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05/28/2007Photo Story
Freeze FrameCherry Bowl Drive-In preserves a time gone by
The Cherry Bowl Drive-In uses 35 millimeter film shown at 24 frames a second, or about a mile an hour. An hour-and-a-half movie can use about a mile and a half of film. HONOR — As one of the few drive-in movie theaters in Michigan, Cherry Bowl Drive-In in Honor works to recreate an experience from a time when there were thousands of such theaters across the country. The theater was built in 1953 and has been in operation ever since. Harry Clark and wife Laura bought it in 1997 and today run it with a staff of 18, including their middle son, Andrew, and youngest daughter, Arika. "Our goal is to have a safe place families can come and enjoy,” he said. "There are generations that have been coming here. There are a lot of family cottages in the area. We get a lot of folks from Detroit, Chicago and Grand Rapids who vacation up here, and we've been a part of their family back to their grandparents.” Clark thinks nostalgia, tradition, the family environment and knowing what we do and what we play,” are huge factors in the drive-in's longevity. There are five drive-ins remaining in Michigan; the nearest is in Muskegon. The Cherry Bowl opened for the season on April 27, showing "Meet the Robinsons,” and "Wild Hogs,” and will offer features on weekends until June 8, when movies will run every night through Labor Day. Movies shown are always rated PG-13 or lower to keep a family atmosphere. Nearly all the films are first run, Clark said. There are 300 parking spots with a speaker post, plus extra spots in back. A radio broadcast allows people to pick up the audio over their car radios and a special FM station. A new projector system has helped improve the image quality, but vintage advertisements, cartoons and other bits of film nostalgia are shown before and in between double features. "I think the movie is kind of secondary to all the stuff here,” said Andrea Bailey of Grawn as she ate a pre-movie meal with her grandson, Austin Odzian, 10, of Cedar and Dave Coville of Suttons Bay. "I don't even know what's showing tonight.” The box office opens at 7:30 p.m. The movies don't start until dusk, but there are batting cages, playground equipment, volleyball courts and a mini-golf course, in addition to a snack bar, to keep patrons entertained until the features start. "It's exactly as I remember it 50 years ago,” Dave Coville said of the drive-in's look.
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