Wolseley’s Twilite Drive-in Theatre sticking with the times

Even with current technology and streaming services available to Canadians, drive-in movie theatres are still finding ways to survive.

The Twilite Drive-in Theatre in the town of Wolseley has been operating since 1954 and continues to be a staple for families in the summer months.

Don Zaba has been operating the theatre since 1982 when he officially purchased it from his father. Zaba was excited to share the lineup of movies the theatre will show this summer.

“We’re actually showing Top Gun, we’ve got Dr. Strange, Jurassic World Dominion and The Bob’s Burger Movie as well,” Zaba said.

According to Zaba, people want to go to drive-ins for nostalgic reasons.

“We have a lot of nostalgic things around here like our concession. We still have old-time speakers, plus we have radio sound as well,” Zaba said.

“Every weekend we’ve got some old cars coming. Last weekend, we had a ’49 Chevy come here, and before we had a ’59 Ford come.”

Since his childhood, Zaba said he has gathered many memories at this theatre, and shared a few of them with CJME’s Greg Morgan.

“This was sort of a night out for us kids and the family operation. We had 10 in the family. We worked in the box office, worked at the gate, (and) ran the reel and the show back in the old days,” Zaba said.

Here’s a list of show times and films for the remainder of the 2022 season (all showings begin at sunset):