It’s a perfect night for the Drive-In
Last week I checked another item off my two-year long "to-do in and around C-U" checklist, with an amazingly fun trip to the Harvest Moon Drive-In up in Gibson City. I'd spent summers as a kid going to double-features with my parents at a different outdoor theater, where my siblings and I would promptly fall asleep in the back seats to the sound of crickets and the tinny output of the film's audio through metal speakers hanging off our windows. I only made it to that theater a couple times as a teenager because, well, by then the managers had implemented a "windows down" rule if there were only two people in the car. More than a decade later I was caught in a fit of nostalgia for the perfect summertime activity, so I grabbed a cute date and made the trip north for a Monday movie night in the country.
From it's vintage pre-show commercials to the generous and well-priced servings at the concession stand, the Harvest Moon experience completely knocked my socks off. The scenery was perfect as the sun set and the fireflies appeared above the cornfields that surround the twin screens. My heart grew even happier as the theater lit up mid-film for an intermission, and scores of children ran, arms-flailing, to the grassy area in front of the screen for a quick game of soccer or Frisbee or catch. Once the movie ended (we saw Toy Story 3), patrons calmly packed up their cars, collected their own trash, and disposed of everything in a large wooden cart labeled "Throw Trash Here!" 
As we drove back to Champaign that night, I was floored that something like this exists so close to home, and I cursed myself for never going before. I immediately emailed the manager to let him know how wonderful their business is. Before I knew it we were back at the twin screens to interview Ben Harroun, who provided us with some nifty insider information about the theatre that makes me even more thrilled to keep Harvest Moon as a staple of my summertime fun.
Emma Reaux: Who are you and what do you do here?
Ben Harroun: I'm Ben Harroun. Essentially I've been working here for 16 years. My family has owned the drive-in for 21 years.
ER: How long has Harvest Moon been in operation?
BH: Non-continuously for 55-56 years.
ER: Tell us what you do when a car drives up to get into the show.
BH: We give them a garbage bag (to clean up their own trash), an informational flyer and use our 1940s vintage ticket machine to give them tickets. 
ER: I saw on your website that Harvest Moon "went green" with a new wind turbine.
BH: It started out with a few customers who worked on the wind farm near here. They mentioned that they make small ones for a home or a business. We originally thought about getting one for our home, so we did a little research and discovered it would work out well [here]. We installed the turbine January 2009 and found out we were the first wind-powered movie theatre in the world.
ER: Wow! It powers the entire theatre?
BH: No, it's more supplemental. [The turbine] brings in people who have never been here before. It made us famous (kind of), and it also offsets some of our electric costs. We run the first three months of our season without any energy costs.
ER: What other green efforts have you implemented?
BH: We divide garbage to take some to recycling centers, and use LED lighting in and outside where possible.
ER: What does a typical season look like for a theatre like this?
BH: We open at the end of March/beginning of April, then end the beginning of September. We used to go through Halloween, but it gets too chilly out and people stop coming.
ER: Your website says you're open through rain, shine and wind. What's the craziest weather situation you've had where you were still operating?
BH: We had a tornado touch down about half a mile from here. We play through anything. You couldn't see the movie, but you could hear it.
ER: How many drive-ins are there in Illinois?
BH: Six that I know of. The next closest is Springfield or Chicago.
ER: How many two-screen drive-ins are there in the U.S.?
BH: There's a 50/50 mix now of multi-sceen versus single-screen. The majority was single-screen, but the multiplexes have so much of an advantage over single-screen that most upgraded like we did.
ER: This used to be a single screen?
BH: The whole theatre was designed for the screen that's up. That's not the original screen, the back part is. [The frame] is from 1954. A tornado hit the drive-in in the 1970s. It took the roof off the building and ripped off the plaster front that was the screen. The old owner who founded this place put the phrase "Gone with the Wind" on the marquis while they did the repairs.
ER: When did you get the second screen?
BH: In 1996-1997. We owned another drive-in in Clinton, Illinois. We bought that screen from Starlight Drive-In in Kankakee, ran that for about three years and the business never picked up, so we brought the screen back over here. The first movie we played on that was Twister.
ER: So the first screen has its original frame, and the second screen has been at three different theatres? Cool! What made your family want to get involved in outdoor theatres when indoor ones would be more lucrative?
BH: My dad, the owner, has owned five different indoor theatres. He came across this one and decided to put some money into it with a partner and they opened for business.
ER: How many people come through here annually?
BH: If I had to guess, it'd be around 40,000-50,000. Last year we got a lot of press about the wind turbine, and people came from as far as Canada and even Australia to see us.
ER: A lot of drive-ins have been closing over, oh, the last five decades. Is Harvest Moon in danger of closing down?
BH: Not right now. We did get to a point at the beginning of the recession where we lost a lot of money continually for two years. We actually run five different businesses at the same time, and they all kind of support each other. Once gas prices went up and road construction was going on, it made it hard for people to get here. They started going to the closer [theatres] that were less of a hassle, and our business dropped like a rock. Then last year when we put in the wind turbine, we started making money again for the first time in three years. It showed that there's still potential to run the theatre, and since we've been doing it so long we decided to keep going.
ER: It also appeals to a new group of people. Since you installed the turbine and have taken other steps to be environmentally-friendly, do people ride their bikes here?
BH: Yes, and one guy even biked all the way from Bloomington one night. He got a ride home though.
ER: How do you choose the films you show?
BH: We like to do family-friendly stuff. Back in the 1970s and '80s, many drive-ins went more toward the sex-pit type of thing. Anyone who went to the drive-in...you knew exactly what they were doing. Around the early-'90s more family-friendly stuff started to come out. During the week when we have fewer kids we will shoot for more adult, so college and high school kids can enjoy it. [Most weekends show G and PG films].
ER: Since drive-ins were notoriously destinations for make-outs and other sorts of hanky-panky, how do you deal with patrons who aren't behaving so PG in a family-friendly environment?
BH: We generally have a three-strike rule. We have a lot of unspoken rules as well as written rules that are posted around, and some that are broadcasted over the radio. [Note: the patrons tune their radios to a certain frequency to get the film's audio]. Unless you get a customer complaint, we let a lot of things slide. If we have to talk to you, you'll get a warning. If you violate that we'll ask you to leave. We've had people get belligerently drunk. We have the police on speed dial and write down license plate numbers. 
ER: What's an action that would qualify someone being asked to leave the park?
BH: Property destruction. We've had kids try to blow up our restrooms, burn off tires...typical teenage stuff where people think they can come screw around like it's their own back yard, but there are little kids playing and we don't want anyone to get hurt.
ER: What about the more teenager/adult in-car activities?
BH: With the tinted windows and being dark out, we usually don't have any problems. The only complaint we've had this year was when a mother was breastfeeding. We just had them put a blanket in the window so it wasn't on display for everyone.
ER: Other than the tornado that touched down during a film screening, what's the craziest thing you've seen in your time here?
BH: We had the cops here, lights and everything, looking for someone once. It turns out someone had escaped from a prison and was thought to be in the area. They didn't find anybody here, so that's good. Sometimes we have people fall asleep in their cars. We had to call the police once because we thought the people [asleep in the car] were going to be dead. They were out. We were shaking the vehicle, yelling, knocking on the windows. It may have been alcohol-related, we saw bottles in the car.
ER: What is the alcohol policy here?
BH: Don't ask, don't tell. If you're drunk we will call it in. But we don't sell alcohol, and we don't tell you that you can go get alcohol.
ER: How about the policy with food and other out-of-car activities?
BH: We let almost everything go. We have the big areas in front of the screen so people can play Frisbee and enjoy themselves and have something to do while they wait for the movie. We know that we can't provide enough food for everyone at the theatre, so we let them bring pretty much whatever they want. A lot of other drive-ins charge a food permit. The only problem we've had is a kid almost got hit by a car running across the street (Highway 47) to Pizza Hut. We sell Pizza Hut [in the concession stand] by the slice or the whole pizza. Now we make everyone who leaves the theatre pay to get back in.
ER: How is business different being located in Gibson City rather than in a larger area like Champaign-Urbana?
BH: We see less crime. We've looked into larger metropolitan areas, like Danville in particular. They have an old drive-in we were thinking about rehabbing, but the crime rate is just too off-the-scale. We've heard stories from other drive-in owners of tickets booths being robbed at gunpoint. We have the police on speed-dial, and because we live in such a small community, it's pretty easy to find people [if something happens].
ER: Anything else interesting we should know about Harvest Moon?
BH: We hope to keep our ticket prices low, at $6, and our food prices reasonable. You might spend a little more in gas, but if you get a bunch of people together, you can easily road trip from Champaign to here, and spend less money between food and watching the movie, than you would spend on two people going to the regular movie.
Oh, and we are doing our first-ever midnight screening with Twilight Eclipse. We're hoping for up to 500 [people], but we have a capacity for up to 1500. That's about 700 cars. We haven't had the theatre to full capacity since 2006 with one of Pirates of the Carribean movies.
ER: And when you're at capacity people can park across the street and walk in to watch the movie. Do they get a discounted price?
BH: Same price, because you're paying to watch the movie and the movie company wants their cut.
ER: Any other cool events this season?
BH: Every other Sunday we're doing a Classic Car Cruisin'. You get $1 off admission if you're in an old or muscle car or motorcycle. On some occasions we do double-features. Just like the midnight showing, we don't do them very often because we all have 9-5 jobs other than this and live 30 miles away.
Wind turbines, 50+ year old screens, six dollar admissions, oh my! If you're looking to get out of town for an evening, for a unique family-friendly activity, or the perfect date night, Harvest Moon Drive-In can help cover all those bases. Don't forget to stop inside their concession stand for affordable treats and to check out their vintage film reels and equipment, too! Visit their website for movie dates, all shows begin at dark.
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Special thanks to Ben and the folks at Harvest Moon for welcoming us during the interview!
Photos by Emma Reaux.
9 comments
B
The drive-in has always been my pinnacle of romantic destinations ever since Dottie asks Pee-Wee to go there in Big Adventure. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJKOIxP0thE
Rachel
I find it absolutely ridiculous that the only complaint made was about a woman breastfeeding. Drive ins are notorious for, as Emma wrote, “hanky-panky” and there have been no reports or complaints because people have tinted windows and the property has loose rules. Reprimanding a woman for breast feeding is as un-family-friendly as a place can get. As a breastfeeding mother, I wish that woman would not have given in and put that blanket up. If I were her, I would have gotten out and sat on the hood of the car to finish the feeding.
Other than the “rules” about exposure, it seems like a decent place for a summer night. I will definitely be making a trip out there after my next child is born. ;)
Nice work, emma!
Befuddled_JaPan
I also find it interesting that the only two comments of scope on this article so far (here and on Facebook) were reactions to the breastfeeding bit, of ALL the ground covered in the interview. The drive-in is located in rural America, so please take note of the milieu (and, more likely than not, mostly conservative clientele) and consider reasonably before pitching a fit. If enjoying a drive-in experience is that enticing and you simply have to attend with a babe at your breast, then doing a discreet cover-up to keep the peace, pre-planned or if asked, should not be that big of a deal once in (under?) a blue moon. Or, wait until the child or children are old enough to enjoy and remember the experience of attending the drive-in with the parental units. Part of the joy of this article is precisely the fact that the Harvest Moon hasn’t gone anywhere for 50-plus years, so there will hopefully be many more opportunites to watch flicks under the stars as a family for years to come.
Befuddled, I think you’re assuming a LOT about the clientele. I’d also argue that the rural America you’re talking about would be LESS likely to be offended by something like a breastfeeding occurence. I do love the suggestion that maybe mom should just wait until the child is older, though, as if the child’s enjoyment of the movie and the ambiance is the only factor.
Robert Knilands
The Harvest Moon is an institution in “rural” central Illinois. I haven’t gone in quite a while (mainly because Hollywood has made few decent movies since 1996), but maybe someday I’ll return.
For those who are looking for additional activities around there, Gibson City has a German restaurant in its downtown. To be fair, some people have said they don’t like it, but I have heard more compliments than criticisms. There’s also a golf course on the north side of town. I think there are still two bowling alleys, although I’m sure their hours are diminished during the summer.
(That reminds me: Mr. Harroun should add mini-golf to the grounds if he hasn’t already.)
If you are in the mood for driving, there are some “real” wind farms along Illinois 9 west of Gibson City. If you go north on Route 47, Sibley has some shops and businesses in its downtown. You will experience “farm smells” on these drives, though, especially if you go by the Toll packaging plant on the north side of Gibson City.
Robert Knilands
Wow—I keep leaving stuff off. Also, the Ford County Fair is in Melvin July 4-10. (Melvin is northeast of Gibson City on Route 54.) Like many smaller fairs, it’s suffering from a lack of money, so don’t expect shiny, new facilities if you go.
Also, Ford County is mostly GOP, so expect a lot of GOP booths. If you go at my recommendation, do me a favor and don’t start a political argument.
R T Lampyrowitz
My son and I first went to the Harvest Moon in 1999, when he was eight. We’d always try to get out there once or twice a summer—everything from Muppets to “Grindhouse” (which really has to be seen in a drive-in). Now he’s in college, so I’ve lost my excuse.
Took my wife on our first date here, good memories.
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Ha! Exactly. You, sir, are welcome at the bar in My House.
Why wait ‘til 3 pm?
I’m excited to go tonight- should be very fun!
Next, I want to know about growing up on Ennis Lane. Or the neighboring Surbana Estates. http://pathfindergroupil.com/index.php/surbanaestates
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Snell and the little Hitlers of the neighborhood association need to chill out. Legitimate businesses should have the freedom to exist without having to endure the slings and arrows of ignorant and misguided opposition.
represent, Matt.
Yeah, I’d agree that Transporter Room 3 is the worst house venue I’ve ever seen.
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I think it’s neat that SP has turned rightward, now espousing a Tea Party-style frustration with government regulations & taxes.
This makes me so sad. (Happy to live in Urbana, though!) Crave Truck has been a GREAT addition to the food choices in C-U, and it’d be a travesty to chase them away. This town should be supporting small businesses. I’m glad to hear that they’ll still…
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What? Echo! (Echo!) Where’s the dischord and dissent?
This weekend will mark the first appearance of Kayla Brown’s Fire Doll Candle booth at the Market. Check it: http://www.facebook.com/firedollcandles
And without bloodshed. Sounds like the Savoy trustees aren’t as narrow-minded as some of their whiny pants constituents. Do you think quack Snell is already planning an asinine counterattack or is he still laying low after those “threats” against his person?
hey, if hair ain’t gon’ be over your head, my jokes may as well be.
Okay, almost 24 hours later and I finally got Issac’s Summer joke. I’m an idiot.
Excellent. I am glad sometimes American dreams are encouraged, rather than stifled.
Swap the dog for a fire pit and it sounds like you’re writing about my back yard. Very nice.
funny, as your summer begins, another Summer ends.
@Dan - Wow. Unfortunately, I have to refrain from further comment due to a previous employment relationship. But with that brief context you might be able to imagine possible comments or responses I could have.
Oh, by the way, the “Champaign County YMCA” no longer exists. The official name is now the “Stephens Family YMCA” (the website has not been updated, but check out the latest program guide). And no, it’s not just the name of the building. It’s the name of the organization.
Very inspired Photochops as well….
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