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Blomeyer Drive-in Theater

Reader Toni Eftink asked, “Wasn’t there a drive in right outside of Cape near Blomeyer? I think the screen is even still up…has a lot of vines covering it, but I drive past it on my way home to Leopold.”

Toni is a decade or two too young to have ever seen a movie at the Montgomery Drive-in Theater just south of the Diversion Channel on Hwy 25, but the old concrete screen is still there. She’s right, too, that it’s being devoured by creepy-looking vines like something out of one of the sci-fi movies shown ON that screen.

1960s Montgomery Drive-in aerial

That’s the drive-in in the lower left portion of the picture. The screen is the bright, square object. The Diversion Channel is on the right. Click on any photo to make it larger.

I’m not sure I ever saw a full movie there. Wife Lila and I went there one night when we were dating, but the mosquitoes were so bad that we bailed early.

Montgomery Drive-In aerial in 2010

Used mobile homes and other structures have replaced the movie parking area, and thick brush has grown up around the screen. The screen is at the lower right part of the photo.

No popcorn available here

The roof of the projection / concession stand building has collapsed.

Building used for storage

It looks like the building had been used for miscellaneous storage of parts by the mobile home folks along the highway.

Screen made of concrete

Morris Montgomery, owner of the drive-in, said the original screen was made of redwood shipped in from Oregon. A Missourian story said a windstorm blew it down Sept. 22, 1965. Morris said the wooden screen was replaced with one made of concrete panels cast locally and supported by heavy steel I-beams.

Concrete and I-Beams look sturdy

The screen and its supports have held up well for being nearly half a century old.

Theater showed few first-run movies

Morris said the drive-in showed very few first-run movies. “The big movie theaters in Cape had contracts that embargoed those kinds of shows for at least 14 days.” TV and air conditioning took its toll, too.

A dollar per carload

Morris said they experimented with different ways to make the drive-in appealing to the cost-conscious.

They tried free Monday nights for awhile, counting on the $100-$150 in concession sales to carry the freight. That’s a lot of hamburgers at 25 cents each and hot dogs priced at 15 cents.

In 1958, you could bring in a whole carload for a buck. “Dad laughed about the night he saw a car coming in with just the driver, but the car’s rearend was dragging the ground. He stopped the car and said, ‘Get ’em out of the trunk. It’s a dollar a carload. I don’t care how many people you stuff in it.'”

I’m not sure when the last movie was shown. Morris said his mother and son tried to re-open the theater two nights a week – Friday and Saturday – in June 1980, but decided very quickly to close it for good.

New Blomeyer roundabout

While we’re talking about the Blomeyer area, the state just finished construction of a new roundabout at the intersection of Hwys 25 and 77. Some locals have said that the only problem is that it’s not big enough to accommodate the big grain trucks common to the area. The trucks have to drive up on the red brick area to make the turn.

The theater is located slightly to the north of this intersection.

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Altenburg Museum Christmas Trees

I stopped in at the Lutheran Heritage Center and Museum in Altenburg this Wednesday afternoon to talk with museum director Carla Jordan about a possible project. I noticed folks like Lillian Fiehler buzzing around getting this year’s annual Christmas Display ready for the weekend.

Dressing for Christmas

Many of the trees are themed, like this one entitled Dressing for Christmas, which is decorated with gloves and hankies. This is a great place to get decorating ideas that are simple and not expensive.

Top ornament came from Walmart

I was admiring the red ornament that topped the tree Carolyn Schmidt was working on. “It came from Walmart,” she confided. They’re not afraid to mix the old and the new if the overall effect works.

Scherenschinitte Tree

“I’m glad there’s a label on this thing,” I told Carolyn when she introduced me to the Scherenschinitte – Scissor Cutting Tree. “If that wasn’t there to back you up, I’d think you were trying to trick me into running some kind of German cuss word.”

Why the donkey is brown

Autumn Hughey was doing a masterful job of coaxing beautiful colors out of chalk to draw a Nativity scene. “In case you were wondering, the donkey is brown because I didn’t have any gray chalk.” To be honest, I hadn’t even noticed, but that’s the answer in case YOU were wondering.

Display up through January 15

Carla said the display should be complete by this weekend. It will be up until January 15. If the first trees are any indication, it’s well worth the drive to Altenburg. To see another example of the quality of their exhibits, read my piece on the Vintage Hats of Perry County from this spring. There’s a map on the page, too.

The Lutheran Heritage Center and Museum’s website has more information.

If you go, tell them I sent you.

German history course

I’ve never been to the museum when I haven’t run into an interesting character. Wilmar Degenhardt, 85, looked at an aerial photo I shot in the 60s and exclaimed, “That’s the farm I grew up on until I was 18-1/2!” For the next hour, he lectured on the early German settlements and German history in general. He crammed in more information than you’d get in a college class. I was afraid he’d hand me a Blue Book and make me write an essay on what he had covered.

Photo gallery

Here’s a sneak peek at the early stages of the Christmas display before all of the trees were up. Click on an image to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the photo to move through the gallery.

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Rialto: Gone, Gone, Gone


I wrote that the roof of the Rialto Theater collapsed after a rainstorm back in June. A reader asked what was going to happen? Were they going to repair and reopen or just call in the bulldozers.

Alas, the bulldozers won

See the faint letters painted on the blacktop parking lot at the bottom of the photo. Compare this photo to one I shot from behind the theater five months earlier. There’s a lot of building gone.

Rialto Theater in June

I’m not surprised that the building was razed. When I shot interior photos of the building in February, everything behind the lobby had already been gutted to a shell.

Rialto front looks the same

The front of the building looks so much the same that I didn’t even bother to update the photo. Since what used to be the lobby is intact, I suspect that what used to be a movie theater will become regular office space.

Rialto and other theater stories

I’ve done a number of stories about Cape’s theaters. Here are some links in case you missed them.

Headed back to Florida

I’ve been in Cape for exactly a month. I have a couple of loose ends to tie up, then I’ll be packing everything up for the journey back to West Palm Beach. Once I get back there, I have to install everything onto a newer, spiffier computer. One of the two mirrored hard drives on my old machine died while I was on the trip, so Kid Matt convinced me to replace the whole machine instead of throwing money at an old box. I’m excited about a faster computer; I’m not excited about having to reinstall all the applications.

What all this means is that you may not be seeing as much stuff as usual over the next week or so. With Turkey Day coming up, I imagine you’ll be busy with family and holidays anyway. If you’re bored, go back and read some of the old stories. Folks add new comments to old posts almost every day.

I’ve given up chasing advertising, but I’m still kicking around some book options. I’ll let you know how that’s going when I know where it’s headed.

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Perkins’ Shoe Tree

“What’s that on that utility pole? It looks like someone has nailed shoes all over it.”

Ernie Chiles and I were rocketing along on State Hwy P just north of Perkins after leaving the Painton Airport when something odd caught my eye.

Indeed, there WERE shoes nailed to the pole.

Shoes on fence posts

I’ve seen shoes on top of fence posts. These were spotted on old U.S. 27 south of Lake Okeechobee in Florida on a bike ride in 2006. Farmers have told me that covering the tops of wooden posts keeps them from rotting out.

Shoes plus nails plus pole

It’s pretty common to see sneakers with their laces knotted together thrown over power lines. I just hadn’t seen any NAILED to a utility pole before.

Wife Lila’s aunt and uncle, Ray and Rose Mary Seyer, and Mother and I went on an all-day jaunt through what used to be swampland between Dutchtown and Advance. Perkins was on our way, so I told everybody to keep their eyes open for what I called The Shoe Tree (OK, it’s a pole, but grant me some literary license).

Every kind of shoe

Just before Perkins, there it was. Ernie and I hadn’t been hallucinating from our high-altitude flight this weekend.

We’re not talking a couple of shoes, we’re talking about a couple dozen shoes, plus some that had fallen off and empty nails where other shoes had been tacked up. Some of those puppies were up HIGH, too.

There were work boots, kid shoes, womens shoes, even what looked like a pair of ballet slippers.

What’s the story?

We stopped at the first sign of civilization, Perkins Mini Mart. Owner Pamela Bailey said she’d lived in the area more than 30 years and “they’ve been there as long as I can remember.”

A customer came in who said that he didn’t know why people nailed them up. “Maybe the first person did it because he wore his shoes out walking that field, who knows?”

Mother’s going back

Mother said she didn’t see any high-heeled shoes on the pole. “I’m coming back with a pair of my old shoes.” I bet she will, too.

Shoe Tree Map

If you’d like to see The Shoe Tree, it’s on this Google Map. The circled question mark marks the spot. If you see a pair of high-heeled shoes, Mother has been there before you.


View Perkins’ Shoe Tree in a larger map

To get there from Cape, go 74 to Dutchtown, then turn south onto 25. Take it until you come to the first road past Delta. Turn left on Mo Hwy P. The pole will be on your left just before you get to Perkins. (Hint, don’t mistake Randles for Perkins. Perkins comes after Randles.)

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