'It was a rite of passage': Sask. group comes together to save a nostalgic drive-in theatre
One of Saskatchewan’s last remaining drive-in movie theatres will be opening this season after months of uncertainty. The threat of losing the nostalgic gem at Manitou Beach sparked a movement in the community to save it.
Burt Crawford holds an original concession sign, which displays the price of a hamburger at 30 cents, a hot dog for 20 cents and coffee or hot chocolate for 10 cents.
The sign is a throwback to the early 1950s when his dad ran the drive-in at Manitou Beach. His dad also owned the movie theatre on Main Street in Watrous at the time.
“He didn’t want to open a drive in, but he said I sure don’t want anyone else to,” Crawford told CTV News.
Crawford, now almost 89-years-old, put long hours into the family business in his youth, while going to university studying to be a geological engineer. He remembers a project he was responsible for where he had to install all the wires linking up the speaker boxes. Something that doesn’t exist any longer as audio is delivered through an AM/FM transmitter to each vehicle.
“I dug in all the underground lines to go to the speaker posts with a pick,” he remembers.
He moved back from Alberta with his wife when his dad suggested he was selling the drive-in in the late 1950s. He had a good job but wanted to try the family business.
He admits he made a deal with one of his bosses that if the drive-in didn’t work out, he could return to his job. But, he says, he never looked back. It was 1960, and moving back to a small town was going against the norm.
“Kids could not wait to get out of these towns and get to the big city,” he said.
With strong ties to the drive-in theatre he helped build, he is now happy to help a local group starting the theatre up again this year. It comes after a worrisome end to the 2022 season when a projector explosion put the whole operation in jeopardy.
“What’s going to happen? There were lots of questions around the community. It’s like any business or asset that we have here; nobody wants to see us losing any of those assets,” drive-in project organizer, Lane Manson told CTV News.
Manson’s interest in helping the icon stay afloat is personal, as he remembers his teen years at the theatre with friends fondly.
“When you’d get old enough to be on your own, it was a rite of passage. They’d have all nighters. You’d get lost from 9:00 or whenever your parents picked you up,” he says.
With those memories in mind, he didn’t want this treasure to close like so many others in the province, so he searched for help. His calls were answered by the community.
“We’ve got a partner to operate the concession, we can get movies and a projector, and I’m just sort of overseeing that,” he says.
June 9 is the proposed start date if everything goes well.
All those involved in the project realize that it’s the combination of attractions in the resort that make it thrive.
“The whole is worth more than sum of the parts. If we start to let these institutions fail, there’s just less for people to do and we become less relevant,” Manson said.
Crawford plans to lend his vast knowledge of the business and this particular drive-in to the project and be an advisor, feeling strongly that the show must go on.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
A newspaper says video of Prince William and Kate should halt royal rumour mill. That's a tall order
Prince William and his wife Catherine have been filmed at a farm shop near their Windsor home, The Sun newspaper reported -- the first footage of Kate since she had abdominal surgery for an unspecified condition two months ago.
'You ask for your money, they disappear': Ontario man loses $17K to AI crypto scam
A Toronto man is spreading the word of a cryptocurrency scam that lures victims using AI-generated news sites after he lost $17,000 in investments.
Hertz CEO out following electric car 'horror show'
The company, which announced in January it was selling 20,000 of the electric vehicles in its fleet, or about a third of the EVs it owned, is now replacing the CEO who helped build up that fleet, giving it the company’s fifth boss in just four years.
High thoughts: The habits of Canadian cannabis users are revealed in a new StatCan report
Statistics Canada has conducted a series of surveys to measure the impacts of legalized cannabis since the Cannabis Act took effect in 2018. The latest one, the 2023 National Cannabis Survey, sheds light on users' preferences and habits last year.
Demand soars for solar eclipse glasses in Canada. Are they worth buying?
The demand for total solar eclipse glasses used to safely view the rare celestial event has been ramping up as sellers, along with astronomy and eye-care experts in Canada, warn that viewing the eclipse with the naked eye is dangerous.
Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and their religion
Former U.S. president Donald Trump on Monday charged that Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and hate 'their religion,' igniting a firestorm of criticism from the White House and Jewish leaders.
Toronto family doctor who called patient's body 'perfect' suspended for 3 months: tribunal
A family doctor in Toronto has been suspended for three months after a disciplinary tribunal found that he failed to follow proper protocols while examining a patient's breasts and made inappropriate comments about her body.
Freddie Mercury's home is on the market for first time since 1980 minus his 'exquisite clutter'
Freddie Mercury's sanctuary in London, where he lived the last decade of his life, is on sale for the first time in nearly half a century -- minus his "exquisite clutter."
'The lost season': Winter comes to a close as Canada's warmest on record
The warmest winter on record could have far-reaching effects on everything from wildfire season to erosion, climatologists say, while offering a preview of what the season could resemble in the not-so-distant future unless steps are taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions.