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The Life And Death Of The Drive In Theater

http://youtu.be/2cUP_rEJLmY

One of my fondest memories as a kid, was going to the drive-in and catching a double feature. I was fortunate enough to have a drive-in just a couple of miles from my house and my Dad used to take us just about every weekend. Dad was a little cheap and would make us pop popcorn at home and put it into brown paper grocery bags. With grocery bag and a cooler of drinks in hand, we headed to the drive-in. I remember my first drive-in double feature like it was yesterday. They were "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" and "The Legend Of Boggy Creek". Back then our drive-in had two screens, one was for mainstream movies and the other was more of a revival screen, mainly showing old horror and sci-fi movies. Neither of them were really great movies, but in my mind they were the best. I remember seeing a 3-D double feature of "House Of Wax" and "The Creature From The Black Lagoon". I couldn't sleep the week before because I was so excited. But what happened to this American institution?

http://youtu.be/HFcogP6mxXs

The heyday of the drive-in came in 1957 when there was more than 3700 screens nationwide as opposed to less than 700 screens operating now. Gone are the days of the metal speaker that hung on your window, only to be replaced by FM stereo broadcasts. Also gone were the B-movies which I loved so much. Now you can only catch a double feature of "Madea Goes To Hell" and "Madea Finds A Tumor".

http://youtu.be/MKn0gZeCup8

The drive-in concept started in Camden, NJ by Richard M. Hollinghead Jr. Mr. Hollinghead took a makeshift movie screen and nailed it between two trees and set up a 1928 Kodak projector on the hood of his car and the drive-in was born. The following year he patented his concept. On June 6, 1933 he opened the first drive-in theater in Camden, NJ. It had the capacity of about 400 cars, and came complete with a conceson cart that sold peanuts and bottled soda. For the sound he used 3 large RCA speakers that could be heard for miles around. Over the next decade, drive-ins grew at a rather slow pace. In 1941, the in-car speaker was invented, but due to WWII there was a shortage of hard metals, so the concept had to be put on hold. In 1946, the first in-car speakers were installed and from there it sky rocketed. During the early 50's it was estimated that each week five new drive-ins opened across the country.

http://youtu.be/bweEmGVHwZ0

By 1960 the reputation of drive-ins had changed for the worse. They became known as "pason pits". A place where people went to perform immoral acts. Due to this fact, the quality of movies shown really dropped. A lot of drive-in owners believed that nobody went to the drive-in for the movie, so instead of of paying huge amounts of money to the big movie studios they went with more low budget independent B-movies, Most of them were sexploitation and horror movies. Throughout the 60's and 70's this was the common place across America and this led to lots and lots of clongs. In the 1980's, the land that most drive-ins sat on became really valuable and was more profitable to sell than to keep the drive-ins up and running. Even more disappeared from the landscape and were replaced by Walmarts and farmers co-ops. The ones in small towns that couldn't or didn't sell were shut down and abandoned. There are hundreds of dilapidated drive-in screens littering the small towns of America. In 1990 it had a small resurgence as they became more family friendly once again and they started running first run movies again with a second or third run 2nd feature. It continues this way today.

http://youtu.be/JD9MJ6tpgEM

I'm fortunate enough to still have my childhood drive-in open today. It has gone from two screens to four screens and also has FM stereo sound. The two new screens don't even have speaker stands, they are just open parking lots. Also misng are the great fright double features which once dominated screens everywhere. No more William Castle or Roger Corman double features, only studio popcorn movies are now shown.

http://youtu.be/Gu-tOJcAngw

The importance of the drive-in in the history of horror movies is more important than that of the indoor theater. For decades, most of the horror produced was released with drive-ins in mind. Drive-ins were synonymous with horror movies. It is estimated that 10% to 15% of horror movies would have never been made if there were no drive-ins ever built. These drive-in horror movies helped increase the popularity of the genre today. I just can't help to think what the status of horror would be today without drive-ins 40 or 50 years ago.

http://youtu.be/qi_7tpJsRWU

If you are lucky enough to have a drive-in near you, pack up the family and go support this dying breed. If you are not fortunate enough to have one and you have a couple thousand extra dollars, you can have your own personal drive-in. They now sell kits which have a DLP projector, a 12' inflatable screen, sound system and FM transmitter. You can set it up in your driveway in less than 10 minutes and relive the glory days. (I'm planning on getting one of these kits.) Maybe you just want to enjoy some of those awfully good drive-in clascs--look no further than Something Weird Video. http://www.somethingweird.com They have put together hundreds of double feature discs, complete with cheesy trailers and drive-in intermison animations. All of their DVDs are $10 dollars each or you can find some of their best ones on Netflix.http://youtu.be/LaxYIz12Jeo

Support your local drive-in.

http://youtu.be/eR2yekafZEM

Sources: Wikipedia & Drive-In Theaters: A History From Their Inception In 1933 by Kerry Segrave

This was a really good read.....My favorite drive in was turned into a walmart in 97. But I still have one that's still running. I have a backyard theater with a 8x12 screen, it's not exactly the same, but pretty close.

We have one here in my town. It's pretty cool. I hope they don't close it anytime soon. It's like one of the only cool things left here.