Visitors flock to first car show, movie night

By CHARLES W. JOHNSON / News Editor for the Southern Standard

Main Street’s Carla King, with daughter Emily, 6, and granddaughter Kellie Cornett, 3, pose in all their 1950s bobby-sox finery next to one of the great classic cars at the Drive-in Cruise-in car show Saturday night. (Charles W. Johnson photo)

If you like to get lost in the ’50s, downtown McMinnville was the place to be Saturday night as two Warren County mainstays, the McMinnville Cruisers and Main Street McMinnville, got together and turned back the clock with the first Drive-in Cruise-in car show.

The event was complete with classic cars, a nostalgic rock band, dancing bobby-soxers, and the ’50s-inspired movie “American Graffiti.”

The event was the brainchild of Rodney Boyd, president of Main Street and, coincidentally, a member of the McMinnville Cruisers.

“I’ve been to the downtown movie nights they always have at the start of school every year,” Boyd said. “And I have been a member of the McMinnville Cruisers ever since I moved to town three years ago. At this last movie night, I just was sitting here thinking how neat it would be to have the car show downtown and to show a movie at the same time. I pitched the idea to a few folks and it kind of went from there.”

Boyd said he was well pleased with the reaction.

“Everyone I spoke with seemed to have a wonderful time, so I thought it was a good night.”

Main Street’s Carla King agreed the show was a great success and exceeded expectations.

“We were really surprised,” said King. “I mean we knew it was going to be big, a lot of people were calling about it, but we didn’t realize how big. It was just wonderful.”

The car show drew 115 entries with vehicles from as far away as Somerset, Ky., and one from near the Alabama border, according to Cruisers president Al Brady.

The event raised $300 for the American Cancer Society. The Cruisers shows benefit a variety of charitable organizations during the year.

Brady said, though no one did a formal count, a conservative estimate of the turnout would be 500 to 600 people, quite a few more than had been expected, as well as double the number of cars usually entered in the monthly cruise-ins.

“I was expecting about our normal 40 to 50 cars,” Brady said. “If I had known, I would have had some other concessions. The poor hot-dog man, it really worked him, though I’m sure he liked the business.”

The local car club will have one more cruise-in this year to be held the first Saturday in October back at Security Federal’s parking lot.