Beller County Historical Society director recalls rise and fall of drive-ins, local restaurants and bottling plants

Brian Smith, executive director of the Beller County Historical Society, gave a wide-ranging presentation on summertime culture in Butler County during the 1950s and 1960s, describing drive-in movie theaters, drive-in restaurants with carhop service, local bottling plants and public pools.

"So today we're gonna talk about, summertime activities in the fifties and sixties in Butler County," Smith said as he opened the talk. He placed the rise of drive-ins in national context, saying the drive-in concept was patented in 1933 and "at their peak, which is late 1950s, there were over 4,000 drive in movie theaters across The United States," a figure he used to illustrate the format's prominence and later decline.

Smith reviewed several local drive-ins by name and date: the Stockton Outdoor Auto Theater (later the Acme Drive-In) opened in 1943 at 6130 Dixie Highway and could seat about 300 cars; the Dixie Cruise Inn opened in 1947 and screened its last film in 1997; the Ramona (opened 1950) had a 124-by-62-foot screen and closed after the 1961 season. He noted the Riverview Drive-In (opened 12/07/1956) later became the Colonial under owner Ben Cohen and that the Holiday Drive-In (Hamilton West Auto Theater), opened in 1948 with capacity around 850, remains the county's only surviving drive-in.

Turning to food service, Smith distinguished walk-up restaurants from drive-ins that offered carhop service (sometimes with roller skates). He traced local A&W and Frisch's histories, including dates for Hamilton-area locations, and credited Burger Chef with introducing the drive-through window that undercut carhop models.

Smith also traced the local soft-drink and bottling industry: early Coca-Cola bottling activity in 1921, plant locations (623 Walnut Street in 1931, later moves), and Pepsi contract bottlers in the 1910s and 1930s. He recounted local bottlersand contract bottling for regional brands such as Ward's and early soft-drink manufacturers including Pabst and Barq's, noting facility closings and consolidations through the 1970s and 1980s.

Smith described municipal recreation history as well, listing Hamilton's public pools and saying the city closed its pools in 2008 for budget reasons; he said Middletown later closed its three city pools in 2011. He closed by highlighting local manufacturing and product design: the Hamilton Sheet Metal Products Company's "Scotch" cooler, a Petra Cabotdesigned insulated cooler introduced in 1951 that Smith said helped revive the company before plastics and industry consolidation reduced local manufacturing.

Audience members added memories and questions about local restaurants, post offices and bottles; Smith invited attendees to share artifacts and research leads. The presentation was historical and descriptive: attendees were given dates, place names and ownership details but no formal actions or policy proposals resulted from the talk.