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Earth moving begins for drive-in theater |
Nina Finch and Phil Radosevich are planning to bring back a bit of Americana to Centerville - a drive-in movie theater. Just south of the Mystic exit on Highway 2, the planned area is the site of the former Sunshine Mine. Earth moving has already begun on the property.
Once the outdoor theaters dotted the state's landscape, situated on the edges of towns and cities. Urban sprawl and the demand for land ate most of them up, and were never replaced. There are now only three drive-in theaters in Iowa - Newton, Maquoketa and Sioux City.
Radosevich said if all goes well, the theater will be open by May. He hopes to develop the site as time goes on, possibly including a picnic table area. He also hopes to have events like an auto night where area residents can bring their antique cars and watch such car classics as "Bullet" and "Christine."
The drive-in was invented by Richard Hollingshead of Camden, N.J., who was interested in both cars and movies. He experimented in his driveway by mounting a 1928 Kodak projector on the hood of his car and projected a movie onto a screen nailed to trees in his backyard. The sound was provided by a radio placed behind the screen.
Hollingshead patented the drive-in theater in 1933 and with $30,000, he opened the first one in his hometown. Admission was 25 cents for the car and 25 cents per person.
©Daily Iowegian 2005, originally published here;
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13724710&BRD=1284&PAG=461&dept_id=179799&rfi=6
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