Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the American Drive-in Movie Page #4

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sneaking them into the trunk. These kids think

they just figured that out. -A lot of people

do sneak in the trunk. To this day, they still do it. -Of course that's not true, but people invented it

way before us, but we thought we invented it. -And I always asked, what was the first movie

playing? And that was a clue to the folks

in the back of the trunk to be quiet. -And the car is like this. You know,

it was like at an angle. -And we did this for years

and never got caught. -As much as

you're not supposed to do it, it's makes for great memories. -Hey! Look out! I feel like a meatball in here.

Whew! -Okay, let's go find the chicks. -The 1950s were very popular

for buck nights. All your car could hold

for a dollar. And some people could jam 10, 15

people in a car if they could. -A lot of drive-ins used it more

as more of a promotional tool or for special events. - At the drive-in -That was the one time you could probably get away with

putting somebody in your trunk. -Most of the studios owned

their own exhibition arm, so there was

a Warner theater chain, the Paramount theaters. - We got the money,

and you got the money Honey, you got the money -The film companies -- I think they catered

to the indoors. -Film companies didn't want

to give drive-in theaters first-run prints. -It was really hard for the drive-in theater

to get a first-run. -Beginning in 1940, there was a lawsuit

that went through the courts in which

they were trying to break up this studio stranglehold

on exhibition. And by 1948, that happened. And that is known

as the Consent Decree. -In those days, you had first,

second, and third run, so we played

all the way down the list in both drive-ins and hardtops. -The '70s and '80s, second run, we didn't play any movie until it was 14,

sometimes 20 weeks old. -Advertisement

in a lot of newspapers -- "Now at popular prices." That means you no longer

have to spend the 2 bucks to go to see the film

at a nice theater. You could see it in your local

neighborhood theater or in the drive-ins. -That was before video,

before VCRs. In the '70s,

you could play them. In the Lehigh Valley area,

"The Sound of Music" played at the Boyd theater

for 52 weeks. You're not gonna see that

anymore, because it's just overkill. -This was your chance

to see this movie, and if it went away,

it went way. -Another problem they had

was daylight savings time. -Once they started doing

daylight savings, it really affected

the time window that drive-ins had

for their business. -Daylight savings means

my staff goes home at all hours of the morning. -Too late at night

for people to come for dinner, so that really took a bite

out of the concession sales. -They couldn't show movies

until 9:
00, 9:30 at night. People -- you know, they had

to go to work the next day. Kids had to go to school. They couldn't be out that late. -Staying for the second movie

isn't nearly as appealing if you get out

at 2:
00 in the morning. It's not

as good of a family outing. -The drive-ins

were really fighting against daylight savings time. And when it finally

became national in 1967, well, there's another thing

that affected attendance. -It has no meaning anymore.

It just shouldn't exist. Now, it is not because

I love drive-ins. I am in a wonderful position. My theater was built

by Jack Vogel. The back of the screen

faces west. The front faces east. I can get on a screen at 8:45. You tell that

to poor Deb Sherman in Ohio, who's waiting till 10:00 before she can start

her first movie. -If I could have it my way,

I would say, "Oh, yeah,

forget daylight savings time. You know, it gets late enough

as it is, and it's just fine." -There's a drive-in movie. Let's get these people. -Another thing that drive-ins

always had to deal with was mosquitoes. -Bugs can be

a little horrendous, but, you know, we deal with it. -We do have bug zappers, and we do offer

free insect repellent. -The 1940s and '50s,

they would go around fogging drive-in theaters

with insecticides to try to eliminate that problem

to keep people happy. Usually DDT,

I believe, it was called. It was later banned

for causing cancer. -They would sell

this thing that you would light, and it would give off an odor that would keep

the mosquitoes away, and all the drive-ins

would sell it. -A pleasant aroma for you... But not for mosquitoes. -[ Groaning ]

We've had it! -Pic is on sale

at the refreshment stand now. -You know,

it all depends on the weather. If the weather's right

and the movies are right, we're going to be busy. [ Thunder crashes ] -You can have a big plan, and the weather

can take it all out. -And there was

a drive-in theater down below Lewistown, P.A.,

called the Midway drive-in. It was under

about 12 feet of water. -Depending on heavy snows

or hurricanes or five or six inches of rain,

we will get flooded, and we do get flooded. -Winds blowing over screens. We've had a lot of drive-in

damage due to hurricanes. [ Rock music plays ] -In 1955,

Hurricane Diane comes through. It actually came up the Gulf, and then came up

along the Mississippi River, blew over

the original projection room, blew over the shadowbox screen,

the box office, and the two outhouses. -The screen blew down

in 1981 in a storm. It looked like somebody

just tore it in half and left the right side of it

on the ground. -Hurricane Agnes just took down

a quarter of the Bengies screen. -There was a hurricane

coming up the coast, and we were trying

to get the show in before the rain started. As we get into the part

where the tornado actually hits the drive-in theater

in the movie, there's lightning

on either side of the screen, and it just lit up the skies

all over the place, and you could never get

those special effects in an indoor theater. -There are people that are gonna go

to the drive-in no matter what. -I used to go constantly

in the rain. -There are people

that are gonna go in the winter. If it's 20 degrees

and the snow's blowing, I got to wonder,

why are you here? I'm glad you are, but I really have to wonder

sometimes. -About halfway through

the first movie, it started to snow. We had to go get a car heater. -Almost all the drive-ins

were wired for heaters. -We plugged this heater in

at the base of the speaker pole, tried not

to set the place on fire, because we've got blankets

draped in front of it, and we sat there in a snow storm watching three

"Dirty Harry" movies, and we were just laughing because everybody in the world

would have thought we were nuts, but we just loved it. -One problem for drive-ins

in the northern climates -- very short seasons. A lot of times, it will be

Memorial Day to Labor Day, weekends only after that. -Theaters would shut down

in the winter. We have one left in Utah

called the Redwood, and it shuts down

between October and March. -Our season usually runs from the end of March,

first week in April, to, like,

the last week in October. -I mean, it's basically

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