Cheese Boat Tales

This is NOT a photo of Globe-Miami's Apace Drive-In Theater.  Sadly, such a local photo does
not exist, at least as far as we know. This photo is from a series of drive-in movie
pictures published by LIFE magazine.  You see all of them here: 
https://www.life.com/lifestyle/drive-in-theaters-photos-of-a-vanishing-american-pastime/

We have asked several people to "tell us a tale" about the Apache Drive-In Theater and Globe Cheese Boats.  Our first Tale is from renowned author Virgil Alexander.  It's a Good One.  Thanks, Virgil!

"Movie theaters were a big deal to me when I was a small child, and I sometimes attended a movie at the Grand Theater in Miami despite the fact that my older siblings were embarrassed to take me to a show.  I was born somewhat an empath and a tender soul so I would cry anytime a person, animal, or cartoon character got hurt. I would also cry anytime things got at all scary.

However, I loved the grandeur of the palatial theater, the sometimes brilliant color movies, and the powerful sound, not to mention the snacks. So when at about age five I heard they were going to build a theater into which you could drive your car, my little brain could hardly handle such a thought.

I was at first disappointed when our family went to the brand new Apache Drive-in theater located just north of the newly rerouted US60 between Globe and Miami, Arizona.  This was because it didn’t have the golden hardware, fancy carpets and curtains, or the Grand staircase.

But I soon took to the drive-in as I was impressed with the large screen and sound from a silver box attached to the window of the car. The popcorn was every bit as good as that of the Grand, and the Drive-in had wonderful black cherry sodas. 

 But the best part was the playground built just below the big screen. It had swings, teeter-totters, monkey bars, and a real train you could ride all around the screen and playground. Our parents ate something called cheese boats, but we were told kids would not like them because they were too spicy.

We were satisfied with the popcorn, sodas, and candy. I was a teenager before I tasted a cheese boat and realized my folks had ulterior motives when protecting us from “too spicy”. From the first bite, I loved the savory, gooey concoction.

Also as a teenager, the Drive-in became one of our fun things. Normally they charged an admission for each person in the car. So I and my girl, and my buddy and his girl could get in for about a buck. But during some weekdays they had dollar-a-car-night. So on those summer nights we would fill the car up with kids and put four or five more in the trunk, bring blankets to sit on the hood, and the ground in front of the car, and generally annoy people in the cars near us.

While I had a few somewhat romantic dates at the old Apache Drive-in, I preferred the comfort of the indoor theaters for real dating. The drive in was more often where groups of kids parked near each other and joked around, hooting and hollering until the manager threatened to throw them out.

Apropos of nothing, a couple of random memories from the Apache Drive-in:      1) Before it was dark enough for the movie to start the projectionist would place a target on the screen, and move it around as drivers tried to tag it with their spotlight (in those days cars almost universally came with one or two spotlights. 2) They ran a Pepsi ad featuring the animated Sicola family Pop, Mom, Sis, and Pep Sicola, or something like that. It was pretty good.           

Then as a married couple we took our kids to enjoy the uniqueness of watching a movie in the car. They were not greatly impressed, after all, they had been watching moving picture stereo sound TV all their life. Of course, the cheese boats were too spicy for them, so they were pleased with other snacks."

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For a bunch of really fun (short) memories of the original Apache Drive-In see:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/262599273757264/posts/673538575996663/

If you would like to "tell a tale" please email your story to: arizonahistorystories@gmail.com