Auto Vue Drive In - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Auto Vue Drive-In

While my wife was visiting her mother this past weekend at the Landings Assisted Living Center in Sidney, I decided to explore the old Auto Vue drive-in located just down Russell Road from the Landings. It’s been about 55 years since my last visit to the venerable old drive-in way back in my high school days. Pictured above is the vintage marquis with the big screen and concession stand in he background.

Several cars parked next to the concession were surprising as I had assumed the old drive-in was abandoned and due for the wrecking ball. So curiosity got the best of me as I drove to where the cars were parked and went inside, running into Teresa Rees, who I was pleased to discover is the current owner of the drive-in. She’s pictured with Bill Smith, as both were preparing the concession stand for the upcoming season.

Teresa is the second generation owner of Auto Vue, taking over from her parents as described in the following blurb from their website:

The Auto Vue Drive In was built in 1956 by the late Russ Negelspach. Russ, along with brother Norm and sister-in-law Betty, ran the Auto Vue until 1987, when it was purchased by Sam (Kathryn) and David (Kelly) Rees. Many of you may remember Mrs. Shue, who met you at the ticket booth for years, working for Russ and staying on to work with the Rees family as well. Generations of the Rees family still operate the drive in today.

During the almost three decades our family has owned the Auto Vue, we have survived significant obstacles. December 1987 saw the drive-in lose the concession stand after a winter storm ripped off 1/2 of the roof and cracking walls, requiring the demolition and rebuilding of a new one.

In June 1994 another storm tore almost 1/2 of the all-steel screen away, with special made panels having to be trucked in from Georgia for the repair. A few years later, the neon sign and one of the marquis fell victim to yet another storm.

We are one of only about 310 left in the entire country. It is the love of the drive-in experience that keeps us working, year after year. We are committed to providing an affordable family-oriented experience to our communities and know you'll create those "special" memories. It's a night like no other!

Auto Vue will be opening soon for the new season, featuring wholesome family movies. During the off-season, Teresa sells the handmade items her mother makes as outlined in this video, which also gives you a sense of how the concession stand looks these days.

The movies are projected using a state of the art digital video projector pictured here. I found it interesting that the cost of the $60,000 digital projector was partially paid by GoFundMe donations from customers and supporters who wanted to make sure the drive-in survived the digital revolution. It’s a far cry from the old reel-to-reel projectors of the past, that as I recall could be readily seen when visiting the concession stand back in the day as the door was wide open. Likely the same person running the concession stand had to change the reels periodically. Made sense since the concession stand was mostly vacant while the movie was running, and during intermissions, an ad track always ran, with a big countdown to the end of intermission.

Having also worked at a drive-in along Salem Avenue in Dayton during summers while in college to earn some extra cash, I wrote this 2017 blogpost about those and other memories from the era.

After leaving the drive-in, I headed west on Russell Road having recalled a junk yard that Dad and I would frequent for spare parts. It was a fun place back in those days seeing all the wrecked cars and to scrounge around for whatever we were looking for. Lo and behold, it was still there just like the drive-in. About the only difference noticed were the junkers from the 2000’s rather than the 1950’s, plus you can scrounge for parts on-line instead of the muddy junk yard. That’s no fun!

Russell Road was a real roller coaster of a highway as I would go to work at Copeland's (now Emerson’s) the summer before college driving from Ft. Loramie to Sidney, usually running late. At the time, there were no stop signs the entire way, but since then several have been installed; maybe because of resident complaints about the noise from the Thrush mufflers salvaged from a junker and installed on my 1962 Chevy that I was driving just a little over the speed limit early each morning? My father-in-law-to-be always commented that he could hear me coming a mile away!

Speakers are another thing of the past, as now each customer simply tunes into the radio for the dolby sound broadcast by the new digital projector. So they gave away the old speakers to their patrons, and here’s one Fish Report’s Craig was given by Teresa's mother Kathryn back in the mid-90’s now on display at his place.

Teresa, thanks for the tour and renewing my drive-in memories.

No these are not junk yard dogs! 

PS: Here’s my favorite view of the old drive-in, with my bother-in-law Fred and his brand new Mustang Mach 1 in the foreground.

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