So, last night I had a friend down here and we went to a drive in movie. There is one about 40 minutes from here, that people seem to love. Interestingly, even though drive ins are rare as hen's teeth in today's world, this one was built only two or three years ago. I haven been meaning to go. Anyway, if you have been to a drive in in the last 20 years you know that now they use a radio broadcast signal to pipe in the movie, instead of those old clunky speakers. Also, in the old days you paid by car, but in this drive in you had to pay per person. Anyway, though...the thing that was the real star of the night was that they had a commercial reel from like 1970 on with Don Meredith hawking Lipton Ice Tea, Dick Clark looking young, Inchworm and others..I fount those old commercials on the big screen more entertaining than the movies to tell you the truth!
Ain't it the truth Karen (to your last line) We have never had drive in movies here - haven't got the space I just love the term 'drive in movie'
They are a unique part of Americana for sure. One thing that was neat though was they had long lines for the snackbar, but to entertain you during the lines that had a guy on a unicycle juggling with firesticks..That was new and interesting...other than that...it was pretty much like the drive ins of old including playgrounds. So, it was really pretty fun. They also had wifi so I could use my smartphone during the boring parts.
There still a drive-in movie theater in Colorado. I remember sitting in line, in my old car, for almost an hour, to see Jaws at a drive-in in Orange County, Calif. That was many, many years ago.
In the metroplex area i think we only have 2 or 3 drive in movies to serve a billion or so people. Such a shame to have so few for so many people. Drive ins are great for parents with children and for friends who like to comment on movies as the film is running. I would love to see drive ins make a come back.
Yes, I think part of the reason they are not more prevalent is that the land costs near cities are too high. Generally, drive ins are located in areas, that are close enough to cities or towns to make a profit, but the land is less expensive. They seem to be more popular in certain areas too. NW Pennsylvania has quite a few that I know of. I am glad in some areas they seem to be making a resurgence though, like I said this one about 25 miles from Richmond Virginia is new.
I only remembering going as a young mother in Chicago and it was perfect because I could put the baby car bed in the back and my daughter could sleep and it was a night out. The speakers were always a pain in the butt. Off topic but who remembers those unsafe car beds that they had for very young babies back then? Nothing held the baby in, nothing held the car bed either.
In my younger days, I used to see movies on tv showing that drive-in movies. It's usually a romantic scene where the boy dates the girl and they have snacks inside the car while watching the movie shown on the big screen. I used to dream of going to a drive-in movie, precisely that one in the movie's scene. But I don't think there is still a drive-in movie that's why I'm quite surprised with this thread. That means I still have a chance to fulfill that dream of experiencing a drive-in movie.
There is a drive-in movie theater in Sparta Tn about 15 miles from here. I have never been there but my daughter goes with my nieces sometimes. I looked it up on line a couple days ago to see what was playing this week-end and was surprised it cost so much to go there. I guess I thought it was the old days when you could go for five dollars a car load. When I was young we would go alot with my mom and my aunt. wednesday was buck night and we always went on buck night it was a dollar for everyone you could fit in the car. Good memories.
When I was growing up, we had a drive-in movie theater just outside of town, and my folks would go almost every weekend in the summer. It was only open from late spring through fall, of course, because after that it was too cold and snowy for an outside theater. Our was called the "Motor Movie", or at least that was the nickname for it. There was a grassy playground area in front of the screen where all of us kids played until we saw the screen light up, and then we all ran like crazy back to our car so we didn't miss the start of the movie. There was an A&W drive in about a half-mile down the highway, and on weekends it was open late; so we often stopped for a root beer and maybe a hamburger on the way home after the movie. Sometimes, my mom would let me ride my horse out to watch the movie, and my friend Kathy and i would ride out together and ride home again afterwards. It was always a long ride home so late at night on the dark country roads (I had to take the back road home with my horse, not the highway),and we missed the hamburgers and root beer, so we usually didn't go on horseback.