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Topic: Sandusky Drive-In (Read 1751 times) |
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GratiotDriveInFan
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Sandusky Drive-In
« Thread started on: Jul 4th, 2007, 12:00pm » |
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While on a road trip to an Arthur Treacher's restaurant, my wife and I took the time to visit the Sandusky Drive-In to snap some photos. Looks like some "artist" turned their creative touch loose on the screen. Check out the "zombies" emerging from the hole.....
The closed Sandusky Drive-In is just down the road from Cedar Point and the property is for sale. With a little work, it could be made operational again, but I've heard that the asking price is prohibitively high.
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elsrbagokrapp
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Re: Sandusky Drive-In
« Reply #1 on: Jul 4th, 2007, 7:38pm » |
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on Jul 4th, 2007, 12:00pm, GratiotDriveInFan wrote:| While on a road trip to an Arthur Treacher's restaurant, my wife and I took the time to visit the Sandusky Drive-In to snap some photos. Looks like some "artist" lent their creative touch loose on the screen. Check out the "zombies" emerging from the hole..... |
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Looks like they're keeping the place mowed anyway! I saw a show there the last season it was open and death was obvious. The paint on the screen face looks about the same as when pictures were shown on it and you can imagine what a movie would look like projected on it.
That's as primitive of a concessions shack imaginable. They had no concessions at the end and only showed films. Looked like the original projectors in there with a box of fresh carbons ready on the shelf.
You'd think this place would do a Capri volume of business with it's location but without basic maintainence it was mighty creepy. Hope the right person buys it.
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Projectionist
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Re: Sandusky Drive-In
« Reply #2 on: Jul 27th, 2007, 07:57am » |
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Well, I tried to post a reply, but I did not do it correctly. So, here is a 2nd try.
The Sandusky Drive-In, where I worked for 25 years, is under control of one or other of the parks districts there, now. The screen will be torn down, and the land used to increase public access to Sandusky Bay and the marshes. At least it's going for a good purpose. I think they should name it "Seitz Park" or "Drive-In Park". The place was built in 1949, and was a pretty cool place to be for a lot of years.
Here are some images. I have bunches.
I will miss the place!
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Projectionist
Sandusky Drive-In 1976-2002
Strong arc, Simplex 35mm, RCA optical sound
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elsrbagokrapp
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Re: Sandusky Drive-In
« Reply #3 on: Jul 27th, 2007, 3:22pm » |
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Nice photos! Thanks for sharing them. It must have been 2002 on a Sunday when I stopped in there. The movie playing was "Love and Basketball." If you're the gent running the projector that evening I do recall who you were, as I had walked around the consessions hoping to find a bag of popcorn.
So, the place was sold to a parks department (gubmint)? May I inquire as to the settling price?
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Projectionist
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Re: Sandusky Drive-In
« Reply #4 on: Jul 27th, 2007, 8:53pm » |
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I honestly don't know if I was working that weekend. If it was not me, it was my very good friend Steve Megyesi. He would have been blonde, with thinning hair, stocky w/glasses. I am 6'7" and at that time was very heavy, so either of us will stand out in a crowd.
I do not know the details. My last firm info on Philip Seitz' asking price was 750k. The projection and sound equipment had been stripped out a few years back.
There was no snack bar for about the last five years. It was a pretty desolate place to work. BTW - we used carbon-arcs with 60 minute reels!
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Sandusky Drive-In 1976-2002
Strong arc, Simplex 35mm, RCA optical sound
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michigandriveins
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Re: Sandusky Drive-In
« Reply #5 on: Jul 28th, 2007, 06:26am » |
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Very cool shots. It's too bad someone couldn't have saved it. Seems like with some work and proper promotion, it could have rocked in that location so close to Cedar Point.
How (and why) did they ever make it through 5 years without any concession revenue!?
Welcome to the forum Projectionist! Feel free to post more Sandusky pics. Do you have any vintage pics, and do you know it's going to be demo'd?
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elsrbagokrapp
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Re: Sandusky Drive-In
« Reply #6 on: Dec 25th, 2007, 10:42pm » |
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A new video of the Sandusky has been put up on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEGdgbugywM
This looks to have been shot years ago - the speakers are on the poles and the place looks clean. I'm quite sure the gentleman shown in the projection booth is the same fellow I chatted with years ago when the place was running, and has posted here as "Projectionist"
after an hour of trying, I've figured out that this board will not accept an embedded video player, so you have to click on the link
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elsrbagokrapp
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Re: Sandusky Drive-In
« Reply #7 on: Dec 29th, 2007, 02:43am » |
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Month old photo:
She's gone. Down come the asbestos sheets. 13½ acres bought with $465K of taxpayer money for use as parking for the parks department.
Your tax dollars at work 
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michigandriveins
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Re: Sandusky Drive-In
« Reply #8 on: Dec 29th, 2007, 05:20am » |
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on Dec 29th, 2007, 02:43am, elsrbagokrapp wrote:Month old photo:
She's gone. Down come the asbestos sheets. 13½ acres bought with $465K of taxpayer money for use as parking for the parks department.
Your tax dollars at work |
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Is the screen down now? Wondering if it's worth it to run down there for one last look. Here'a bunch of nice hi-res shots....http://www.abandonedbutnotforgotten.com/sandusky_drive-in,_sandusky_oh.htm
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elsrbagokrapp
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Re: Sandusky Drive-In
« Reply #9 on: Dec 29th, 2007, 7:38pm » |
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The demolition started mid-November. The project manager says he's looking forward to getting this cleaned out. The demolition cost was $65,000 due to the extra involved in disposing of the asbestos cement screen panels. I'm sure by now that the screen has been felled and the speaker posts plucked.
Betcha they pitched all the speakers in the dumpster too.
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GratiotDriveInFan
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Re: Sandusky Drive-In
« Reply #10 on: Dec 29th, 2007, 10:16pm » |
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When I visited the Sandusky earlier this year, there weren't any speakers mounted on the poles. Don't know what was in the concession/projection building though.
I can't imagine why anyone needs to park anything there, unless they're going to use it like a DPW yard. Nothing else is around it. Once that Drive-In lost it's following by virtue of it's being closed for several years, I think it would have been difficult to build a new clientele to sustain it.
The area is rather run down and seedy, so you'd probably draw a problematic, undesirable crowd anyway. RIP Sandusky.
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elsrbagokrapp
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Re: Sandusky Drive-In
« Reply #11 on: Dec 30th, 2007, 2:50pm » |
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on Dec 29th, 2007, 10:16pm, GratiotDriveInFan wrote:When I visited the Sandusky earlier this year, there weren't any speakers mounted on the poles. Don't know what was in the concession/projection building though.
I can't imagine why anyone needs to park anything there, unless they're going to use it like a DPW yard. Nothing else is around it. Once that Drive-In lost it's following by virtue of it's being closed for several years, I think it would have been difficult to build a new clientele to sustain it.
The area is rather run down and seedy, so you'd probably draw a problematic, undesirable crowd anyway. RIP Sandusky. |
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You're right about the area being run down and seedy. It's a minority area. Look at the grafitti on the screen. If it had been in a different location it might have had a chance. The parks department got it to add to their 185 acres directly behind it.
Surprising though, for being a bad area, that the parks department shelled out almost 40,000 per acre for it (including the demolition costs).
A picture in the paper also shows a '40s style carbon-arc lamphouse still there, so the speakers were probably stored in the concessions like they do for the winter anyway. The owner Dave Seitz passed away a few years ago so he didn't have to see it torn down.
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