‘Keep it the way it is’

Bert Thomas in the projection room of the family-owned Red’s Crescent Drive-In off Elk Valley Cross Road. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

As the cars line up, the light flickers on the white screen and everyone settles in for a double-feature, the Thomas family runs the show the way it’s been since 1959.

There were once thousands of drive-in theaters, but now only a few hundred remain and one of them hides behind the trees on Elk Valley Cross Road.

Red’s Crescent Drive-In will celebrate 30 years at that location next year, but the Thomas family has been in the business for 50 years.

The drive-in will continue to open every season for the foreseeable future, Bert Thomas said. His father, Leon or “Red,” died in 2004.

Strands of film add to the ambience. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

“We don’t know any other way to run it,” said Thomas, who helps runs the business with his family.

The drive-in recently closed for the season. This past summer, Thomas said the drive-in had its best weekend in six years.

“We still do pretty well as long as the weather is good and we have movies they want to see,” he said. “We’ll keep it open as long as we can.”

The Thomas family never planned to get into the drive-in theater business all those years ago.

Thomas’s grandfather acquired the Terrace Drive-In that was just north of Brookings in 1959. He turned it over to Thomas’ father and uncle, Leon and Gene, because “they needed something to do.”

Both were nicknamed “Red” because of their hair, so Leon and Gene christened the new business Red’s Drive-In.

Back then, the brothers played a lot of John Wayne and Elvis Presley movies, plus all those early 1960s beach pictures with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello.

“Dad used to remember every movie,” Thomas said.

In 1980, the family decided they wanted to expand, Thomas said, by buying the Ocean Drive-in on Elk Valley Road and turning it into Red’s Crescent Drive-In.

“The problem with the one in Brookings is that the fog would come in,” he explained.

In a stroke of bad luck, the screens in both Crescent City and Brookings blew down on a Friday the 13th in 1981, Thomas said. The family decided to close the drive-in in Brookings, rather than replace two screens.

Growing up at a drive-in

His dad wasn’t a movie buff, Thomas said, unlike himself and his mother, but having a drive-in brought Leon a lot of joy.

“Dad used to say he was too soft-hearted to make any money,” he said.

Over the years, many family members have worked around the drive-in: Thomas’ mom works behind the snack counter, his 10-year-old daughter Kallie sometimes collects money at the box office and his brother Bill runs the projectors.

Growing up at a drive-in seems like it would  be a lot of fun, but Thomas remembers having to do a lot of work at the drive-in as a kid.

“We used to have to go out the next day (after a show) and clean up,” he said of the chore awaiting him and his two brothers. But at least they got paid in candy bars.

He also remembers his father falling 30 feet and breaking his arm trying to put a tarp up around the screen because the lights from a nearby mill were affecting the picture.

The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

Strands of film hang from the ceiling, and a PA system is is used to announce hot pizza specials.

A lot of the equipment in the projection room at Red’s Crescent Drive-In is original, including both projectors, Thomas said.

Two were needed because the reels would run out after 20 minutes and the operator would switch to the next reel on the second projector, he explained.

Now the films came on one platter, he said, and the reels don’t have to be changed, but they kept both projectors to have a back-up.

Red’s Crescent Drive-In gets new movies once they are out of the regular theaters.

To get movies, Thomas explained that they request what they want to a booking agent who negotiates with the film companies.

The family is considering some small changes for the 2010 drive-in season, while promising to “keep it the way it is,” Thomas said.

While prices have been kept low at $10 a car because money is tight for a lot of people, he said, the family might increase the price to $12 next spring.

They also plan on renovating the bathrooms and might move up the first  opening weekend to April instead of May.

“We have to watch the weather,” Thomas said about picking an opening weekend, “and make sure everything is ready.”