Litchfield Skyview Drive-In Theatre will attempt to break the Guinness Book of World Record for most dogs at a film screening.
A few months ago, someone from Mobil 1 called Mindy Pastrovich with an idea.
Mobil 1, the synthetic motor oil company, wanted to break the Guinness Book of World Records for the most dogs at a screening. And they wanted to do it at the Litchfield Skyview Drive-In Theatre in Illinois, where Pastrovich serves as the co-owner.
“I was worried it was a scam,” Pastrovich tells RFT.
But it wasn’t.
On Saturday, October 15, Skyview will attempt to host the most dogs at a drive-in theater in world history.
The event is part of Mobil 1’s “Keep Route 66 Kickin’” series that aims to highlight Route 66. The company hopes have Route 66, which runs from Illinois to California, designated a National Historic Trail. The effort has included a documentary and multiple events at Route 66 businesses, including in Seligman, Arizona, where they set the record for the most milkshake flavors and Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Geoff Esper set the record for eating 11 corndogs in three minutes.
The final stop will take place in Litchfield, a town of 6,000 located 45 minutes northeast of St. Louis. Litchfield Skyview opened in 1950 and it remains one of four drive-in theaters on the 2,448-mile Route 66 — the only one in Illinois.
“Mobil1’s whole concept and whole point is to keep everybody moving on 66,” Pastrovich says, “and getting people to stop at those attractions and spend that time on road trips and enjoying that kind of life again. … Hopefully, we’ll both help 66 stay alive a lot longer.”
The drive-in will open its gates at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, with the movie A Dog’s Way Home starting at 7:30 p.m. The screening is free.
The evening will also offer $50 pet store gift cards, dog portraits, dog DNA tests and a lot of popcorn. There will be a 10-minute intermission for the Guinness Book of World Records representatives to calculate the total number of dogs.
And going into the weekend, Pastrovich said she’s feeling optimistic.
“I would say that we should be darn close,” she says, “if we are not over by quite a bit.”
