March 28, 2024

65 years and going strong

Valle Drive-In celebrates milestone

Even as the oldest drive-in in Iowa, Valle Drive-In hasn’t seen too many changes in its 65 years.

The marquee that greets customers and the building which holds the projector and concession stand are both originals from 1949, put up by the first owner Sam Roads.

The customers have changed through out the years, but are trending back to those who originally parked their cars a took in the double feature.

“When it first opened, it was all family business, people with kids, then it kind of drifted away from that but it’s back to 95 to 99 percent of the business is family business again,” said Jim Mertz, who has been the owner since 1976. “A lot of young kids come all of the time, families and they have a good time.”

With all of the relics from when it first opened, the theater has stayed up-to-date, acquiring a digital projector for the 2014 season and broadcasting digital sound over the radio.

The Valle still has the box speakers available in the first four rows, the only drive-in in Iowa to do so.

The theater, which is open from April until October, has weathered many storms, including those in the economy.

“In the last 10 to 12 years it has been pretty steady,” Mertz said.

A true storm did blow down the screen, which used to be built with wood, in the early 1980s.

Now in his third screen, Mertz said it is built with steel, which withstands more severe weather than the wooden structure.

Mertz has spent most of his life working at theaters, starting in Webster City.

“I started in 1954 working for a theater chain out of Minneapolis that owned about 20 theaters in Iowa and one of them was a drive-in and two indoor theaters in Webster City, Iowa,” Mertz said. “ After a year or two I was the assistant manager and basically in charge of the drive in during the summer. In 1959, they sent me to Perry, Iowa and I was a manager over the indoor and outdoor theater there. In 1964, I bought the theaters there and continued to run those, then I bought this drive-in in 1976.”

Mertz has about 12 to 14 part-time staffers during the summer months. Most of the staff start working while they are in high school, as a summer job and return every summer until graduation. Mertz has even had employees start in high school and keep coming back until they have graduated college.

From starting with two projectors running on film that was manned through the whole film to a completely automated digital system, the Valle Drive-In has kept up without losing the charm.

Contact Staff Writer Jamee A. Pierson at (641) 792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com.