Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Drive-In Theatre Vandalized

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Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 03-21-2007, 10:18 AM:

For those of you who follow the fortunes of this business, this story from San Antonio:

Video:

Historic San Antonio Drive In Won't Open This Summer Due to Vandalism

Mission 4 Theater may be forced to close for good
By Jim Forsyth
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
The 59 year old Mission Drive In will not open this summer as scheduled and may never open again due to massive vandalism at the historic south side theater, 1200 WOAI news reports today.

We've been doing assessments by contractors and unfortunately the damages are more severe than we thought they would be," Santikos Theaters General Manager Richard Cieplechowicz told 1200 WOAI's Cari Laque.

"We're in the half a million dollar mark right now in our estimate of repairing the Mission Drive In. It does not look like it will be opening this summer."

Located on Roosevelt Avenue on the south side, not far from Mission San Jose, the Mission Drive In opened in March of 1948. It is the only remaining drive in theater in the San Antonio area and one of the few remaining in the country that still showed first run movies on a nightly basis.

"They broke inside the building, they broke windows, cash registers, projectors," Cieplechowicz said. "They ruined air conditioners, they wrote graffiti on the screens, the box office, and outpost, they really went in there and destroyed the building.

Nothing we could really tell was stolen. it was just vandalism."

He says Santikos owner John Santikos 'wants to keep the Mission open because it's part of the history of San Antonio.' but he says the historic drive in 'is not a big money maker' and the vandalism may prompt the company simply to close the old theaters for good. He says Santikos owns the land the Mission Drive In sits on.

A final decision will be made in the coming months.

Cieplechowicz says an added problem is the fact that it's getting more and more difficult for find replacement parts of drive in theaters.

"People aren't designing a lot of equipment for drive ins. Its just hard stuff to get your hands on."

So far, no word on who the vandals were, or why they decided to trash the Mission.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 03-21-2007, 10:57 AM:

How horrible. No alarm system in this place? What a shame. And although I am not sure what projectors they are using, I find it hard to believe that they can't find replacement parts. But then again, the deciding factor will probably be that single statement that the company owns the land. This might be all the impetus the company needs to sell the land and make a good profit while saying goodbye to the low profit DI operation.

San Antonio looses. Thugs win....for now.

What they don't know is that the DI gods are at this moment constructing a new, special ring in Dante's Inferno for these SOB thugs where maggots will knaw at their gonads and 15kw xenon bulbs will rip them new aholes where they will remain lit for all eternity.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 03-21-2007, 05:43 PM:

I think I will try not to antagonize Frank! Louis

Posted by Dave Bird (Member # 490) on 03-21-2007, 10:18 PM:

Well this is horrible, obviously, but I dunno, to me, this could be spun into some GREAT PR, make 'em look like real heroes when they spruce up and reopen, might make for a busy summer.

Posted by Phil Blake (Member # 2012) on 03-29-2007, 03:35 AM:

This is sad indeed and I returns bad memories from my past. I too suffered this vandalism problem during my drive in days.

Infact this became the final nail in the coffin for our d/in . We were suffering bad from TV ,colour TV and the Video era just making a small amount to survive on , sadly this small amount was not enough to cover damage the cinema sustained from vandals during the day. I took many steps to vandal proof the place but they always found way around it.

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 03-29-2007, 09:44 AM:

The same thing happened to a drive-in, down south of me. It was on the way to being redeveloped anyway, but public interest caused the owner to keep it going. However, just before opening one year, they found the same kind of damage that was caused to this this other one. It was a smaller drive-in, and the estimates were around $50k, but that was more than the owner figured he could make back.

It's now a trailer park, or some such.

Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 03-29-2007, 11:35 AM:

The intensity and thoroughness of the destruction at the Mission Theatre suggests to me a criminal attempt to drive the owners to sell the land to developers at a favorable price. Apparently nothing was stolen, and it would seem to require more physical effort to destroy so much that the effort would outway any pleasure vandals might reap, unless they were being otherwise rewarded for their work.

I may be wrong, thinking of land values in the East, but even in the San Antonio area, such a large parcel ought to be very valuable.

Posted by Arthur Allen (Member # 969) on 03-31-2007, 10:41 AM:

quote:
The same thing happened to a drive-in, down south of me. [snip]
It's now a trailer park, or some such.

If the theater you're thinking about is the Your Twin in Longview, it's now a Home Depot. Some of the trees bordering the lot are still there, but otherwise it's hard to think that it's the same place it used to be.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 04-01-2007, 02:16 PM:

quote: Gerard S. Cohen
The intensity and thoroughness of the destruction at the Mission Theatre suggests to me a criminal attempt to drive the owners to sell the land to developers at a favorable price.

Agreed that something doesn't quite ring true about this being an act of straightforward yobbery. But surely any property developer attempting such blackmail would run the risk of instantly becoming the subject of a police investigation the moment (s)he expressed an interest in buying the land?

On the evidence of the news story, I'm wondering if there's someone who has a grudge against Mr. Santikos, possibly for reasons entirely unconnected with the theatre business.

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 04-01-2007, 07:37 PM:

quote: Arthur Allen
If the theater you're thinking about is the Your Twin in Longview, it's now a Home Depot.

That's the one.

Thanks, Arthur.

Posted by Chris Mosel (Member # 1451) on 04-01-2007, 08:21 PM:

As an area resident I am sorry it was vandalized and I hated to see it happen but please take the news account with a grain of salt. Mr. Santikos has owned the drive-in property for years. It was most likely making little or no money in operation and he is one of the largest property owners and developers in the San Antonio area. He could certainly afford to repair it if it was profitable. I believe the old projectors mentioned are Century, I believe the lamphouses are Strong. He still owns several theatres in San Antonio (just opened a new megeplex with Imax.)

So... Yes the damage is bad and I am sorry to see it go, but they are spinning it so the closure of the last area drive-in gets sympathy instead of outrage.