Status: Closed, snack bar & part of ticket booth are still there, screen & marquee are gone. (Michigandriveins.com 10/98)

Update: The remains of the Vista on Lake Michigan in GR will soon be history. A new Meijers superstore will dance on it's grave. Final approval for the project has passed. (Les Hale 5/28/01)

Update: The Vista Drive-In graveyard remains untouched by Meijers, it is being used by paintballer's. Construction equipment was parked there, possibly for the final demolishion. The ticket booth has been demolished, while the battered shell of the huge snack bar remain. A portion of the marquee was found in a pile of rubble, and the screen foundations were also located. A large exit sign mounted on a fence also remains. (Michigandriveins.com 4/27/03)

Update: The Vista Drive-In in Walker MI closed in 1978. (Sid Beintema 9/25/03)

Update: The Vista Drive-In in Walker, MI concession stand is being torn down to make way, guess what another Meijer Store. (Sid Beintema 6/8/04)

Update: The Vista Drive-In Graveyard is no more. A site inspection confirms a new Meijers store has indeed sprouted on the property. All remnants of the drive-in are now gone. (Michigandriveins.com 6/11/05)

Update: I have some more information on the Vista Drive-In location, my grandparents June and William Cunningham owned the theater in the early 70's until it was closed, and then in the early and mid 80's they ran and later rented out the space to a flea market that ran a good run. After that I dont know who took ownership of the location. I know that a paint ball play area was made out of main building and the Vista was removed from the sign, and the ticket booth was taken down. I have great memories of being there and will submit some great pictures as soon as I get them. Another fact, my grandfather died in 1979 and my grandmother thought that she had sold all parts of the property, and in early 1992 she was suprised to find out that she still had ownership of the front area now where Walgreens is located, so that turned out to be profitable after all those years.(Matthew Scott/Waterwinterwonderland 5/8/07)

Update: I managed the Vista Drive in from August 1974 to September 1976 for Butterfield Theatres, Inc. then headquartered in Detroit, now Monroe Michigan. In those days we transformed the Vista from a declining attendance to an exciting venue by introducing WLAV dollar night and running first-run films like "Jaws", "White Line Fever" "Bugs Bunny Superstar" on dollar nights. On one such night we filled the house to capacity on a Tuesday night with over 1,000 autos jammed onto the lot. Working with the booking department I convinced the company to send us first-run features from the old Eastbrook after Jack McCarthy (our manager there) was finished with them and before they would be released for other companies to bid again on them. We were able to bring such hits as "Blazing Saddles" and "Chinatown" to the Vista early in my management tenure reversing a trend toward exploitation and "sexploitation" movies that had become standard drive-in fare. I explained to the office that the facility was too good for those kinds of films and was able to reduce such showing to a minimum and bring more critically acclaimed entertainment to the west side of town. Over the two years I was there, the Vista began to return to her old glory. I was given a great deal of discretion by Butterfield to run the theatre, having been given control, within budgets, of personnel, policy and advertising and promotions. It was a great training ground for a young manager. I miss the place. Later, after the theatre was closed, I worked for a few weeks stripping the facility of speakers and post heads and removing over 1,000 speaker posts from the ground. Over the years I watched the old lady age, and lamented her passing. (Joe Camfield/Waterwinterwonderland 4/15/08)

Update: I noted the reference to the Denniston Drive-in in Monroe, Michigan and the similarity between the two. When I managed the Vista, my District Manager told me that the Vista and the Denniston Drive-in's were built about the same time and were the only Drive-In theatres built by Butterfield. Butterfield Theatres was, unlike Redstone, primarily an indoor theatre operation and entered the Drive-In facet of theatre operations rather late in the process, acquiring rather than building their own theatres. The Vista was the only wholey owned Drive-In constructed by the company, the Denniston Drive-In was a jointly owned affair in which Butterfield had controlling interest. As a result it was much easier to obtain what was needed for the operation by way of maintenance and upkeep as well as booking first run quality entertainment. My first experiece at the Vista was as a 7 year-old in 1956 being taken by my parents to see Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels in the "Lone Ranger". Little did I know then that I would grow up to manage this magnificent facility. (Joe Camfield/Waterwinterwonderland 5/6/08)