Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the American Drive-in Movie Page #2

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much more safe to just send kids

to the playground nearby and watch the movie. -It was a family thing. They let the kids run around

and play on the playground and the train rides

and everything. It was fun. It was fun. -They could get anything from being, like,

a park playground, which would be

a simpler playground. -Merry-go-rounds, clowns, eventually go-kart tracks,

bumper boats. -How we ever did it then,

I'd never know, because the liability today

would kill you. -The drive-ins

that had miniature golf courses. There are some

that had train rides and other things for kids. It makes the drive-in a whole

entertainment experience. -The Algiers had a fire engine. I think the Wayne had boats. All of the drive-ins

had something. -It was a circus-like atmosphere that you just didn't get

at an indoor theater. -Every drive-in was,

at one point, out on the outskirts. -They were out

in country pastures, several miles outside of town. -Probably the absolute

cheapest land possible. -A lot of the land

that would have been used would have been farmland. -Our little drive-in

in my hometown was out in the middle

of a cow pasture, basically. You know, it wasn't paved. It was very low-tech, even by the standards

of the day. -They were placed in areas that were still, at that time,

somewhat rural, before the suburbs were

as built out as they are now. -Eventually,

when drive-ins started to sprout up all over the place, you couldn't just have everybody

called the drive-in theater, 'cause then which one

are you talking about? So they would start naming them after whatever road

they were on. -You would have

a lot of highway 39s, a route-66 drive-in,

or a city that they were in. -There are a handful of, like,

maybe 15 to 20 really common drive-in names. -Starlite drive-in was probably

the most popular name. -"Sky View," "Skyline." You know, there's a whole series

of "skies." -The Starlite drive-in

and the Moonlight drive-in and the Stardust drive-in. -With the occasional

creative names. We had a theater

in Beaumont, California, called the Cherry Pass. Now, I don't know how

Bengies drive-in got its name, other than it's sort of

a cute-sounding '50s name. -The name of the area

is Bengies -- Bengies, Maryland,

at one time it was known. There's still remnants

of Bengies, Maryland. -When they opened, it was rural, and you'd be going

down highway 32 and drive for half an hour, and so it would be

a little adventure to go out into this rural area and have a gigantic,

drive-in movie theater. [ Old-time movie

instrumental music plays ] - Drive-in movie Sure sounds groovy Take me to a... -Originally, drive-in-movie-theater screens

were wood. -Wood frame. The screen is actually

a corrugated metal. -They attach a facing

that is galvanized steel. -Painted with

a reflective paint. -The most complex mechanism

of building a drive-in screen is actually building

the support. -The screen tower --

a lot of the early ones were made of wood, constructed on the ground,

usually, and then raised into place

with cranes. -It's a structure. It is actually a little house with a screen

on the front of it. -It slants down in the front

and has a storage room that we keep

all of our supplies in. -Wooden towers didn't handle

the winds too well. - ...Movie Sure sounds groovy -Subject to termites, gets blown down

in big wind storms. And at this point,

all of our screens have now been replaced

and are corrugated metal. -Some of the early drive-ins

were constructed with concrete blocks. Withstood the test of time,

for sure. -The standard aspect ratio

was 1:
33. -And that was

what 35-millimeter film is. -So it was almost like a square. -I worked the projection,

the old-school way. Carbon arc projectors,

20-minute reels. -And it was truly an art form, running the projectors

with the carbon arc. The carbons actually created

a flame. It was very hot, very dangerous. The flame reflected the light

through a reflector and then out through the lens. -You just have to have

two projectors. You'd have your first reel

on one projector and your second reel

on the next projector. -Film reels were 20 minutes, and that is because of

the length of the carbon. You would have five to six reels

of film to make up one feature. At the end of every reel,

in the upper right-hand corner, there's what they call

changeover cues, and they

basically go unnoticeable, unless to the trained eye. On the second cue, you would actually do

the changeover with a foot pedal and an electric shutter

that simultaneously opened the shutter on the machine

you were going to start and close

the one that was running. -And that movie

would come back on. People wouldn't even know

it happened. -Of course, everyone remembers

the old speaker boxes that used to hang

on the car windows. -That's one thing that is, you know,

a great icon of the drive-in, is the drive-in theater speaker

that you hang on your window, and you don't drive away

while you're still connected. -In the ground,

they were laying this wire that coming up the poles

that carried the speakers. So you had all of that

as a component of construction. -And they put little down lights

so that you could see the poles. -The sound was confined

through the theater area. It just revolutionized sound

back then. A lot of drive-ins didn't pay

royalty fees. The ensuing court battle

proved futile. They started springing up

around the country. - There's a great drive-in

'bout a mile out of town Gonna be there with my baby

when the sun goes down One for the money,

two for the show We're hoppin' in my hot rod

to go, go, go, go Drivin' at the drive-in The hippies keep a-ridin' Feelin' good and groovin',

groovy like a movie Drivin'

at the drive-in tonight -Late 1940s, early 1950s,

the big thing of the time was to go into

the drive-in movie business. -Can't forget the marquee. That's definitely a lot

of drive-ins' claim to fame. [ Oldies music plays ] -It was hugely popular

in the 1950s. Marquees were made

mostly of neon. [ Music continues ] As a second marquee,

the back of the screen tower sometimes would have

moving artwork in neon. Something that would attract

your attention. - I feel all right Gonna go some more

next Saturday night Drivin' at the drive-in -Another aspect to that

is the murals. A lot of them had murals

on the back, a lot of neon. -As you're driving by,

all of a sudden, boom. "Ooh, look at that colorful

neon, you know, and it moves." And each drive-in would try

to outdo the other drive-in. [ Oldies music continues ] -They had

beautiful neon structures. Absolutely amazing. You know, wagon wheels turning,

like, old-west pioneer scenes. You know, there was one with the Spanish flamenco

dancers going like this. - Drive-in tonight Drivin' at the drive-in Drivin' at the drive-in -Indoor theater is two hours

on a Friday or Saturday night. The drive-in is what you do.

It's a commitment. You're gonna be there

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