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Topic: 91-year-old former Drive-In owner plans to build new outdoor movie theatres
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Frank Cox
Film God
Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011
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posted 04-10-2016 05:41 PM
91-year-old former Sundown Drive-In owner plans to build new outdoor movie theatres
quote:
Saskatoon’s drive-in theatre king is back on the throne.
Duffy Besenski, 91, is coming out of retirement to build a four-screen drive-in movie theatre on 40 acres of land just east of the old Sundown Drive-In on Highway 5.
“What we’re going to do is put one screen up first so we can get it open in a few months and then we’ll build the other three,” Besenski said Friday.
“I want to put up a fancy concession like they have at the Galaxy so people can come out early. A games room and a playground in each one of them. Train rides and all those things.”
At one time, Besenski owned five drive-ins in Saskatchewan — the Sundown, the Southwinds on Highway 11 and drive-ins in Kindersley and Borden. In 1952, he and his father built the Golden West Drive-In Theatre in Humboldt, where he grew up.
“We built that thing with hammers and nails back then. There were no cranes or anything. We used to have to climb up ladders. Could have fallen off lifting the four by fours up.”
In contrast, the new theatre will be fully modern with digital projection — at a cost of about $100,000.
“They don’t use those great big reels anymore. They just use a chip now, they’re picking it off a satellite,” he said.
He expects the whole project will cost around $400,000.
“Got most of it. I still got the first dollar I earned in Humboldt,” he said.
After spending a month in Florida and talking to the owner of a four-screen drive-in there, he’s convinced drive-ins are coming back. The next step is to get a contractor, he said.
“I’ve got three guys I’m dealing with today, this afternoon.”
Besenski said his grandson will run the new Sundown. It’s exciting to be back in business, he added.
“I don’t want to be retired and sitting at home and watching the birds.
“All my family was saying, ‘Retire, retire.’ Since I was 65 and I sold the theatres on Eighth Street — I had two Duffy’s theatres on Eighth Street and Grosvenor. That was a bunch of foolishness. I should have never listened to the family.”
Besenski says his health is excellent; his father lived to 99.
“My doctor says I’ll live to be 100.”
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Andrew Thomas
Master Film Handler
Posts: 273
From: Pearland, TX, USA
Registered: Jun 2012
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posted 04-26-2016 05:08 PM
quote: Barry Floyd
Uhmmm... I built a new drive-in here in Tennesee back in 2003. I too thought I could build a drive-in for $400,000. By the time I spent all of my $400,000 I borrowed from the bank, all I had to show for it was a graded parking field, a 25x60 screen, and a 780 foot long privacy fence. I ended up going back to the bank with hat in hand begging for another $250K to finish the project.
If he DOUBLES that amount of money, he might end up with a single screen drive-in.
Is land included in your price? If not, $800,000 for a single screen drive in is nuts.
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Jack Ondracek
Film God
Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002
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posted 07-03-2016 01:31 PM
quote: Ron Funderburg
Drive ins are a tough go now - daylight savings time, short seasons usually, limited interest though week who wants to get up at 6:00 am after getting done at the drive in at 1:00 am? Worked in a few drive ins, ran two over the years. Always preferred indoor theaters. But that's just me.
That's a common observation from that part of the moviegoing public that prefers the indoor experience... and that's fine. We've always been impressed that people will start lining up at 6, at our boxoffice that opens at 7, for a show that starts at 9:45. Depending on the length of the double feature, many of them will be here until 2:30 the next morning. Our busiest time of the season is during the weeks our shows start the latest.
But that's just part of the experience. We get them in the gate, keep them relatively organized (read: herding cats), feed most of them at least once, supervise two playgrounds, get the concessions stocked back up, jump start more than a few dead batteries, inform a few that, for one reason or another, don't realized the show's over, and clean the place up for the next night. This time of year, we lock up well after 3.
Great fun!
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