Last picture show at Killarney drive-in

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This article was published 25/05/2015 (3826 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — One of Manitoba’s last drive-in theatres, the Shamrock in Killarney, will go dark this summer.

Last week, owner Joanne Struss posted on the drive-in’s Facebook page that, due to the scarcity of movies released on 35-millimetre film, the drive-in would not open this season, although they hope to reopen in the future.

“We want to keep this going. We really love doing it as a family. I love watching movies under the stars,” Struss said.

The Struss family has owned the Shamrock Drive-In, which has existed for more than 50 years, for the last four years. When they bought it, they knew the death of 35-millimetre film was imminent, but still wanted to try to keep the drive-in open.

The Struss family looked into upgrading the projection system to digital, but were priced out when they discovered the cost of a digital system had risen to $98,000.

The Strusses began hunting online for a used digital system. They have come across some reasonably priced units, but haven’t been able to purchase them because the movie companies only allow certain brands to be used.

Struss’s husband, Darren, went so far as to build his own digital unit. However, the movie companies forbid them from using it because there was a chance something could be hooked up to the projector to copy the film.

Even this year, the Strusses thought they had a chance to keep the drive-in running. They obtained a copy of Cinderella on 35-millimetre film and played it during the May long weekend. But last week, Joanne looked into the chances of getting copies of other movies on 35-millimetre film and found them difficult to obtain. So they made the decision to close the drive-in this year.

They had already promised to show a movie during the VW car show in Killarney on Aug. 15, so Joanne is hoping she will be able to play Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Since the announcement, people in the community have talked about holding fundraisers. The Strusses plan to keep searching for a used digital-projection unit to purchase.

“I would honestly feel that I’ve failed in some way, that I’ve failed the community if we couldn’t keep it going,” Joanne said.

There are only two other drive-ins in Manitoba: the Stardust in Morden and Big Island in Flin Flon.

 

— Brandon Sun