Carl J Williams

I don’t post often, but I really wanted to tell you about the Twin City Drive-In Theatre visit I made yesterday.
My oldest son now lives and works in the “DC Metropolitan Area” and recently requested that I take a few photos of the local drive-in theatres for him. You know, in 1999, according to the website driveintheatres.com there were only 14 operating drive-ins in Tennessee and 9 in Virginia. Bristol (TN/VA) has two, one in each state.
On Wednesday afternoon, my youngest son and I stopped at the drive-in on the Lee Highway in Bristol, VA and decided maybe they’d think we were trespassing if we walked onto the property (inside the gates) without permission. I called both theatres that evening to ask for permission to shoot photos. No luck on the Lee Highway theatre. I couldn’t get a person, and I haven’t received a response to the message I left.
I called the Twin City Drive-In on the Volunteer Parkway in Bristol, TN, and talked to Ellen Warden. Ellen and her husband have owned the theatre for thirty years and she shows a real passion for the theatre. They live in a house next to the theatre. She was more than willing to let me photograph – in fact, she gave me two 8×10 glossy aerial shots of the theatre, one showing the Bristol racetrack in the background. My youngest son did the photography and I visited.
Ellen toured us around the 29-acre property in her golf cart and discussed the history of the drive-in (it opened in 1949) and the future of the drive-in. It’s close to the racetrack and everybody would like to have this prime real estate, it seems.
The drive-in was a beautiful scene in the 93 degree heat. The screen was destroyed in a storm in 1977, and a new screen with steel supports was erected. Sadly, the name of the theatre that was so visible on the back of the screen supports was not replaced.
Standing in front of the screen, looking up through the parking area, I was amazed to see so much grass! I also noticed that the drive-in is not surrounded by visibility blocking metal fences. The solid metal fence is across the front by the entrance, and the rear is bordered by beautiful, green trees. If you go the distance to the rear of the parking area by the trees and turn 180 degrees toward the screen, the view beyond is also fantastic! A great visage of the “knobs” provides the horizon line.
The theatre is clean and attractive. I noticed all posts had speakers on them, and did I say that it’s clean? Ms Warden was so hospitable aand gave us much more of her time than I intended to take up, that I found it hard to leave. There’s so much more in this story. I think I’ll have to call her again and do a “real interview.” And, I think I’d like to go back to the drive-in. She says “Dukes of Hazzard” opens this Friday night.