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News Article: Albert Hughes of Grand Blanc is the new sole owner of the Blue Sky Drive-In at Caseville, formerly run by him in partnership with John Johnson of Fowlerville. (Box Office Magazine 8/14/69)
News Article: Appeals Court Throws Out Lower Court's Ban Against X-Rated Movies - Lansing, Mich.(AP) Some Huron County residents who thought the free films they could watch nightly were too much too "free" will have to get those films judged ocscene before they can close the local drive-in theater. A circuit court decision barring the Blue Sky Drive-In near Caseville from showing X-rated films was tossed out Monday by the State Court of Appeals. A group of 15 homeowners near the drive-in complained the films could be seen from their property. "The trial court failed to confirm whether or not the plaintiffs (complaining homeowners) views accurately reflected the standards prevalent in the greater local community," the appeals panel said. To shut the theater down without finding the films obscene would allow citizens "to utilize an arm of the state, the court system, to impose censorship upon the free speech rights of others merely because they did not approve of the content of their message. "We find that in instances where a drive-in theater operator is exhibiting movies that are not obscene, his First Amendment right to exhibit the movie prevails over an adjacent landowner's displeasure of being able to view a movie which he finds objectionable," the Appeals Court said. However, the appeals court stressed that the lower court could bar the showing of films as a public nuisance if the films met the community's definitions of obscenity. The lower court found in 1977 that the films shown at the American Amusement Co. Inc. drive-in were pornographic and a nuisance to the families and their young children. Although the company spent more than $3,000 for lights to block the families' view of the screen, the effort had not worked, the lower court said. But the appeals tribunal said the lower court should view the movies shown at the drive-in or ask others about them before it declared them pornographic and a nuisance. Then the showings could be stopped, the appeals court said. (Ludington Daily News 9/25/79)
Update: The Blue Sky has been demolished. Speakers poles remain, as do foundations from the screen, snack bar and ticket booth." (Water Winter Wonderland 3/23/03)
Update: I was raised in the Thumb area of Michigan where the Blue Sky Drive-In was located. If I recall correctly, the Blue Sky featured X-rated movies in later years. I believe one popular feature in the early '70s was "Fritz the Cat", the adult cartoon. I was too young to go see those movies but I was told that well-endowed women were often on hand to wash your windshield TOPLESS for a small price. Even as a kid I got a kick out of the fact that the drive-in was a thorn in the side of many of my ultra-conservative neighbors. (Damien 11/9/04)
Update: The Blue Sky drive-in, located near Gotts Corner between Kinde and Caseville, showed family movies for some time (even my grandparents went there in the 50's), but by the 70's it operated for a time as a XXX drive-in. Quite a shock for a rural community. I heard some of the farmers with property nearby didn't mind. The theater stopped operating by the late 70's/early 80's, and it was torn down in the late 80's/early 90's. I coached track in Kinde for a time, and we would often drive past the theater's old location. You could still see some of the old entrance signs and speaker poles until the late 90's - my students could not believe that at one time there was a theater way out there in the middle of nowhere! (Eric 1/8/05)
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