Drive-in Movie Day is celebrated on the anniversary of the opening of the first patented drive-in movie theatre. On June 6, 1933, Richard Hollingshead opened this drive-in theatre, Park-in Theatres, in Pennsauken Township, close to Camden, New Jersey. The year before he had experimented in his driveway by putting a 1928 Kodak projector on his car hood, pinning a sheet to trees, and placing a radio behind the screen. He thought about ways to combat rain and how to space cars so everyone had a view. When his theatre opened he charged 25 cents per car and 25 cents per person, but made sure no group paid more than a dollar. Four hundred cars could fit at the theatre and the screen measured 40 by 50 feet. The first film shown was Wife Beware starring Adolphe Menjou. In 1946 there were still only 300 drive-ins in the United States, but in 1949 Hollingshead’s patent was overturned, which helped hasten the rise of drive-ins across the country. Between the late 1950’s and mid 1960’s drive-ins were at their zenith. By 1957, about 6,000 were in operation in the United States. Many of these showed B-movies, but some showed the same films that were being played in walk-in theatres. Now there are less than 500 drive-in theatres remaining in the United States. This can be attributed to factors such as rising real estate rates in suburban areas, more walk-in theatres, and an increase in video rentals and streaming services. Also, most new films must be projected digitally and it is not feasible for many small theatres to be able to afford the thousands of dollars it costs to make this switch. I'm wondering if this might be the future of cinema post pandemic. There has been an increase in the number of pop-ups in this country over the last few years. I grew up in Canada and my first memories of films are from the Drive-in.
Similar, I grew up in Oz and remember the drive ins very well. By the late fifties and the sixties when I was going, initially with parents, but later on my own with dates etc. By then, all the parking bays were well marked and had a bit of a rise of almost eighteen inches at the front sort of like a raised tarmacced speed bump at the end of the parking bays and they’d run for hundreds of yards because the drive ins were so vast. This allowed a better view of the massive screens and also deterred the boy racers from ripping it up with their tyres ( me) spinning wheels and racing around and generally nauseating everyone there. In between each of the bays was what looked like a parking meter with a waterproof speaker on each side, you unhooked the speaker and hooked it over your side wind up window and then you had the sound inside the car complete with a volume switch. Mums and dads would be in the front with kids in the back usually in their P.J.s and pillows and blankets and usually asleep by the end of the film. When the “” Interval “” came, all the dads would be sent to get ice creams and sweets or hot dogs and burgers with fries! Oh and cokes or fantas After the interval the second film usually the main event would start and the kids would be mostly dropping off to sleep. This is also when you see various peeps pretend to get out and check their ariels or wipers or an imaginary mark on the windscreen then get back in to the car,,,,, but in the back . Usually a lithe young miss would just slide over the front seat but the fellas seemed to have to do it that way sort of like a rite of passage demo! Don’t forget that 99.99% of cars had bench seats back then making single or bucket seats a ‘ must have ‘ for the young bucks in the custom world Every so often we would go as a gang on our motor bikes and take up two or three bays and just turn up all the speakers around us and drink gallons of beer and lark about being pillocks of the community I was back in Melbourne roughly thirty years ago and I took Mrs Ozziedog to one of the few remaining drive in movies and it was a little sad to see how they’d deteriated since the sixties and seventies. Most had just loads of weeds and bushes growing through the tarmac in most of the parking bays and the parking meter type speaker posts were rusty and bent, loads missing with the cords just hanging off where peeps just didn’t replace or maintain anymore , I don’t think there were any working anymore at all, nowadays they had a little F.M. Transmitter inside the old kiosk and you picked it up on your F.M. radios and there may have been a dozen cars In the one we were in which was nears a sea side resort called Rosebud I think, in the summer, which would have been rammed years ago with hundreds and hundreds as I remembered, back in the day the drive ins used to sell out and you couldn’t get in sometimes but not now, plus if you got thereafter the films had started, you couldn’t get in until the interval. Back in the day they were maintained and kept really nice and the kiosk was lit up during interval with loads of neon signs showing huge ice creams and burgers and coke signs etc etc but now the kiosk was closed and there was a cold drinks vending machine that’d seen much better days Anyway we went and I think we saw the War Of The Roses and Uncle Buck, so it was a double bill which was very entertaining but a little like slumming it but fine. We went in our rented Holden Station Wagon and absolutely loved it, back in the day I had a 64 I think it was EH Holden Station Wagon with a souped up 161 in and I thought I was the mutts, grey primer all over and wideies (wide wheels ) and bucket seats from some other wreck and a very poor excuse for a zoorst coming out the side, and curtained out in the back and most importantly roof bars for my surfboards (and a little posing) Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,, May be all but gone now but ace ace ace memories
Great memories. I was only 9 years old when we came back to the UK, so my memories are more around the falling asleep in the back of the car. I do remember seeing a Hitchcock film - The Raven. I was probably supposed to have been asleep.
Yes, even the drive ins had a suggested age code for the movies. So if your parents took you to see a movie with a higher age tag, they might have had to pay a higher price Ithink it was free up to two years old, then one price until ten, then a tad more till sixteen then up to eighteen, then it was adult priced. Might have been different though state by state let alone country by country. I’m quite sure that someone used to do a field drive in movie in the summer one day a week for the holiday makers, one day in Brean, then Weston Super Mare, and gradually go up and down the coast, might be fun if it runs again, we could hook up and socially distance in our campers at a drive in. Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,, bring your own ice creams !!!
Never been to one - didn't even know that they were a thing in UK what with the rain - and watching a film with the wipers going is not going to be good.
Just so happens a friend of mine runs an outdoor cinema company: www.cinestock.co.uk Last year he held the world’s first indoor drive-in cinema night. In theory the concept (along with his regular outdoor drive-in nights) can comply with lockdown & social-distancing regulations so he is currently working on resurrecting it asap. It’s a fantastic event. He ties movies to locations so I watched Jaws with the backdrop of a lake that had boats bobbing up and down silhouetted by the moonlight. Shows classics and new releases. F&B available to buy on-site or bring your own I’m not on commission Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Born here - spent years 1-4 and 5-9 in Canada. My Dad worked for de Havilland in Hatfield and then in Toronto.
Drive in movies are going to increase in popularity becuase of Covid. Lots advertising for screenings in the summer. Took Mrs Calf to a drive in movie the other year: 'Dirty Dancing'. I got some points banked. Hoping for something better for the next one. Star Wars original trilogy etc
I keep looking at these drive ins and wanting to park sideways and have the sliding door open. Just me?
They may let you. At mine they stuck campers at the back, so sitting in the front was best viewing position as seats are slightly higher
