF THE GAME IS KILL, they'll get back in our good graces. Until then, they can suck the Temple floors dry.


Anyway, you'll notice that the covers for these "Saturn Drive-In" discs look very similar to the "Burbank Drive-In" double feature disc the same company put out last year, featuring BETWEEN THE COVERS and SWINGING WIVES, two imported softcore sex films released in the U.S. by Raphael Nussbaum's Burbank International Pictures (originally International Producers Distributors). Also, please note that "Erie Boulevard East" is the supposed address for both the Saturn and Burbank Drive-In theatres.


When a section of the Erie Canal stretching from Dewitt, NY to downtown Syracuse was filled in sometime in the early 1900s, the result was Erie Boulevard. A stone's throw from the Eastwood section of Syracuse -- birthplace of Temple of Schlock -- Erie Boulevard East was the home of the DeWitt Drive-In theatre from its grand opening on July 8th 1950 (for a double bill of SUDAN and ARABIAN NIGHTS) until it ran its final double bill on September 22nd 1984 (THE JIGSAW MAN and THE LAST CHASE) and was torn down the following year to make way for a strip mall. The DeWitt Drive-In had a 950-car capacity and a screen that was the equivalent of an 8-story building. The concession stand not only boasted 125 feet of counterspace, but also a nursery room that was wired for sound and had a large picture window that faced the screen, so parents could change diapers or nurse their children and not miss the movie. I loved the DeWitt Drive-In, and was devastated when it met the wrecking ball after a terrific season in which it booked such exciting double bills as HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY w/ HORROR PLANET, DEATHSTALKER w/ THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER, SLEEPAWAY CAMP w/ 1990: THE BRONX WARRIORS, EXTERMINATOR 2 w/ THE YOUNG WARRIORS, a re-release of the ancient POOR WHITE TRASH co-billed with an old Sybil Danning import called RESORT GIRLS, and a Labor Day dusk-to-dawn show featuring CATHY'S CURSE, SWINGIN' SWAPPERS and SATAN'S CHEERLEADERS.


In memory of our favorite drive-in, which has been renamed twice in the past year (despite the fact that it was wiped off the map a quarter of a century ago) and is now being used to sell substandard DVDs from a company we again refuse to identify by name, below is a list of every July 8th program that ran at the mighty DeWitt Drive-In, from 1950 to 1984.


1950 -- SUDAN / ARABIAN KNIGHTS
1951 -- ON THE RIVIERA / SAND
1952 -- THE MOB / LADY FROM TEXAS
1953 -- SCARED STIFF / WARPATH
1954 -- CARNIVAL STORY / SECOND CHANCE
1955 -- THE RACER / LONG JOHN SILVER
1956 -- MY SISTER, EILEEN / THE BLACK KNIGHT
1957 -- SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS / WAR DRUMS
1958 -- THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV / THE HIGH COST OF LIVING
1959 -- THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
1960 -- Cartoons / THE UNFORGIVEN / PORK CHOP HILL / ALLIGATOR PEOPLE
1961 -- FIVE BOLD WOMEN / ANGEL BABY / 4 SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE
1962 -- EL CID
1963 -- SPENCER'S MOUNTAIN / SON OF SAMSON
1964 -- FABULOUS MEXICO / THE CARPETBAGGERS / BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S
1965 -- WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT? / YOUNGBLOOD HAWKE
1966 -- 3 ON A COUCH / LORD JIM
1967 -- YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE / CHUCKA
1968 -- THE GREEN BERETS / ROUGH NIGHT IN JERICHO
1969 -- MACKENNA'S GOLD / THE WRECKING CREW
1970 -- BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES / THE BOSTON STRANGLER
1971 -- WILLARD / TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN
1972 -- THE DOBERMAN GANG / LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH
1973 -- LIVE AND LET DIE / THE MECHANIC
1974 -- THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT / THE OUTFIT
1975 -- BAMBI / SUPERDAD
1976 -- A SMALL TOWN IN TEXAS / THE BORN LOSERS
1977 -- THE BOATNIKS / THE GNOME-MOBILE
1978 -- THE JUNGLE BOOK / THE SIGN OF ZORRO / NO DEPOSIT, NO RETURN
1979 -- THE DEER HUNTER / THE BRINK'S JOB
1980 -- BLOODEATERS / HORROR HOSPITAL / NIGHT OF THE DEMON
1981 -- S.O.B. / AIRPLANE
1982 -- TRON / BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS
1983 -- FLASHDANCE / AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN
1984 -- THE CANNONBALL RUN II / FIREFOX

"EEEK! Scream Night at the Drive-In"

by David Beard
(Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 22, 1981, p. 1-D)

Every so often, something unspeakable occurs in the safest of places, something that in one day shatters forever an entire community’s illusions of security.

The unspeakable happened Saturday in Wickliffe.

At 7 p.m., carloads of people started to congregate just east of Denny’s restaurant, slowing traffic. By 8, nearly 2,000 people had gathered -- dating couples, high-school buddies with beer and wine. Something was in the air -- anxiety, perhaps, or violence.

Leonard J. and Kathy G. were there, on their first date. Within minutes, they had witnessed a murder. By 9:30 they had seen 10 more die and had heard a police order to “Burn them, bludgeon them or shoot them in the head.”

They loved it. They paid $3.50 each to see it.

They were at the Euclid Ave. Outdoor Theater, 28737 Euclid, watching NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, the first of five blood-filled horror films in a dusk-till-dawn show. They drank white wine from plastic tumblers as walking corpses began eating lead characters on the screen.

“It would really be gross if it was in color,” observed Kathy, 26, of Euclid. “This film is a classic.”

She turned her head for a moment -- and checked to see if her door was locked.

“We’re gory people. We like kinky things,” dead-panned Leonard, 24, of Willowick.

They weren’t alone. Manager Philip G. McCauley called it one of the busiest nights of the year, as he watched a steady stream of cars and vans pour through the entrance gates.

Radio and newspaper ads had labeled it “a date with death.” After DEAD would come such sterling features as LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT PART II, MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH, THE RATS ARE COMING, THE WEREWOLVES ARE HERE, and, as a finale, THE FLESH GRINDERS, the sad story of a struggling cat food company.

“Last night we had as many people as we had all last week,” McCauley said. “Tonight there are even more. We’ve had cars tonight with seven and eight persons crammed in.”

The five features ran three nights, Friday through Sunday.

“Don’t ask me why, but in the fall, horror movies do tend to draw the most,” McCauley added. “A year ago, when THE AMITYVILLE HORROR was playing, we had cars backed up for a mile. We had to send ushers out to turn them away.”

As he spoke, the area came alive with a crescendo of car horns. McCauley shook his head and smiled.

“It could be (a problem with) the audio,” he said. “That, or else somebody got murdered. I can always tell when there’s a gory part by the honking.”

On the screen, a sheriff’s posse worked its way toward a graveyard, shooting walking corpses in the head. Outside, couples snaked their way toward the concession stand, trying to beat the crowds to the popcorn and to the restrooms. In the back row, not a soul appeared above the dashboard.

“I don’t think too many people are watching the movie,” said the projectionist, Thomas C. Draper, 33. “This is their last fling before school, before the summer ends.”

“Look at this,” he added, indicating the red-eyed crowd angling for Cokes and popcorn. “The munchies.”

As DEAD ended, a group from Euclid lit a charcoal grill and talked of horror flicks.

“Before this, the last one I saw was TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE,” said James A., 20, as he stoked the coals. “In this last (movie), I was getting kind of sick with all the people eating intestines. But I’m up to some sausage now.”

James brought lawn chairs and a cooler of beer for his friends. The circle decided horror movies are good because “they got girls scared” and guys had to be brave to sit through them. They said that after one or two killings they get numb, and everything starts to seem funny.

“I try to see the humor in it all,” said Walter A., 21, as he hugged his girlfriend. He looked up to see the first minute of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT PART II, in which an elderly woman in a wheelchair is hanged by an unknown assailant.

“Wow,” exclaimed Walter, “I never saw that before.”

LAST HOUSE squeezed in 15 murders before it ended. Then came MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH, in which a likable loner gets mad at some bullies and decides to blow them up. Then there are more bullies – and more bombs. Finally, near the end of the film, the hero concludes that everybody in the school is a bully.

The high school is in California. The drive-in crowd hated Californians. The horns honked.

Even Leoanrd and Kathy were worn out after MASSACRE.

“We’re going to Denny’s,” Leonard yelled over his idling motor.

Kathy recommended tonight’s showing of SALEM’S LOT on WJKW Channel 8: “It’s on TV, and it’s still scary.”

By the time frenzied house cats had chewed up the villain in FLESH GRINDERS, the night’s carnage was complete: 55 murders, not counting a few walking corpses.

About a third of the original 1,928 patrons stayed until the bitter end at 3:20 a.m. Ushers tried vainly to awaken half of them. A lone police car waited outside the drive-in.

As manager McCauley walked toward the exit gate, he spotted a man leaning out of a speeding car.

The man was screaming, “Not enough blood!”

Starlight Six Drive-Invasion 2009

For a decade now, the Starlight Six Drive-In theatre in Atlanta has been hosting “Drive Invasion” over Labor Day weekend, but because of work commitments I’d been unable to attend the two-day music and movie festival until this year, their 10th anniversary celebration and the 60th birthday of the Starlight Six. For some inexplicable reason, the Starlight folks decided to celebrate this special occasion by scaling down the festivities to one day rather than two. No big deal. With extra time on my hands I was able to meet up with Allmovie reviewer (and Temple of Schlock contributor) Don Guarisco for an extensive tour of Atlanta’s used bookstores and record shops, with pit stops for refueling at local eateries like Zesto and Gladys Knight & Ron Winans’ Chicken & Waffles. Great food, especially in the latter joint, although I could’ve done without seeing the one-minute trailer for I CAN DO BAD ALL BY MYSELF (co-starring Ms. Knight) looped continuously on a large-screen TV throughout the entire meal. I do kinda regret not grabbing that CLAUDINE t-shirt in the gift shop though…but I digress.


The Starlight does little to accommodate first-time attendees to Drive-Invasion. Never mind that the music and movie line-ups aren’t posted on the theater’s website until a few weeks before the event -- what’s sorely missing more than anything else is a FAQ section. Luckily we were able to call on DVD Drive-In’s George Reis and independent filmmaker Daniel Griffith, both of them veteran “Drive Invaders,” for vital information. Their first and most crucial tip was this: in order to get a good spot for the movies, one has to arrive at the drive-in pretty much when the gates open at 11 a.m. I’m glad I followed their advice, because by 1:30 the festival grounds (screens 1, 2 and 3) had filled up and no more cars were being allowed inside; from that point on, attendees were instructed to park in the other theater lot (screens 4, 5, and 6) and join the Invasion on foot.




In other words, this is an all-day event, whether you want it to be or not. You pay $28 to hear thirteen bands and watch five movies. If you want to watch those movies from the comfort of your car, you better show up no later than 11:30 and come prepared to spend the next eight or nine hours splashing on sunscreen, eating delicious but dangerous food (chicken on a stick, corn dogs, funnel cakes) and listening to a lot of rockabilly and surf music. My biggest complaint, apart from the complete lack of information provided by the festival programmers, is that too many bands were booked in an effort to make up for the lost day. Thirteen bands is three bands too many when at least four of the bands are playing nothing but instrumental surf rock (Atlanta apparently has a big surf rock scene – y’know, for all those dudes shooting the curl down at Peachtree Creek). Ten would’ve been sufficient, and maybe then the movies would’ve started at dusk instead of 10 p.m., which is ridiculous considering the line-up: THE BLUES BROTHERS, EL TOPO, ZARDOZ, SHANTY TRAMP and FROGS.


Because the first two movies are over two hours long and a handful of trailers were shown between each feature (along with a Tom & Jerry cartoon), FROGS didn’t begin until 6 a.m., and within an hour the rising sun had rendered the last third unwatchable. Realizing there was no way I would be able to view the film for much longer, I stumbled over to the restrooms to brush my teeth and prepare for my flight home. When I emerged a few minutes later I was greeted by a brand new day and the sight of the huge, garbage-strewn, nearly empty drive-in lot in the morning sunlight. I could make out movement on the screen but nothing more, and if it hadn’t been for Ray Milland’s voice still booming from one car -- my Alamo rental’s, I found out, as I staggered over to it -- I wouldn’t have even known the movie was still playing.


These few complaints aside, the Starlight Six is a terrific venue and Drive-Invasion 2009 was a hell of a good time. I was never bored, that’s for sure. Around mid-afternoon I figured I’d find a shady spot under a tree and catch up on my reading (I brought along the first two John Easy mysteries by Ron Goulart), but with everything from custom cars and dealer tables to the cool movie murals on the snack bar walls and the always interesting crowd -- a peacefully coexisting mixture of deep south rednecks and Atlanta hipsters, as Donny G. commented -- the time passed quickly. I’m not sure I’ll make it to next year’s Drive-Invasion, but I’m certainly not opposed to the idea.

All photos by Don Guarisco and Chris Poggiali