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 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

could have a beer while watching the big screen. Andy said that his parents loved the drive-in movie because his mom didn’t have to shush them to be quiet or chase after them like she did with the indoor theater, and his dad loved it because it was cheaper and he could drink a beer or two. Once the boys got back to their car with their goodies and settled into the back, Dad retrieved the large metal speakers from the posts and positioned them by hooking them on the partly rolled down windows, wires zigzagging from posts to carry the “stereo” sound throughout the car’s interior.

The Sage Drive-In opened in August 1950 in a farmer’s field. The majority of the land used for the drive-in is now Wal-Mart and the entrance is where Barnes & Noble sits on 24th Street West. The sixty-foot screen wasn’t as large as the Motor-Vu’s but was quite popular with the Billings residents because it also had a playground for the kids.

You would not think that Montana would be an ideal location for drive-ins. However, at its peak, Montana hosted no less than thirty-nine of them beneath our big star filled sky. Since that time, most have closed and gone dark, but there are still three drive-ins left in the state. One of those is the Amusement Park Drive-In, located between Billings and Laurel at 7335 Mossmain Lane.

If you have a hankering to go “back to the future” and experience one of our country’s unique inventions - the automobile and Hollywood movies - then consider hauling the grandkids to our own local novelty from the past, The Amusement Park Drive-In for an evening of “cinema under the stars.”