Your Twin
SRO, Longview
Opened in May 11, 1950, and closed after the 1997 season. It was rescued from turning into a movies-with-RV park before the 1997 season, only to succumb to $50,000 in vandalism damage on March 15, 1998.
See articles on 1997 revival drive.
See also an article in the News Tribune Tacoma, March 16, 1998, on vandalism damage.
When I arrived to survey the place in January 2000, I saw two subcontractors here, one of them painting a new red coat on the central building's dull green roof trim. It now no longer matches the color of the screen tower. Since it appeared the owners were keeping the snack bar building, I asked one of them what the new operation was going to be, and they said it would be a gravel sales lot. It makes sense for that kind of operation in a drive-in, though by now the theater surface has been turned up into dirt. Speculating on the future of this property, the worker said two of the most dreaded words for the drive-in fan: "Home Depot." When I told him that I was here to photograph the place for my drive-in website, he looked at me as if he just heard the last possible subject is now being covered on the Internet. You've got to be pretty unsentimental to work at converting a drive-in to something else.
Panorama shot of lot.
The painter erasing just a little more the past.
The setting sun shows up the texture of the corregated iron Screen 2.
Back of main screen.
Screen tower detail of main screen
Main lot, and lone speaker pole, set in a concrete base right up against the snack bar.
Former speaker poles along the fence by the second screen
Detail of Cine-Fi AM-sound delivery system.
In the fenced corral behind the snack bar were stacks of bicycle tires. When I got near the exit by the newer screen, I saw a mail box mounted on top of a bicycle painted yellow. The sign on the box indicated that the theater was recently a bicycle recycling center. The bicycle is on a former speaker pole.
Your Twin is about the only Washington State theater to have a modern picture in Don and Susan Sander's The American Drive-In Movie Theater book. It's on page 124 if you're following along at home, and shows the sign that announces that one of the two lots has AM radio sound only. In the background is the large, ground-level theater name sign with the wrap-around arrow like on Kentucky Fried Chicken or Holiday Inn.
Update: By July 2001, all drive-in remnants have been dismantled and a warehouse-like building is being put up. Perhaps it's the Home Depot that I heard of before.
Microsoft Terraserver view of the theater, back when it had more trees around it. Older screen is to the left, the newer screen is on top. The ticket booth is on the bottom right corner.
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