10 Minutes Until Showtime!

Let’s All Go to the Snack Bar

Just a quick one today…

I attended Manhattan High School (in Kansas) my senior year and spent the next two years in that town. I skipped a year before I enrolled as a freshman at Kansas State. During that time I held several odd jobs but one of my favorites was at the Sky Vue Drive-In Theater. It opened in 1949 and closed for good in 1982. It was operated by a company called Commonwealth Theaters, which also booked the three indoor theater locations in town; the Campus in Aggieville, the Wareham Theater downtown, and later the Varsity Theater also in Aggieville.

I couldn’t find any photos of the Sky Vue but found the Wareham online

I sold tickets, sat on my car hood the rest of the night watching for people sneaking in, and shut it all down at the end of the night. At one time I could quote any given line in “A Man Called Horse” and “Paint Your Wagon.”

Apparently I wasn’t going for high end achievement in those days.

Later in life I once again got involved in booking films in Lawrence, Kansas, but that’s an involved and complicated story for another time.

So enjoy these clips of concession stand ads that may take you right back to necking in the back seat…

Random western Kansas drive-in shot in 1984.

And now for some Henry Chomsky…