History

Sunset Auto Vue located a short distance   from the town of Grangeville, Idaho open in 1955 owned by Al (Port) Wagner Jr.. It’s the only drive-in theater in Idaho county.

The first projectionist was Henry (Hank) Bruegeman til 1986 when the theater was close. The Auto Vue was big news when it opened, a lot of people had no idea what a drive-in was, so a large crowd came out for the opening night.

 

The first projectors were two carbon arc Brenkert lamphouses and projectors.Heat in the projection booth could reach 120 degrees.

When the Sunset Auto Vue was then reopened by Chris Wagner in 1998, he updated the projectors form the twin carbon arc to a single projector with a Xenon lamphouse and a three deck platter delivery system and changed the sound from the 400 speakers that hung on your car windows to getting it on your car radio (Station 105.7 FM) and since then, carloads of people have been flocking to the theater as far away as Russia. Many spring, summer and fall nights the cars arriving early and the scene is Norman Rockwell-like with kids playing football, the sound of laughter wafting throughout the area and the smell of hot dogs roasting on the grill.

In 2000 Gerald Lucas took over as projectionist with his GOOD EVENING AND WELCOME to announce the start of the movies became know as the voice of the Auto Vue.

In the winter of 2010 high winds destroyed the iconic wooden tower which was replaced by new steel tower. In the winter of 2019 the tower was destroyed again by high winds. 2020 the tower was rebuilt.

 The latest update was about 2013 when the drive-in went digital.

In 2020 during the Covid-19 outbreak the drive-in stayed open by hosting the Encore Nights concert series with top names in county and rock.