Roadside Online: Diners, Drive-ins, the American roadside

From Grandview to Vista de Nada

Published on Monday, 16 March 2009 21:58

Written by Randy Garbin

The Buffalo News reports that Erie County’s last drive can’t stave off demolition anymore. The Grandview Drive-In, which showed its last movie in 2005 will succumb to the bulldozer despite the efforts of a local preservation group calling itself the Friends of the Grandview.

According to the report:

More recently, Friends of the Grandview has worked with the Brant supervisor to relocate the drive-in’s massive screen tower to the town if Wal-Mart received the green light to build on the Grandview site.

If the Grandview demolition is completed, six drive-ins would be left in Western New York: the Transit, in Lockport; the Sunset, in Middleport; Park 60, in Jamestown; the Delevan, in Delevan; the Portville, in Portville; and the Silver Lake, in Perry.

More than 90 percent of drive-in theaters have closed since reaching a high of 4,063 in 1958. A July 2007 tally by the United Drive-in Theater Owners of America found 383 theaters in the United States operating 636 screens.

“This is terrible news,” said Rick Cohen, owner of the Transit Drive-in in Lockport, adding that relocating a screen tower was impractical.

Read more here.

With thanks to Doug Smith.

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