Nothing was more exciting to me when I was a little girl than when, on a Saturday night, the family would pile into my dad's Impala and we'd go to McDonald's for dinner (back when the sign bragged "Millions and Millions Sold") and then to a drive-in movie. I saw some of my all-time favorite movies at the drive-in: The Sting, Bad News Bears, Rocky, and the classic, American Graffiti--that loving paean to the golden days when the drive-in theatre was a fixture on the American landscape.
Fast-forward a few years, and you might find me on the way in to the very same drive-in, only this time crammed into the trunk of a friend's car, another friend jammed next to me (imagine me trying that now?!?). Too broke to pay for a whole carload, we'd smuggle as many kids as we could in a trunk or storage compartment. Unlike my younger years, I don't think I saw much of whatever movie was playing, but one thing remained the same...I always had a blast!
Once I reached adulthood, drive-in theatres, like my father's Impala, got filed away under "Fond Memories." Little did I know that one day I would wind up in a wonderful town where the drive-in theatre (alas, not the Impala) is still very much a fixture of modern life.
The Swan Drive-In Theatre in Blue Ridge, Georgia was built in 1955 by Jack Jones, Sr. and W.H. Tilley, Jr.-known
as "H." Jack and H already owned the small town's two theaters--the Rialto and the Royal, where ticket prices were 32 cents for adults and 15 cents for children and a Saturday matinee ran 25 cents for adults and ten cents for children. Because televisions were scarce up in the mountains, business was brisk at the two theaters.
Looking to serve an ever-growing audience hungry for movies, the two men seized on the idea of opening a drive-in theatre. This was no small feat in Blue Ridge, nestled as it is in the rolling foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Tracts of land level enough and large enough to accommodate the special topographical needs of a drive-in were scarce as hen's teeth.
Undaunted, Jack and H were able to lease several acres from the City of Blue Ridge. There was still a considerable amount of grading and fill to be done and once the work had begun, they encountered unyielding rock that only dynamite would budge. Discouraged and almost ready to scrap the mission, they were encouraged to keep on going by the excavators that were working for them.
Finally, with the daunting task of excavating and grading behind them, Jack and H were able to move forward with the relatively simple tasks of wiring for sound, paving, and building the concession stand and box office.
One final-and formidable-obstacle stood between the two men and the completion of their dream: the erecting of the movie screen itself. After piecing the screen together on the ground, the men had to go all the way to Atlanta (no easy task in those days before the Georgia Mountain Parkway provided a quick and easy way to make the journey!) to get a crane tall enough and powerful enough to raise the screen. For $100, Jack and H were able to get a crane for hire from Atlanta Steel Erectors. As an excited throng of locals looked on nervously, the pieces of the screen were lifted and pieced together, until, finally, the last section was carefully lowered into place. The on-lookers let out a relieved whoop and, with that, Jack and H's dream became a reality.
H Tilley was the one to come up with the name for the drive-in. Prior to taking part in the Omaha Beach Landing in the Normandy Invasion during World War II, H was stationed in England. While there, he came to admire the graceful and beautiful swans that swam in the ponds and lakes around the country. He thought SWAN would be the perfect name for his newest theatre. His partner, Jack, agreed--it would be an easy name to make into a neon sign.
The opening of the Swan Drive-In Theatre was a watershed event in Blue Ridge, as it served as a beacon, drawing people from small communities all across the North Georgia mountains. And it continues to do so to this day, fifty-three years later, where this weekend's showing was the double-feature: "Nim's Island" and "Horton Hears a Who."
The movie schedule for Swan Drive-In Theatre, circa November, 1959
Postscript: H Tilley sold his share of the business to Jack Jones in 1959, who continued to operate it for many years. Mr. Jones passed away in 1980. H Tilley is retired and still lives with his family in Blue Ridge. Steve Setser now owns and operates the Swan Drive-In Theater. He began working there when he was 15, and finally bought it in 1989.
I would like to offer a special thanks to Mrs. H (Blanch) Tilley for so graciously speaking with me about the beginnings of Blue Ridge's Swan Drive-In Theatre.
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Kim, I love it! What a flashback! I remember old Clint Eastwood at our outdoor theater with Shirley McClain in Two Mules for Sister Sarah! I sneeked in the trunk of someone's car and we got away with it! Getting away with it simply meant that the other people all around us didn't turn us in. Thanks for the blast from the past. Later in the rain~Deb