© 2024 WGLT
A public service of Illinois State University
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Drive-in Movie Ritual Returns in Peoria

Drive-in movies at Kellar Station
Courtesy The Kim Group
Drive-in movies at Kellar Station

The drive-in era has come and gone in Peoria, but the pandemic is giving new life to the concept of watching a movie in the privacy of one’s car.

Peoria developer Katie Kim is providing a drive-in film series this summer at the Keller Station location at Knoxville and Northmoor avenues.

“We wanted to see if we could do something so that the community could come together—that people could be socially integrated but physically distant,” said Kim, noting that films will run Friday and Saturday nights through mid-August.

Kim said tickets for family-fare favorites like “Goonies” and “Ferris Buehler’s Day Off” are sold online at www.KellerStation.com.

The drive-in concept was attempted in 2013 in the parking lot outside the Landmark Cinema in Peoria, but failed to attract a following, said Michael Larkin, a Peorian who worked at the location.

“They really didn’t have the room for a proper drive-in,” said Larkin, who recalled working at several area drive-ins in the 1970s.

The son of Frank Larkin, the longtime manager of the Kerasotes theater group in the Peoria area, Larkin first worked at the Peoria Drive-in on Glen Avenue in 1972. After working in concessions, he became a projectionist at the theater in 1975.

The Peoria Drive-in was the area’s first drive-in, opening in October 1947. Next came the Bellevue Drive-in, three miles west of Peoria, which opened in 1948, noted Chris Farris, reference assistant librarian at the Peoria Public Library.

“The Bellevue’s claim to fame was it was the largest drive-in south of the Chicago area,” said Farris.

Other area drive-ins followed: the Starlite in Pekin in 1950 and the Pioneer and Holiday drive-ins in Peoria, both opening in the 1960s.

While drive-ins enjoyed national success in the 1950s and 1960s, they started disappearing from the scene in the 1980s, particularly in urban areas where the cost of land was more conducive to a year-round endeavor than a seasonal drive-in.

The drive-in season ran from Memorial Day to Labor Day in the Peoria area, recalled Larkin, who also worked at both the Pioneer and Starlite drive-ins. The Starlite was the last area drive-in to close in 1991.

“After the Heart of Illinois Fair closed in late July, you saw (drive-in) attendance go down,” he said.

On weekends, area drive-ins gave film-goers their money’s worth, screening as many as four movies in a night, allowing patrons to stay in their cars until the wee hours of the morning, said Larkin, who also remembered how some folks entered the open-air theater.

“When you saw the car down in the back, you knew people were in the trunk,” he said.

Patrons won’t have to resort to sneaking in at the Keller Station operation, however. Kim said the Keller Station location, adjacent to Donovan Park, allows those who set up in the park to watch at no charge.

We’re living in unprecedented times when information changes by the minute. WCBU will continue to be here for you, keeping you up-to-date with the live, local and trusted news you need. Help ensure WCBU can continue with its in-depth and comprehensive COVID-19 coverage as the situation evolves by making a contribution.

Copyright 2021 WCBU. To see more, visit WCBU.

Steve Tarter retired from the Peoria Journal Star in 2019 after spending 20 years at the paper as both reporter and business editor.