Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the American Drive-in Movie Page #5

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really cold and snow and ice. It's just dangerous. -Even though you're closed, you're still going out there,

checking on the place, working on different things and getting everything prepared

for next year. [ Mid-tempo music plays ] -Probably if there hadn't been

World War II, television would have been

a much more major force earlier than it was. You see in the United States,

starting around '49 and '50, where television explodes

onto the scene, and this really affected

the motion-picture industry, because people who were buying

televisions, and many of them

were families -- you know,

the sort of post-war family. -One of the big things

with early television was they really were aiming

for family entertainment. They really were targeting

a mass audience. -They would stay home, and they would watch their

entertainment on television. Gradually, there was more

and more programming. You get Milton Berle

and Lucille Ball and hundreds, really,

of programs, that we're familiar with

from the early '50s. [ Mid-tempo music plays ] -It was another form

of competition that drive-ins

had to deal with. -Filmmakers had to compete with something that people could

watch for free and in the luxury

of their own home. -You have a huge increase

in color movies. By the end of 1950, there were

about 1,000 color films. But by the time you get to 1960, almost half of the films

were in color. You also see the rise

in the wide screen. Starting in '53,

you have cinemascope, as opposed to the 1:33 format

that had been used before. And stereophonic sound comes in. So you have

a different experience than people can get at home. It did cause a lot of anxiety

amongst theater owners, because they had

to rebuild their theater. -It was such a wide picture. They didn't want

to tear down the entire screen, so they would just build

on the edges of the screens to make them wider, to be able to show

cinemascope movies. They had to have what we call

"wings" added to the screens. -With older screens,

you might be able to see the original, almost square size

of the screen and additions on the sides. -It was a new experience that was to drag people away

from their living rooms and into a theater

so you get an entertainment that you could not reproduce

at home. But now people are buying that

format for their televisions. So something that started out

as a novelty is now the standard. -The Cinerama,

when it first came out, when you use three projectors on

a curved screen. Of course, it was something big. -It not only was a wide screen, but it actually had

a three-part screen in which

three different projectors are giving you an image to make it sort of pop out and be almost like

a round viewing experience. [ Mid-tempo music plays ] I think the first one was

"This is Cinerama," in which it starts out

with a roller coaster, and you really felt like

you were on the roller coaster. So it gave you

a sensory experience, which, I guess now,

you could say is similar

to the IMAX experience. [ Rock music plays ] -The family slowly started

to not come to the drive-in, and it became

more of a teenage hangout. -The concept of a teenager really started

right around that time. We tend to think

of the teen years as hormones

and biological changes, but the reality is, teenagers are really

a market segment. We had a major economic boom. So for the first time, most teenagers

didn't have to spend a lot of their free time

working. And so a teen culture

kind of emerged that had its own separate

and distinct popular culture. -Once the teenagers found

their newfound freedom of being able to drive

and own their own automobiles, the drive-in

was the place to go. -Teenagers now were beginning

to have cars. They had more expendable income. -Here we have

a whole generation of people that all of a sudden,

their main pursuit is fun. -As a teenager, myself and my friends,

we went to the drive-in. That was a ritual. -In my early teens, I certainly wouldn't go

with my parents. I mean, that would be like,

"oh," you know, "God forbid." -I wasn't old enough

to drive yet, so I'd get my mom

to drop me off with the car. -People just got their licenses and borrowed a car

and went to the drive-in. -They could meet their friends, see the movies

that they liked to see, and not have to worry

about adults bugging them. -They might not have had many other public spaces

to congregate. -I'd go

two or three times a week, and it could have been

the worst movie there was, and it frequently was back then. [ Woman screaming ] -Barb and I were dating. We actually fell in love

at a drive-in theater, and I knew she was the one. - Stars above We fell in love At the picture show -I talk

to a lot of baby boomers, and, you know, wink, wink, but their memory may not be of

the movie that they were seeing. - One kiss

that would last forever -You have the environment

of being in your car, where it can be private

and romantic or whatever. -About halfway through the show,

I asked her, "Do you want to get

in the backseat?" She said, "No, I'll stay

up here with you." [ Chuckles ] -Teenagers found out

it was private. That they didn't have to worry

about cops or anything else. -The image of the kids

making out in the car -- that was certainly

a popular conception, whether it was true or not. -Drive-ins had the reputation

of being passion pits. That may have been true,

but only to a slight degree. Most people were there

to see the film. -A lot of the movies were

targeted specifically to teens. -The teenage films --

they're a little bit campy -- really started in the '50s. [ Rock music plays ] -I don't know if I'd use

the word "teen," but I would say I was conscious that my films were seen

primarily by a youth audience. -A lot of times,

they would be on a double bill that was very popular

in the '50s. Two low-budget movies

at the same time, many of them black and white. -A movie company called

American International Pictures really catered

to drive-in theaters and the teenage audience. -I worked

with American International probably more

than any other company until 1970, when I started

my own company -- New World. -Drive-in theaters of the '60s

and the '70s were showing A.I.P. movies, which were not considered

in regular movie houses to be the best movies. -They are the ones that pretty much made all

the movies that we remember -- "Night of the Blood Beast"

and "Dragstrip Girl" and "Hot Rod Gang"

and all these movies. The kids loved it. -You also have things like

the beach movies that start, you know,

maybe in the early '60s -- the surfing movies. You know, Sandra Dee

and Annette Funicello, "Beach Blanket Bingo,"

those king of things. -They were considered

"B" movies, pretty much. Any type of franchise like that would play out really well

at the drive-in. Of course, Elvis movies

were always really good. Another favorite,

believe it or not, was the Batman movie from 1967. -That was really the only outlet

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