Connections IN OUR MIDST A SERIES OF ARTICLES ON PEOPLE, PLACES AND PERSEVERANCE IN YELLOWSTONE COUNTY By Jackie Swiesz
Cinema
UNDER THE BIG SKY If you remember the first open-air drive-in theater in Montana that first appeared right here in Billings, then you may have gone to the debut of the Motor-Vu, which was launched May 14, 1948 on what was then far out on the “west end” (near Mullowney Lane) and had room for 645 cars. By 1954, their “big screen” had stretched to 108 feet for their season opener of “The Robe” and was billed as the first outdoor theater in the Northwest to show CinemaScope with stereophonic sound and second in the nation to equip each car with dual speakers. Likewise, one of our Community members, seventy-something Andy Pickens of Huntley, recollects when, for their high school graduation night in May 1967, he and three of his best buddies piled into Andy’s Pontiac Bonneville Convertible with 18
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its massive fins and round tail lights and headed to the Big Sky Drive-In (also known as the City-Vu, situated where the Target store on Main Street now occupies the spot). Of course, they weren’t going just to watch the movie. In fact, the main attraction was the girls in the other car parked next to them. Andy also recalls going to the Sage Drive-In with his folks and his little brother Jim on a summer evening in 1958. Andy was eight years old and remembers the film was The Bravados, a western starring Gregory Peck and Joan Collins. While the boys ran to the concession stand for a big tub of buttery popcorn and some soda pops, Mom and Dad laid out the sleeping bags and pillows in the back seat for the kids. A picnic basket with the “adult” snacks lay on the floor board near the front seat so Andy’s dad
