Drive In Movie Theaters

The Fingerlakes Drive-In just west of Auburn, NY on 5 & 20 is still open seasonally, although I haven't gone there in a very long time. The summer after I graduated high school, my girlfriend and I would go every weekend, regardless of what was playing, just for lack of anything else to do.

Michael Hoffman


There was just one drive-in movie theater around when I was a kid -- on the post Road in Milford, Connecticut. But by the time I was old enough to go they'd shut down. I didn't get to go to one till I was grown and living in Orange, Texas. But then I had to go with my first wife and stepchildren.

Wow, didn't know they had a Horse & Carriage section..................

SeamusD


The Fingerlakes Drive-In just west of Auburn, NY on 5 & 20 is still open seasonally, although I haven't gone there in a very long time. The summer after I graduated high school, my girlfriend and I would go every weekend, regardless of what was playing, just for lack of anything else to do.

Did you two ever see the movie?

We used to go a lot when I was young. I thought it was quite an adventure. We had two in the Tulare, Ca area. The Sequoia and the Mooney. The Mooney operated until a few years ago but the Sequoia was demolished long ago.
My wife and I went to one in the Bristol, TN area about 5 years ago just for nostalgia sake. 

We still have one just northeast of Baltimore, Benjie's Drive-In, open since 1956.  They bill themselves as having the largest outdoor screen in the US, and it's huge.  It's a lot of fun, triple features on Friday and Saturday, all-night film fests during the summer, but heaven forbid you break one of the house rules (no single-occupancy cars on "crowded" nights, daytime running lights have to be covered with paper and masking tape prior to reaching the box office, must have cash in hand when you reach the box office, no talking on cell phone while at the box office, no outside food [including bottled water] unless you pay $10.00 cover charge, no sharing food between groups of cars, etc., ad infinitum) because they will either not let you in or will kick you out.  Not sure if these rules are SOP for other theaters or not.  Luckily we have never broken the rules, but have seen many who apparently did get the boot.

6star

SeamusD


The Fingerlakes Drive-In just west of Auburn, NY on 5 & 20 is still open seasonally, although I haven't gone there in a very long time. The summer after I graduated high school, my girlfriend and I would go every weekend, regardless of what was playing, just for lack of anything else to do.

Did you two ever see the movie?

I honestly have no recollections of any of the movies at all, for one reason or another.
We routinely had other friends meet us there, so most of the time were smoking cigarettes and drinking beer on the lawn in the back row.

Seamus, did you ever go to the Minetto Drive-In?  That used to be my hang-out.

I remember going to the drive in with my parents in the early 1960's. My dad would back up the station wagon and put down the tail gate so we could sit and usually lay down. They also brought lawn chairs. Sometimes it was just my dad driving a bunch of young teens while he listened to a ball game. The last time I went to a drive in was maybe 50 years ago. There is still a drive in around here, the Cascade in West Chicago, Illinois that seems quite popular.

pnwchef

Michael Hoffman


There was just one drive-in movie theater around when I was a kid -- on the post Road in Milford, Connecticut. But by the time I was old enough to go they'd shut down. I didn't get to go to one till I was grown and living in Orange, Texas. But then I had to go with my first wife and stepchildren.

Wow, didn't know they had a Horse & Carriage section..................

Carriage? They just had hitchin' posts. You rode in and hitched your horse -- before you put the Arbuckle on the fire.

Would the Arbuckle be coffee or Fatty?

Michael Hoffman

pnwchef

Michael Hoffman


There was just one drive-in movie theater around when I was a kid -- on the post Road in Milford, Connecticut. But by the time I was old enough to go they'd shut down. I didn't get to go to one till I was grown and living in Orange, Texas. But then I had to go with my first wife and stepchildren.

Wow, didn't know they had a Horse & Carriage section..................

Carriage? They just had hitchin' posts. You rode in and hitched your horse -- before you put the Arbuckle on the fire.

Coffee.

Greymo


Seamus, did you ever go to the Minetto Drive-In?  That used to be my hang-out.

 
Never did, didn't even know it existed until a couple years ago. That would have been a little too far out of the way for us back then anyhow. I believe it's still open though.

We had two back home in Texas.  We went quite often. 
 
When I lived in Yuma, AZ, we'd load up the car for $2 a car load night.  It was all you could get in a car... even had guys in the trunk with the lid up.  Had a blast on those nights!  lol

6star


Tex-Max:
In the Peoria area, when I was growing up, we used to have 4 drive-in theaters (Holiday, Peoria, Bellevue & Pioneer) operating in the summer in addition to 8 single-screen sit-down theaters. Now there are none. Instead we now have 3 multiplexes (14, 15 & 18 screens) in Peoria and another 14 screen multiplex in Pekin about 10 miles away.  That's 61 screens operating every day year round! It is no wonder that drive-ins have died.

You know there are a lot of screens these days.  How are they staying open?  I went to see "War Horse" around New Years.  I bet there wasn't 15 people in there.  All the overhead that goes into that large of a structure.  Netflex etc.

MetroplexJim


Drive-in theatres and vinyl seats: what two things ever went better together?

OUCH! That hurt just thinking about it.  I can feel the skin ripping from the back of my leg. But thats what Wranglers and Levis are for.
TM

felix4067
     I just never saw the appeal...I hate sitting in the car, there are always mosquitos, and the sound "quality" is not so much.   

 
They were called "Passion Pits" for a reason...uh...surely you understand a couple wanting the privacy of a car in the dimly lit back row...the rumors that abound of young virginity lost, adultery, & boozing had a firm basis in fact...things that did not happen in most indoor theaters...
 
And for families, the kids could go in pajamas, and go to sleep if they wanted, and a kid that was crying would not be as disturbing as in an indoor theater... some folks with station wagons would back their car onto the raised parking mound, drop down the tailgate, and spread out blankets for the family...other would bring deck chairs...

We didn't have problems with skeeters, and yes, the window mount speakers were no better than an intercom speaker, but in later years many drive-ins broadcast the audio with low power FM transmitters directly to your car radio...
 
Drive-ins were a rather seasonal event...besides being very hard to watch a movie in the rain...any trip to the snack bar was going to be a miserable journey in the rain...it ruins the popcorn and disposition...
 
The 2 drives-ins near me had the screens positioned so that each seperate drive in audience could see the screen of the neighboring drive-in...kinda distracting, but probably prompted patrons to go to the other drive in later or the next night (this was before FM radio movie audio, so you couldn't just tune your radio to the other drive in)

We didn't have "daytime driving lights" on our cars back then, and the concept of having to cover them up nowadays is comical...back then you used your "parking lights" but not your headlights...
 
The "security people" would sneek around in plain clothes, trying to catch us sneaking around in the dark...they were the morality squad...probably low paid...sometimes shining flashlights into people's cars...just to make sure we didn't have too much fun...it was an ongoing game to avoid them, sometimes we had more fun playing cat & mouse with the security folks than watching the movie...
 
I think George Lucas paid good homage to the Drive-Ins and our local hot rodding folks in American Grafitti...he was a Modesto boy who'd come over to our Hayward-San Leandro (cruising) "Strip", the biggest & most popular cruising strip in northern Calif at the time, we had several drive-in theaters, several walk in theaters, places to eat: Karls (circular drive in burger joint), Doggie Diner, and Prings...Fremont Drag Strip was half an hour away, but most of us ran our own clandestine grudge races in San Lorenzo at the west end of Grant St...and then grab some food and go to one of several drive in movies with our dates...
 
We didn't have cell phones, iPods, GPS, or dvd players in cars...we had fun the old fashioned way, (which was the only way we knew back in them days)...

Dearfolk,
   No time to turn to page 2, but I can fill in a few. Georgia has open drive-ins in Blue Ridge, Atlanta, Jesup, and Tiger (pop. 275). Not terribly far from me, Monetta, S. C. has The Big Mo. And there are several still going in N. C., including a handbuilt masterpiece still operated by the family of the builder, using carbon arc projectors and car speakers.
   My old friend Jim Stacy is to be congratulated for his fine work at The Starlight in Atlanta.
   It seems for a drive-in to stay open in a city, the land it's on has to be unsuitable for other commercial development. That being the case, maybe the one in Athens oughta reopen... I think it'd do some business....
      Wholeheartedly, Ort.

In Georgetown Indiana we visit    Georgetowndrivein dot com
They have lots to do in the summer, good time for the family.