Building twin outdoor movie screens has been a real job for Riley and Vickie Cooke and three friends.

The construction work and paying the bills out of pocket are two good reasons why the couple has missed three scheduled opening dates on their drive-in theater in East Laurel.

Now the year-long project is wrapping up and Vickie Cooke says in a couple of weeks the first frames will roll through the projector.

She's already picked the inauguration flicks for The Amusement Park Drive-In on eight acres off of I-90 at 72nd Street West.

"It's a double-header: 'Monster-In-Law' and 'Guess Who?' " she says.

The drive-in's street address is 7335 Mossmain Lane, next to the Horse Palace by the East Laurel exit. However, giving directions has been an eye-opener for Vickie.

"If people don't know where the Horse Palace or the Pelican Truck Stop are, we've learned to say, 'Shotgun Wille's,' " she laughs. "Everybody knows where that is."

Montana has only a handful of drive-in theaters left. This one is being built with equipment brought up from a drive-in that closed in 2003 in Cody, Wyo. The Cookes live in Frannie, Wyo.

The outdoor theater in Terry won't reopen this summer, Cooke says, so the number of drive-ins around Big Sky country is thin indeed.

The Cookes decided to open the theater with one screen completed - the west side that holds 300 cars.

They'll continue to work on the east-facing screen with half as much parking capacity. This second screen should be open this summer, she says.

The Cookes also plan to complete a kids' playground this summer, including a little Ferris wheel and a Granny Bug ride.

The Amusement Park Drive-In will be open seven nights a week. The new movies will start on Friday nights.

To check for an exact opening date or a listing of movies for the drive-in, call 245-3212 and listen to the recording.

Originally published online here: http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/06/19/build/business/30-have-heard.inc