SLIFF 2018 – AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS DRIVE-IN MOVIE THEATERS This Saturday at Webster University

Back in the heyday of drive-in movies – the ’50s through the ‘70s – St. Louisans flocked to outdoor theaters such as the 66 Park-in, The Airway Twin, and The Holiday. They’re all long gone now but take a nostalgic trip back in time on November 3rd when Tom Stockman, editor of the website We Are Movie Geeks, gives a 90-minute talk about all of the drive-ins that were in our area in those years as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Tom’s talk starts at 6pm and will include hundreds of images he has collected of those drive-ins. Tom will also discuss the movies that played there and tell his own stories about attending. This is a free event.

A Facebook invite for the event can be found HERE

The I-44 Drive-in Movie theater was a regular hangout for me in the late 1970’s. A perfect day was to spend the daylight hours at Six Flags in Eureka, then head East on 1-44, get off at Highway 141 and spend the evening watching a double feature at that Drive-In. The I-44 had the worst location for a drive-in. It sat in the valley wedged between a landfill, railroad tracks, and the Meramec river. The fog would settle in the Valley and block out the projector’s beam, the train noise would often drown out the sound, and the mosquitos loved the river, the landfill, and the taste of those attending the drive-in. But I still loved it there. If you drive past I-141 on I-44 you can still see the building that housed the concession stand.

Sometimes I get a sad nostalgia pang when I drive by the location of a defunct Drive-in theater in the St. Louis area. The outdoor theater I frequented the most was the Holiday, on Page Boulevard about halfway between Lindbergh and I-70. The Holiday had four screens and in the summer, they would play triple features 7 nights a week. My buddies and I all had restaurant jobs in those days and we would get off work and meet at the Holiday three or four times per week. I kept a lawn chair in my trunk so I could just park it at whichever screen was showing the better film at that time. Now the spot where the Holiday sits is owned by U-Haul and there’s a fleet of their trucks parked there.

The Airway Twin, on St. Charles Rock Road near Lindbergh, was another popular Drive-in that I frequented. The Airway had an amazing neon marquee that featured a giant drum majorette. Her neon baton would twirl in circles and her leg would kick. The Airway is long gone but officials of the city of St. Ann recognized the sign’s importance in 1991 and approved its restoration when they built what is now known as ‘Airway Shopping Center’. The sign still stands.

There were a lot more Drive-ins in the St. Louis area: The South Twin, The North Twin, The 66 Park-In, The St. Ann 4, The Ronnies, The Manchester, The Broadway, The 270, and many more including the infamous Olympic, which was sued by the city of Pagedale in 1969 for showing soft-core sex movies that could be seen from the street! They had to drape black vinyl material around the whole complex so that the screen couldn’t be seen! I’ll be discussing all of these inclsuing the metro East-area drive-ins such as the French Village, The Mounds, The Futura, and The Bel-Air.

They’re all gone now (except the Skyview in Belleville). Admission is FREE!