Nostalgia night: Palmer businesses hosting a drive-in movie

PALMER — It will be a night of nostalgia Friday in downtown Palmer.

Alaska Picker is hosting a drive-in movie.

The 7 p.m. showing of “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” marks a milestone for downtown Palmer.

“I think it’s gonna’ be a hit,” Alaska Picker owner Kelly Turney said.

Turney said there has already been tremendous excitement about the event, and the opening credits have not even started rolling. Space is limited to only 25 cars in the parking area designated for the movie. Turney said that interest caught on like wildfire on social media and around town, and all 25 tickets sold out quickly. He posted a video on Facebook one evening to show the test run in front of the store, and the video got about 30,000 views.

“I wish I had the capacity for 100 people,” Turney said. “If I had 100 tickets, I could probably sell 200 tickets. That’s a good problem to have. It shows that if you do something unique, interesting and fun, everyone wants to be a part of it. That’s what Palmer is known for,” Turney said.

The custom built screen will stand about three feet off the ground, placed to the front left side of the building, right in front of a shed with a vintage Ford up top. Turney said that due to the limited spacing and lack of an elevated slope, like most traditional drive-ins of yore, the 25 vehicles require parking in a staggered fashion. Each row will be set up so that no vehicle will block the view of another.

“There’s some folks who want to have their pickup trucks and back in and put their tailgate down and just sit on the tailgate with a blanket. So those folks we’ll put in the back row so people won’t have to look over a big pick up,” Turney said.

Turney partnered with Humdinger’s Pizza and Bleeding Heart Brewery for this event. Bleeding Heart will provide root beer floats and Humdinger’s owner, Gordy Fletcher, will provide his 10-foot by 14-foot screen, and will be on-site flipping burgers and frying up hand-cut fries.

“The cool thing is, you’re staring at the screen and the water tower is right there too,” Turney said.

Tod Richards, owner of Silvertip Signs and Trophies, designed Palmer water tower trinkets for attendees of the recent Palmer Underground tour. Turney said after that event, he asked Richards to design custom, wooden tickets for the movie-goers. This is the first time a drive-in has been attempted in downtown Palmer, according to Turney. He said that Palmer was the, “perfect place to do this.”

“It’s a totally a Palmer vibe. Everything’s local,” Turney said. “That’s what’s so much fun about this.”

Fletcher chose “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” released in 1984. Turney said that Fletcher selected that particular film because he wanted something, “Halloweeny but no too cheesy.”

“We wanted something that’s a family movie but it’s also kind of classic and vintage. I mean that’s kind of what we do here at Alaska Picker too and I don’t want to show a brand new movie. They can go see that someplace else,” Turney said.

Fletcher hosted a handful of “dive in” movie nights at the Palmer Pool with the same screen last year. He started this new annual tradition to give the people in Palmer something to do in the winter, beginning last December, splashing into the new year.

“It was well-received,” Fletcher said.

He is eager to see how this new event goes and may hold more in the future, possibly with a bigger screen and bigger capacity.

“We’re just checking to see how this one goes first,” Fletcher said.

The first time Americans parked their cars in a drive-in movie theater was June 6, 1933, on Crescent Boulevard in Camden, New Jersey, according to history.com. Fletcher said nostalgia for those who’ve been to a drive in as well as the sheer novelty of it for those who haven’t aided the speedy sell out of tickets, fueled by Turney’s marketing skills.

“It’s the experience what people are after,” Fletcher said. “A drive-in movie, people in Alaska never experience it. It’s something that I think will really catch on.”

He recalled the days of his youth in Ohio, watching the first Star Wars at a drive in with his family inside their 1976 Ford pick-up truck.

“It was always fun getting out and doing something. I remember that,” Fletcher said.