Audio By Carbonatix
Like a sad old movie queen who wears her lipstick askew and smells of mothballs, the Astro, Dallas’ only remaining drive-in theater, has seen better days.
Located in an industrial section of southwest Oak Cliff, the Astro sits on 21 acres of weed-choked asphalt. On the timeworn marquee, the letters in the movie titles lean every which way, as if placed there by someone tipsy. And the concession stand, with its original orange puckered plastic banquettes, blue Formica tables, and stained acoustic ceiling tiles, is little more than a metal lean-to stuck onto a slab of broken, barren concrete that doubles as a patio.
What the Astro lacks in amenities, though, it makes up for in nostalgia and affordability. Its north screen–one of three on the property–is the tallest in the Western Hemisphere. Children under 12 are admitted free, and one ticket buys admission to two recently released movies. And there are always specials on food items. Last week’s tub of popcorn–the sow-bucket size–was $2.50, less than half the normal price. Refills are free, and so are the memories, the inevitable by-product of visiting a drive-in these days.
The question is: Does the Astro have a future? Not for long, unless Rich Peterson has his way.
For the last several months, Peterson, a longtime veteran of the movie theater business, has been trying to raise the considerable funds it will take to purchase the drive-in and improve it. At the same time, he’s been trying to raise awareness of what will be lost if he doesn’t.
“I am not a novice, and this is not a pipe dream,” says Peterson, a gregarious man of 49, who has leased the theater for the last 11 years from the McLendon Co. “This is what I love. It’s crazy, isn’t it?”
Peterson wants to save the Astro for love–and money. And he believes he’s figured out a way to keep the landmark alive and profitable. Earlier this year, Peterson learned that the McLendon Co. was getting serious about finally unloading the property, which had been for sale for the past decade. When Peterson heard that an insurance company was interested in buying the land for an auto-salvage yard, he got serious about trying to buy it himself.
With no funds of his own to invest, he would have to convince a bank to lend him the money. But convincing a lending institution to invest in a dying industry is no small feat. Although the number of drive-ins in the country has dwindled from an all-time high of 5,000 to a little more than 500, many of the ones that remain are doing quite well. Peterson set out to learn why.
Borrowing ideas from a successful drive-in theater in Denver and a chain in California, Peterson has hatched an intriguing business plan. He wants to convert a portion of one lot into a kiddy amusement park with a half-dozen rides that he would buy used and refurbish. On weekend days, he envisions turning the place into a “Family Trade Days” flea market, renting out spaces to about 450 vendors at $20 a day. The anticipated revenue stream will help offset the four winter months when the theater loses money. He also wants to add two more screens and improve the concession building, starting with putting in new bathrooms.
But none of this comes cheap: To purchase the property and spruce it up will cost $1.5 million. With the help of the South Dallas Development Corp., Peterson has been shopping for investors. So far, only one lending institution has expressed an interest.
“I can’t tell you for sure if he’ll get the money, but I’m willing to go to the mat with it,” says Theresa Lee, chief credit officer of the SDDC, a private, nonprofit economic development corporation. “My feeling is, the plan’s feasible. Keeping and strengthening a landmark is a worthwhile project, and the economic development impact is important. I want it to work. It’s just not an easy project for a lender to get their arms around.”
The way Lee envisions the deal, a traditional lender would have to provide about $750,000–or half the funds needed; a Small Business Administration loan could cover 40 percent of the real estate costs; and the SDDC could provide the rest. Only one out of 17 lenders who’ve been approached “have not flinched,” Lee says. “If the lender’s institution is serious about this, the next step is for Peterson to do a feasibility study to corroborate the business plan numbers.”
There is another hurdle as well: Before Peterson can hold a flea market on the drive-in’s premises, he must first obtain a zoning change from the city. This is at least a three-month process that Peterson estimates will cost an additional $50,000. He says he has a commitment for the funds from Bart McLendon, whose late father, Gordon, the famed Dallas radio broadcaster and movie theater chain mogul, built the Astro 30 years ago.
Peterson has had more success convincing movie lovers that his plan is a noble one. He has collected more than 10,000 signatures from people who don’t want to lose the Astro. Pam Breden, a member of the Variety Club, is one of a number of supporters who have worked at the Astro for free on the weekends to help keep it going. “This is part of our heritage and theater-industry history,” says Breden, who works for a chain of movie houses. “It’s like a landmark, and we have to hang on to something from our past.”
Two of the Astro’s most vocal boosters are Don and Susan Sanders, owners of a local marketing company who co-authored the coffee-table tome The American Drive-In Movie Theater last year. “People who’ve never been to a drive-in are really missing something,” Don says. “When you watch a movie under an open sky, it is as if you become more a part of the movie.”
The drive-in’s decline seems to coincide with the death of the country’s innocence. They were most popular in the mid-1950s, when the public’s fascination with the automobile was still fresh. By the end of the 1960s, new construction had ended for a number of reasons. Daylight saving time had robbed the theaters of an hour of needed movie-time darkness; beach movies made the drive-ins less desirable family destinations; and movie studios, which owned their own theaters, had crippled the drive-ins by refusing to ship them new releases–a move that ended in an antitrust suit. By the time the drive-in owners emerged victorious, another phenomenon had occurred–suburban sprawl, which began swallowing up the valuable drive-in real estate.
“I think if Rich does it right, he can turn the Astro into a tourist attraction,” Sanders says. “And it would be a real service for families who can’t afford to drop $60 to see a movie and eat some popcorn at the multiplex.”
Peterson has been in the movie theater business his entire life. He began as a teenage usher at a Chicago theater, then eventually worked his way up to managing a 15-state area for a movie theater chain. After working for a Dallas-based film distribution company for a number of years, he went back into the movie theater end of the business. He eventually wound up running what was left of the McLendon movie theater enterprise–17 theaters. When he honestly reported to Bart McLendon that only four of the properties were profitable, his honesty cost him his job.
He’s been leasing the Astro and McLendon’s other Dallas property, the Casa Linda Movie Theater, ever since. The Casa Linda is in the process of being sold and, rumor has it, will be turned into a restaurant.
Sometimes Peterson looks around the dilapidated Astro and feels overwhelmed. He knows it needs a lot of work, and it’s hard to know where to begin. Being on a month-to-month lease has kept him from investing too much money in it, though he recently bought a new neon sign and, for the first time, is offering in-car heaters.
“About all you can do is keep the place tidy,” he says, as he happily fixes a guest a vat of popcorn, whose quality he is immensely proud of. As he talks about his plans for the flea market–family-oriented, no guns, no ammo, a few stalls reserved for charity–and the amusement park, and his idea to paint the outside of the concession stand in bright, colorful stripes, he is so enthusiastic, he’s almost breathless.
If Peterson can get the funding, he is certain that, just like an old movie queen, the Astro is capable of making a stunning comeback.
