Georgetown Drive-In celebrates 70th anniversary

May 6—GEORGETOWN — Over the past 70 years, the Georgetown Drive-In has seen many changes to the movie industry.

Drive-in theaters are certainly not as common as they were back in the 1950s and 1960s, but the Georgetown theater has stood strong for all these years, and now, it is as popular as ever.

The Georgetown Drive-In has remained in continuous operation since it opened in October of 1951, and this week, it is opening for its 70th season.

The drive-in, at 8200 Indiana 64 in Georgetown, will present a "film-cutting" ceremony with Georgetown town officials at 5:30 p.m. Friday to kick off the opening weekend.

Instead of cutting a ribbon, they will cut a roll of film at the ceremony, which will take place at the drive-in's box office.

This year, the drive-in has added another feature for its 70th season — a large, fluorescent sign with the word "cinema" has been added to one of the screens. The sign is from the former Showcase Cinemas on Bardstown Road in Louisville.

The Georgetown Drive-In has been part of 60-year-old owner Bill Powell's life since he was 4 years old, and he continues to run the theater with the help of family members.

The drive-in is one of a few hundred left in the United States, and besides the new Sauerbeck Family Drive-In in Oldham County, Kentucky, it is the only drive-in in the Louisville area.

The drive-in is "all about making memories," Powell said.

"That's going to be the draw this year — memories," he said. "People want to come to the drive-in and share that memory, with their kid or a family member who's never been to the drive-in. I think that's what's going to be the hot ticket this year."

When the drive-in opened in 1951, it had a single screen and capacity for 350 cars per showing.

Owners Harry Miller and James Trinkle opened the theater and ran it for about six or seven years before selling to its next owners, Evelyn and Leroy Kehrer.

Powell's parents, William and Dorothy Powell, bought the drive-in in 1965, and it has remained in his family ever since.

Powell said the family enjoyed showing movies outdoors even before they became the owners of the Georgetown Drive-In. They lived in Louisville on Goss Avenue, and his father projected movies in their backyard for neighborhood movie nights.

His parents "barely pulled it off" in the first year running the drive-in, Powell said.

"My mother had to get a full-time job, and it rained a lot, but they were able to scrape by and make the payment," he said. "Then the following year it got a little bit better [in 1966], and in '67, it started to thrive a little more."

The theater's showing of the 1967 film "Bonnie and Clyde" was the big breakthrough for his family, Powell said. It was first movie that was completely filled and they had to turn away cars.

"I believe they had the [theater] paid off in less than 10 years, and things really turned around," he said.

In the early days, there were a number of other drive-ins in Louisville and Southern Indiana, including ones in New Albany, Clarksville, Jeffersonville and Charlestown.

The New Albany drive-in was about three times bigger than the Georgetown Drive-In, and Powell said people came to Georgetown when the New Albany one became full.

Powell started working at the theater at age 9. When he was young, he mowed the grass and ran projectors at the theater.

The drive-in was getting somewhat run-down when his family took over, Powell said, and they made a number of investments and improvements in the theater over the years.

Powell said the days of VCRs and the proliferation of indoor multiplex theaters were the slowest times he can remember at the drive-in.

"The VCR came out, video stores were popping up and huge satellite dishes were in people's yards, and the indoor megaplexes were building right and left," he said.

The Georgetown Drive-in "always hung in there, and people always came out to support it," he said.

"Fast forward to today, now the opposite's taking place," Powell said. "Now, the megaplexes are struggling, and drive-ins are thriving. The tables have totally reversed."

He said he took over ownership in 1989, the year the movie "Batman" with Michael Keaton came out.

The drive-in switched to digital projection about seven years ago, but it has kept its original projector.

To listen to the movies, the drive-in still has speakers for people to hang in their window, as well as the option for people to tune in on FM radio.

The drive-in added a second screen in the late 1990s. The addition occurred, Powell said, after the theater played "The Lion King" one season but skipped another popular movie of the year, "Forrest Gump."

If there are two major blockbuster movies at one time, Powell can now play both on separate screens.

"When I put up the second screen, people told me I ruined the place, things like that, but that was the year that 'Twister' came out, and I had 'Twister' all summer long."

"All summer long I played that, and the following year, that's when 'Men in Black' came out, and that's when I paid off everything that I spent putting that second screen in," he said.

In the fall of 1996 — the year the drive-in had been playing the tornado-chasing blockbuster "Twister" — strong winds toppled the 45-year-old screen at the Georgetown Drive-In.

The drive-in has brought in a number of famous figures over the years, ranging from cast members of classic horror movies to the actor Henry Winkler.

For Powell, the most memorable was a 2007 visit by Tony Moran, the actor who played the unmasked Michael Myers in the original "Halloween" movie.

The drive-in has remained busy in recent years, and last year the outdoor theater was a popular entertainment choice during the pandemic as indoor theaters remained closed. The theater opened for the season May 24 of 2020 with a showing of "The Wizard of Oz."

"This place was packed out in 45 minutes," he said. "They were lined up as far as you can see wanting in here."

The drive-in has been a "little escape from reality" for people during the pandemic, Powell said.

Last October, a Halloween showing that included the film "Hocus Pocus" "crushed all records here in the history of the drive-in," he said.

Powell's family helps him run the drive-in, and he hopes the family will continue the business in years to come.

He loves presenting events and movies for kids, because they are the next generation of moviegoers, he said.

"You're seeing the kids growing up, and now they're having kids," he said. "I've seen several generations of that take place."

He likes to keep things "old-school" at the drive-in.

"At a drive-in, you need to keep it all retro, keep it original," Powell said. "That's what separates you apart from theaters, and right now, that's what people like. They're looking for retro. They're looking for something different out there."

Chris Loop, president of the Georgetown Town Council, said the drive-in is one of the main things the town has become known for.

"There's a lot of people that when you think of Georgetown, if you're not from here, you automatically think of the drive-in," he said.

Loop said that in addition to the nostalgic appeal of the drive-in, the theater has continued to look toward the future with investments in technology.

"Not only is there nostalgia with the drive-in, but the Powells have done an incredible job running the drive-in since 1965," Loop said.

To celebrate the 70th anniversary, Powell said the drive-in will present introductions with a "Tom and Jerry" cartoon and a "The Three Stooges" comedy, and people can see the drive-in's original projector running before the transition to the main features.

The opening weekend will including showings of "Godzilla vs. Kong" at 9 p.m., "Mortal Kombat" at 11 p.m. on screen one, and on screen two, films include "Tom and Jerry" at 9 p.m. and "Wonder Woman 1984" at 10:45 p.m. The films run Friday through Sunday.