The Drive In Theater - Sharing the Experience!

[John in Covina]

As a kid, I remeber going to the Johnnie All-Weather Drive in on Sunrise Hway in Copiague with my parents and brother. It was a cool place. Big screen, simply enourmous. There was seating on top of the projection room /snack bar roof. Also one of the biggest indoor theaters too, I saw one Million Years BC with Racquel Welch there.

in the outdoor section behind the snack bar was a playground for the kid, may came already in their pajamas with the feet in'em.

I recall seeing Bond films "Dr. No" and "From Russia With Love" there, also "The Guns of Navarone!" It was a fun time. Going to the Drive In has it's own feeling to it and a totally different Movie experience.

Going to the Snack Bar had a weird carnival vibe to it.

Any drive in experiences you can share here?

 

[John in Covina]

Southern California Drive In

We have a semi-local drive in that is pretty neat looking. The Mission Tiki Drive in in Montclair, I haven't made it yet, but hope to soon.

Check it out here:

www.missiontiki.com

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

The Winnetka 7. one of the last theaters to be torn down in Los Angeles. Now a multiplex with stadium seating.

 

[Nathan Dodge]

I haven't been to the Thunderbird Drive-In in twenty years, but I saw my first films there, a double feature of Tentacles and Squirm back in 1977! I still recall the battleship gray speaker that dad hooked up to the car and the red and white striped cups and containers for the popcorn and drinks. Both movies were truly horrible, BTW.

In 1987-88 I returned there as a teenager and saw Beverly Hills Cop II (ugh!) and Die Hard. Much better experiences and the place looks like a flashback to 1960s America---still. It has since gained much popularity as a huge SWAP SHOP and really brings 'em in. When I was in retail years ago, people from all over the country used to ask me for directions to the drive-in theater. It always brought back a wave of nostalgia...

 

[AmateisGal]

We had a drive-in movie theater in our small Nebraska town, population 1,600. It was still running when I was in high school and even the first few years I was in college.

I remember going with my parents and often falling asleep before the end of the movie. We used to hook the speakers to the windows of our car until they got a little more high-tech and we could tune the radio to the right frequency and listen to it that way.

I still remember when City Slickers came out - there was a long line of cars waiting to get in to see it at the drive-in. That was a lot of excitement for a small town!

I loved going to the drive-in...sitting on blankets outside, watching the movie on that huge screen, and then looking up at the sky and watching the stars come out.

 

[John in Covina]

My friend Mike used to go with his brother. They'd take the big Chevy pickup and park it backwards, sitting on folding chaise lounges in the pick up bed. Sounds like fun.

 

[AmateisGal]

My friend Mike used to go with his brother. They'd take the big Chevy pickup and park it backwards, sitting on folding chaise lounges in the pick up bed. Sounds like fun.

Oh yeah. We used to sit on the roof of the car sometimes. And there was always kids trying to sneak people in the trunk of the car. It often worked, too.

 

[KY Gentleman]

We used to go to the "Dixie Drive-In" when I was growing up. I saw the first "Planet of the Apes" there! Interstate 75 passed behind the drive-in lot so anytime you were driving past you could see what was playing.

 

[LizzieMaine]

During the late '70s, my uncle ran a drive-in -- and my first theatre job was helping out there. It was a swampy, mosquito-filled lot, and the projection booth was full of hornets, but you never noticed those things because you were having so much fun. We had extremely powerful arc lamps on the projectors because, being located on the coast, fog was always a problem -- and there were many nights where shows actually got fogged out. We also had the pole-and-wire speaker system, which always had trouble getting thru the winter and every spring the cables had to be dug up and respliced.

My uncle was an old-fashioned showman -- he didn't just run movies, he gave a *show* along with it, and always liked to take advantage of silly promotional stunts. When we ran the original Star Wars in the summer of '77 -- the best drive-in film ever made -- he hired a very tall friend of his to dress up in a gas mask, an army helmet, and a sheet dyed black and stand at the end of the entrance drive with a long flashlight, beckoning cars into the lot. When a really *bad* picture played, he'd hand out rolls of toilet paper to the cars driving in to express his distaste for it. When a monster double feature was showing, he'd have one of us put on a rubber mask and creep around the lot peeking into cars and terrifying the occupants.

The pizza was greasy, the Coke was watered down, the hot dogs were mummified, but for five bucks a carload it was the most fun anyone could hope for.

 

[Mike in Seattle]

Lizzie - that sounds like so much fun...I'd go for that over something at the overpriced multiplex any day of the week, fog or not...

 

[Amy Jeanne]

The first movie I ever saw was in a drive in theatre. My parents went to see it and tagged me along. I have no idea what the movie was, but I do remember there was some sort of greaser gang walking down fire escape stairs (???) Must've been the late 70s because I don't think my sister was born yet. I remember the place being very lively.

That drive in ran into the late 80s and then closed. It recently reopened in 2004 and it's still going strong. There's usually a line down the road waiting to get in!

 

[Flivver]

Back in the 1950s-1960s, my parents were big fans of drive-in movies. I think the majority of movies I saw as a kid were in the drive-in. The Edgemere Drive-In in Shrewsbury MA was one of their favorites.

In the summer, we always went to Cape Cod for vacation...and a drive-in movie was always something we did there. I remember it was quite a frequent occurrance to miss the end of the movie due to fog rolling in!

And I remember alway's wanting to vist the snack bar, driven by all those enticing snack bar ads before the movie started. But I was never allowed to. My parents were frugal New Englanders so we always brought our own snacks. Based on Lizzie's insider's view of the snack bar, it was probably just as well!

 

[skyvue]

I'm a huge fan of drive-ins since childhood (my wife and I saw THE HAPPENING at the Ford-Wyoming DI in Dearborn, Michigan, over the weekend).

I've been operating an email discussion group (or mailing list, as you prefer) devoted to drive-ins for nearly fifteen years. It's a moderated list, so there's no spam, flame wars, or off-topic posts. We have nearly 600 members, and I'd welcome any FL'ers who wanted to join us.

http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/drive-ins/

My earliest drive-in memory is Dad taking my three siblings and I to see CAPTAIN SINBAD at the 14 Flags Drive-in in south Oklahoma City while my mom hosted a Tupperware party at home.

 

[Retrobeme]

As a kid, we went to the Drive-in a lot ( I was born in '67.) The three movies that made a lasting impression on me were "Midway," "Murder on the Orient Express," and "Jaws." In college my friend and I discovered Bengie's Drive-in (Essex, Md,) which was really struggling at that time. It had classic cult Marthon weekends hosted by a local read station at the time (WHFS.) Now that I live in Florida, I have found two Drive-in's in the area: one in (Silver Moon) Lakeland and the other in Ocala. I hope to at least check out the Silver Moonbefore the end of summer. The Drive-in were such a neat experience growing up and during the 70's they were only way to see movies on a large screen (at least in Naples, Fl.)

LizzieMaine-
That must have been fun time, I know I would have had a blast at your Uncle's place.

 

[Selentino]

Really do miss them. Saw Night of the Living Dead and Omega man every Halloween for years. My father would take us to see every B-movie, and horror flick there was. when I was young we would all load up in the Studebaker, before I left home it was the Monte Carlo and some where in their was a Gremlin(4 kids in that sucker, I refer to those years as his green period) I hated that car.

 

[KY Gentleman]

We would go pretty regularly to the drive-in when I was growing up.
My brother and I would take glass cleaner and shine up the front wind shield and clean the car interior that afternoon before going to the movie.
I wish drive-ins were more prevelant these days. So it goes...
We saw "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean" at a drive-in, its still a movie favorite of mine today.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

We have one nearby that opened in 1997. I've been there once and it was fun. http://www.vintagedrivein.com/ They have more than one screen, actually the sides of buildings.
All of the local ones closed, drat 'em. I loved going to those on dates.
I used to go to one in Atlanta, but I've forgotten all the details.

 

[InspectorMorse]

It is interesting in our lazy drive thru society of today that drive in movies are no longer commonplace!

 

[Matt Crunk]

I guess maybe I'm lucky. There are ten drive-ins still in operation witin 100 miles of me. Two of them within 40 miles.

 

[SamMarlowPI]

got a one screen drive-in here in this little town...saw Wanted friday and yesterday...it was hot so we laid on the hood...fun stuff...