Abandoned ‘Passion Pit’ – The Sunset Drive-In, Midland

PASSION PITS...that’s one of the ways we referred to drive-in movie theaters. Many of us went on dates at the drive-in, but NOT to watch the movie. It was the only place to go to be alone – sort of – with your Number One.

The car windows would steam up, and you just knew what was going on in those other automobiles.

On the other hand, sometimes drive-ins were the only places where you could see those cheaply-made horror movies that regular movie theaters wouldn’t show. Yep, those were the days, my friend.

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There are still a few drive-in theaters around, but they’re not as plentiful as they used to be. Hundreds of them have been torn down, leaving imprints in the gravel and grass of the vehicle aisles, easily seen by satellite photos. One such drive-in is the old Sunset Drive-In in Midland.

The Sunset opened in 1950 at 4705 Bay City Road and lasted through the drive-ins' most popular years, all the way to 1988 when it closed for good. Fitting in a capacity of 450 people, on August 12, 1950 the Sunset opened, with their first movie outing being a double feature: Sierra starring Audie Murphy and Dear Wife with William Holden..

Many Midland high school couples based their dates around the Sunset and those former teens recall it fondly. It is now the ghost of a skeleton, with the outline of the demolished structures and abandoned rows available to see from aerial photographs, until nature takes it over completely.