Twilight Drive-In Theatre, Shepparton
My memories of Shepparton’s Twilight Drive-In are recent ones — in the 1990s, when we took the kids for a special treat. It was located on Melbourne Rd where Riverside Plaza shopping complex is located now. If it was a warm night, the kids would sit on a blanket next to the car. During these years, the drive-in was really struggling to get patrons due to the easy availability of videos in the comfort of your home and many other options for entertainment.
I remember vividly and fondly my home-town drive-in during my teens, when we would walk a few kilometres to watch the latest movies sitting in the seating area of the kiosk. If we did not have enough money, we would sit behind the back fence with our blankets and hope the breeze was blowing the right way for us to hear the audio from all the car speakers. Sometimes we would jump the fence and sit at the back speakers or sit in the kiosk and hope we weren’t ask to show our tickets. The thrill and the risk made it a greater adventure, and I was somewhat sad to see its demise. ~ Geoff Allemand
The Shepparton Twilight Drive-In Theatre opened on Tuesday, April 2, 1957. The opening film was a Technicolor feature, Made in Heaven, starring David Tomlinson and Petula Clark. It was the second outdoor theatre to be established in country Victoria. The first was in Bendigo. Twenty-five staff were employed in the early days due to its immense popularity. It was originally designed for 400 cars but after a few years it was enlarged with an additional 200 car-parking spaces. One midnight Rocky Horror show proved so successful it took 50 minutes for the cars to go through the gate, and the film duly started one hour behind schedule. On another occasion, four units from the Shepparton District Traffic Operations group were called to control the traffic when the Man From Snowy River was screened to raise money for charity. It was a huge success, with 1100 attending.
The drive-in’s demise was brought about firstly by the introduction of television and in particular the advent of local television. It was then that the attendance figures dropped by half, and continued to fall following the introduction of colour television. The popularity of discos and then in-home videos saw attendances fall even further.
The drive-in management then looked at ways in which to entice people back to the open air theatre. R-rated shows were introduced on Sunday nights and there were ‘all-night’ shows, with Coke and cornflakes served for breakfast. DJs were also introduced to entertain patrons at interval to try to boost attendances. But to no avail, as attendances kept declining and Shepparton’s drive-in showed its last film on June 15, 2005.
Jack Tuckett was the drive-In caretaker from 1957 until he retired in 1983. He recalled one particular interesting event: “Quite often I would pick up a dead duck in front of the picture screen. This would usually happen after a movie featuring a water scene. The birds would fly into the screen believing they could land on the water.”
(Sources: a news article with comments from Jack Tuckett, who was the first caretaker, and Noel Eva, who was manager of the drive-in from 1980.)
Lost Shepparton Facebook memories:
Michael O’Neill
The Shepparton Twilight Drive-In was my second home during the 1990s, I was lost when it closed in 2005, now I go to Coburg.
Pamela Jane Van Kerkwijk
No-one ever checked the boot, we always had an extra in there. Hehe.
Betty Hajro
I remember the Mad Max dusk till dawn. It was packed.
Robyn Fitz-gerald
Ah — memories of working at night behind the kiosk counter selling the best milkshakes in town, to earn a few extra shekels.
Scotty Sangster
Dad bought a new Vauxhall Viva 1966 and we used to go to the drive-in. Often had to hide the long necks.
Gerard Bruinier
No funny business going on in that car. Or is that grin saying something like ‘we paid for four but my three mates and some six o’clock lager are in the boot’?
Angie Watkins
Loved the drive-in. The old window-hanging speakers — remembering to take them off before driving away! Lol.
Andrew Russ
After the drive-in closed it became the Trash and Treasure site.
Ann Murray
When I worked at the drive-in, there were nights when the main film was collected from the railway station after the drive-in was open. Once, I remember the first half of the film had arrived on time and was shown before interval while the second half had to be collected to be shown after interval. It was nicknamed the passion pit, wonder why?
Allan Mills
I went. What waste of money. Never saw a movie from the back of a car.
Melissa Seymour
I remember the drive-in well! Especially the experience of Mum and Dad loading as many kids as we could fit in the back of the station wagon.
Wayne Hawk
I saw American Graffiti at the Twilight in my black HR panel van (reverse parked, of course).
Joan Griffin
I remember the old cafeteria and there was a little hut out the back where my uncle used to cut the potatoes to make chips. I had never seen a chipping machine before.
Peter Szmola
I miss that place. Really with all this COVID crap going around (2020), the drive-in would have been financially operational now.
Wayne Ewert
l remember watching the cartoons when Dad worked there and playing in the playground in front of the screen, then into bed in the back of the old FJ Holden.
Glenda Kaiser
As a kid in my PJs we saw Mary Poppins here and played on the swings until it was dark enough to watch the movie. It was exciting having the speaker in the car window. I’m 62 now but the memory is still vivid.
Dianne Gawne
Remember going there to see Smiley Gets A Gun, starring Chips Rafferty — showing my age now.
Tash Doolan
I can remember going to see Titanic at the drive-in in ’97, I was 12 and it was going to close so Mum and Dad thought they would take us to the drive-in so we could say we had been. Tickets sales were good for a while after that and it stayed open for a little bit longer. It’s a shame it did eventually shut. Good to see photos from back in its heyday.
Chris Preston
Sad. Oh how I loved going in there in the early ’60s to watch the movies. As a young child it was a family treat to have KFC and watch Sound of Music, Mary Poppins and play on the swings at intermission. Down the track when independent, saw Jaws, hehe.
Kim De Palma
My grandfather organised building the entire drive-in — it was such a huge part of my childhood. Miss it!
Ruth Tully
So many cars needed a jump-start in the winter after having the radio on. Lol, I know, as it happened to me, and they had a few to start.