Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Search For The Largest Drive-In Screen

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Posted by Don Furr (Member # 1469) on 05-09-2008, 06:48 PM:

Just wondering what is the largest drive-in screen you've seen.
Back in the 70's I worked for the Fiesta Drive-In (Malco operated) in Columbus, Ms.
That screen was 120' X 60' and the face was all marine plywood.
That is the biggest I've seen.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 05-09-2008, 06:53 PM:

Largest I've ever heard of was 140' (maybe 145'), the "Cinerama" drive-in out in CA (there were pictures here somewhere many moons ago).

Bengies in Baltimore is 120'. So was one of my last theatres as a projectionist... South Park D/I at Louisville.

Beware, however. There are lots of theatres with 100' screens (or less!) that claim to have the "world's largest"! [Mad]

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 05-09-2008, 10:49 PM:

According to Roland Lataille's excellent Cinerama site, the screen was 180' x 62.5'

CINERAMA at the Century Drive-In

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 05-09-2008, 11:15 PM:

Oh, jeepers, I was WAY off! I'd venture that was probably the record-holder - even though it was probably temporary. Here's a later shot, taken of the same theatre.

BTW: I'm just noticing Don asked what was the biggest d/i screens we've actually SEEN... 120' would be it for me, then. Several theatres had that size that I've seen.

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 05-09-2008, 11:43 PM:

Cool! And it would be cool to see the roller coaster sequence while seated in your car. [Big Grin]

Posted by Christopher Crouch (Member # 3784) on 05-10-2008, 04:13 AM:

One of the largest (aside from the Century Drive-In Cinerama set up) would have to be the Fountain Valley Drive-In, in Fountain Valley, CA.; something like 140' X 90'. Unfortunately, it was torn down long before I had the chance to see it.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 05-10-2008, 06:03 AM:

In the 50's "screen wars" were common in this industry. New Albany (Indiana) Drive In and Kenwood Drive (Louisville) about 10 miles apart had a real good p...ing contest going. I think both ended up at 115 feet.(My guess is that 4-6 screens were ultimately built between the two of them.) New Albany "throw" was in excess of 1200 feet. Louis

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 05-10-2008, 09:53 AM:

The NorthStar Drive Inn outside of Denver had a 150 foot wide screen. They also had DP-70's and Jetarc Lamphouses! There was also a Drive Inn located in Rhode Island that had just about as large of screen also with Jetarc Lamphouses but I believe VIC-10's for projectors. Both of these booths are shown in ads in International Projectionist Mags.

Posted by Ron Funderburg (Member # 4561) on 05-10-2008, 10:06 AM:

Mark I remember the NorthStar well it was a Commonwealth I think but I wasn't friends with the manager. Some of the DI guys were full time and would rotate in to indoors as assistants in the off seasons others were just seasonal employees.

The screen was really big at the Northstar but the surrounding area grew up around it and the lights got to hurt the place really bad. I can't remember if it was 84th or 86th, 84th I think that was an exit on I-25.

Posted by Don Furr (Member # 1469) on 05-10-2008, 10:19 AM:

The Fiesta Drive-In that I first mentioned opened as a first run with LOVE STORY....had traffic backed up for a couple of miles on hiway 82 east out of Columbus, Ms. If I remember correctly it was about a 650 car field. The booth, located about 3/4 back on the field in a two story brick tower had a pair of AA's with SuperCore (very large) lamps. That was one beautiful drive in theatre. It was a drive-in done right!!

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 05-11-2008, 07:51 AM:

quote: Louis Bornwasser
New Albany "throw" was in excess of 1200 feet.

And we thought we had the longest focal length lens of any Drive Inn here in SLC at the Redwood Drive Inn.... perhaps its still the longest focal length still in use today. One screen there is 800 feet back resulting in a 21 inch focal length lens(Gold 4" diameter Kollmorgen). It weighs a ton! This lens is just over 2-1/2 feet long! Do you remember what the focal length was out there in New Albany?

Don,
Not many are aware and I'm not even sure if Thomas Hauerslev is aware but Phillips made factory drive in shutter blades for the DP-70. You couldn't just cut the edges off those shutter blades for a drive in. Not only is there a leading and trailing edge air scoop but they are also dynamically balanced. Our DP-70 customer bought a pair fomr a fellow in Colorado a few years back and low and behold they had those Drive Inn shutter blades on them. These weere not the pair from the NorthStar though as they would have been modified to lower the lamphouse table to accomodate those huge Jetarcs. Yes... The big Ashcrafts were my favorite lamphouses, I still think they had the best light of any lamphouse ever built!

Mark