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The Return of the Drive-In Theater?

 
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Eadie
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 19, 2020 11:46 am    Post subject: The Return of the Drive-In Theater? Reply with quote

Drive-In Movie Theaters Make a Comeback as Brick-and-Mortar Cinemas Remain Closed

https://collider.com/drive-in-movie-theaters-open-while-cinemas-close/

Once upon a time, drive-in movie theaters were all the rage before being mostly supplanted by locally owned brick-and-mortar theaters, which were then replaced by franchise cookie-cutters. But with the coronavirus pandemic forcing those apex theaters to first reduce audience sizes and then shutter their doors completely (albeit temporarily), the bygone era of drive-in movie theaters is experiencing a resurgence.

If you’ve never been to a drive-in movie, here’s how it works: It’s pretty much right there in the name. You drive out to a parking lot or a field that’s normally a bit removed from the bright city lights and noisy traffic, pay for whatever the double-feature happens to be that night, and then pick your spot in front of one of the big screens before the show starts. Depending on how up-to-date your local drive-in is, you can order food right from your car (or, at worst, walk up to the concession stand). The audio will then pipe in either through a door-mounted speaker (old-school) or, more likely, through your car’s stereo system by tuning into the appropriate radio station. Then, just sit back and enjoy the show(s)!

The LA Times wrote at length about the resurgence of drive-in movie theaters, of which only about 300 are still in operation across America. The ones still in existence never really went anywhere, they were just limping along on nostalgia and second-run screenings while the big-name franchise theaters raked in capacity crowds and pumped up prices on screenings and concessions alike.

Now, with the latter shut down for the moment, drive-ins have become an unexpected reprieve during life in the time of the coronavirus. Families can still spend time together but outside of their self-imposed home quarantine, while teens (and parents, if we’re honest) can get away from both home and family members for a few hours thanks to the freedom of the open road and an enclosed vehicle that makes social distancing easy (though there’s always the back seat option.)

Some drive-ins have had to close temporarily due to local ordinances or mandates, but many remain open as a viable escape from the pressures of this increasingly weird reality. They may not be open indefinitely though, so be sure to search for your local drive-in today and consider paying them a visit this weekend.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Just think — a way to watch a movie without the current restrictions on gathering during the crisis! — Eadie

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 19, 2020 5:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Eadie, what a brilliant post about and an equally brilliant idea! Laughing

Drive-In movie theaters are perfect for the Pandemic World in which we now live! Cool






Families are together . . . and yet still protected from the virus, because they're separated from everybody else in their hermetically sealedl automobiles! Cool

It's the perfect place for All Sci-Fi members Ticket2theMoon (my daughter) and Tantus Starbucker (my now fifteen-year-old grandson) to watch a movie without being infected by this terrible alien plague!






They'll be safe their in their cars . . . even if the aliens fly over and seed the area with fresh doses of their dreaded Corona Beer Virius! Shocked



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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Fri Mar 20, 2020 10:21 am; edited 1 time in total
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Eadie
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 19, 2020 10:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:

… hermetically sealed …

And just HOW much would that cost????
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scotpens
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Joined: 19 Sep 2014
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 20, 2020 1:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Eadie wrote:

If you’ve never been to a drive-in movie, here’s how it works: It’s pretty much right there in the name. You drive out to a parking lot or a field that’s normally a bit removed from the bright city lights and noisy traffic, pay for whatever the double-feature happens to be that night, and then pick your spot in front of one of the big screens before the show starts.

Are there (or were there) multi-screen drive-ins with multiple programs playing? The ones I remember from my youth only had one screen.

Although drive-ins were around when I was growing up, I never actually attended one. I did have the toy, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdx0z9uBzWY
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Eadie
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 20, 2020 4:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The actual toy:



A concession menu:



An appropriate marquee:



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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 20, 2020 11:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Eadie wrote:
Bud Brewster wrote:

… hermetically sealed …

And just HOW much would that cost????

"Exaggerating for amusement" is always free, Miss Eadie! And thanks for those great pictures. Laughing

scotpens wrote:
Are there (or were there) multi-screen drive-ins with multiple programs playing? The ones I remember from my youth only had one screen.

Although drive-ins were around when I was growing up, I never actually attended one. I did have the toy, though.

Scotpens, I'm amazed! You never even took a date to a drive-in when you were a teenager?

Wow . . . Shocked

As for drive-ins that have more than one screen — heck yes, there were hundreds! In Atlanta, where I grew up, the Starlight Twin Drive-in opened the year I was born, in 1948.






In the 1970s, they divided up the areas of the two HUGE drive-ins and added two more screens, renaming the theater the Starlight Quad Drive-in.

In the 1980s they added two MORE screens and became the Starlight Six Drive-in.






And that's what it is today, still gong strong and doing a booming business! Click on the LOGO to find out what's playing.





There aren't many drive-ins left today, but the Pipestem Drive-In, Athens, WV, is opening most of the year, and each evening before he movie starts they play the CDs I made for them myself of oldies rock n' roll through they speakers (yes, they still have speakers! Smile), with cheerful snack bar promos I recorded in between the songs to give them that cheerful 1950s ambience! Cool

My daughter's family lived near the Pipestem several years ago, and I took these pictures one evening.








So, drive-in movies are not dead! Very Happy

I fact, one guy in Kings Mountain, NC, is bucking the trend and actually building a twin drive-in theater which uses digital projection instead of film! It's called The Hounds Drive-in. Click on the link to go to their website.

The article at the link below will take you to a w2016 news report from Charlotte's channel 46 which tells the remarkable story.


______Giant drive-in theater opens in Kings Mountain










Notice the two buildings which look like large houses. One of them contains the snack bar and the project booth. The other one, I suspect, actually is the owners house! Cool





The pictures above are screen shots from the beautiful video below, which offers a rotating aerial view of the drive-in, accompanied by beautiful music and informative text.

_________ Hound's Drive In, Kings Mountain, NC


__________

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Powerslave214
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 12:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pipestem is just over an hour from where I live, and there's also the Starlite Drive-In in Christiansburg, VA which is just a few miles from here.
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 2:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The problem has been the conversion to digital projection systems. It's required a large investment to upgrade the conversion and many of the older drive-ins have found it impossible to put forward.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 4:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Powerslave214 wrote:
Pipestem is just over an hour from where I live, and there's also the Starlite Drive-In in Christiansburg, VA which is just a few miles from here.

Powerslave214, if you visit the Pipesteam Drive-in this summer I'd love to know if they are still playing the four CDs I created for them as "preshow" and "intermission" programs back around 2006 when I visited my daughter's family there and told the kindly old owner that I would donate my services to enhance the customers' drive-in experience.

Since that was fourteen years ago, perhaps they don't us them anymore, despite the fact that the theater owner and his devoted projectionist, Larry (shown below), were delighted by the CDs when the first played them for their patrons.






However, Larry was planning to buy the drive-in from the owner, and since he was so enthusiastic about my preshow and intermission CDs, he might still be using them. Cool

The Pipestem turned out to be the drive-in of my dreams, not only because it was such a perfect example of the way I remembered drive-in theaters from my youth —






— but also because the owner allowed me to create those CDs which played oldies rock 'n roll and snack bar promos I recorded myself, just to give the theater the friendly character I remembered from my youth.

The only reward I requested for creating the CDs was two of the drive-in speaks they still used, compliments of Larry, the wonderful projectionist, who was especially thrilled the first time he heard the CDs I'd made.










I took the two drive-in speakers home to Georgia, shined them up with steel wool, and installed them on the back deck of my second-floor apartment which faced a beautifully wooded area which had tree limbs that reached the rails of my deck!

My sweet, gray-haired mother once described my apartment as my "nest up in the trees". Very Happy



__________


I had a gas grill positioned in the corner of the deck, and the two drive-in speakers were hanging from the wooden rails on either side. I could cook hamburgers, steaks, or pork chops on a warm summer evening while playing my original copies of the Pipestem CDs on the stereo in my living room (with the drive-in speakers connected as well), and enjoy the anticipation of the 1950s sci-fi movies I'd chosen on any given evening.









I actually miss my old place in Georgia, with it's lofty back deck surrounded by the wooded area, and my sizzling grill flanked by those vintage drive-in speakers playing my own recreation of the Golden Age of drive-ins.

One of these days I think I'll upload my varous drivi-in tributes to YouTube so you folks can enjoy them. Very Happy

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