Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the American Drive-in Movie Page #9

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had to pay more taxes 'cause his land value

kept going up. -In a lot of cases,

somebody else owns the land. -The leases would have run out

in the '50s, and rather than renewing leases, the owners of the ground, they could sell

and make more money. -I don't know if I believe that they were less popular

than they were. I think they just kind of

got pushed out, and it became

so expensive to maintain it. These lots -- they not only fell

out of favor, they fell. -Then a decrease in attendance

that you experienced in the '70s might make people take it down. [ Mid-tempo music plays ] -We drove past it. Everybody knew, without anybody

saying anything, that the drive-in was done. It was over. -We had a drive-in theater

in north Hollywood called the Victory. It was so well-loved that when they decided they were

gonna tear the drive-in down, this man chained himself to the top of the screen tower

for two days in protest of destroying

that beautiful screen tower. [ Mid-tempo rock music plays ] -Not even a matter of whether or not the drive-in

is doing a good business or is still profitable. It's that the land can make

more money as something else. - Money makes the world

go round -The property that they were on

became such a premium. - Makes the world go 'round -That money was out there, and a lot of guys

took advantage of it. -All of them

in Los Angeles County, and there were 60 or 70 of them

at one time. They're all gone. -Land that held

drive-in movie theaters sometimes

is much more profitable to be sold to developers. - Money makes

the world go round And 'round and 'round

and 'round, yeah Money

- Money - Making the world go round - Go round -Developers would come in, and they'd say

to a drive-in theater owner that was making

$10,000 a year profit, "I'll give you $500,000

for your property," and they're like --

they think they've made it. And they had. -If somebody comes along

and says, "Here, I'll give you

$2 million for your property," well, pfft, it's gone. -Walmarts were buying

the properties and whatnot. - They tore down the drive-in

with a wrecking ball Put up a Walmart

and a shopping mall -Now we find a lot of Walmarts or Home Depots

or Lowe's in those places. Unfortunately, a drive-in

is a nice, big piece of land that doesn't have

too many structures that need to be torn down. It's in a memorable location. You know, everybody knows where the old Skylight drive-in

used to be, and it's at the intersection

of freeways. So it's prime real estate and really attractive

to the big-box retailers. -For every million people

in America, there are "x" amount

of McDonald's. There are "x" amount

of Walmarts -- you know,

it grows, it grows -- and there was one

drive-in theater. -We formed

the Friends of the Grandview to preserve the Grandview

and have it renovated. At that time, we didn't know

anything about a Walmart deal. We just knew that the property owners

weren't doing any maintenance and weren't allowing it to open. -We have one big rubber stamp

running down this road. Burger king,

and then we have McDonald's, and then we have the Walmart. And you know what? It just repeats

every so many miles. -And to take what makes

your city and your town unique and bulldoze it down for another

generic Walmart makes no sense. -There's a large influence

of consumer culture that has made shopping not just something

that you do when you need to, but kind of a preferred

leisure activity. -The public needs to be more

involved in their communities. They shouldn't let

national corporations change the face

of their communities. [ Rock music plays ] -There are a lot of efforts

to preserve those structures. Even if the drive-in has to go, sometimes they can still

preserve the marquee. There are a lot of drive-ins that have

historical significance, and one angle that groups

of supporters will use to try and save a drive-in and

keep it from a strip mall is to try

and get landmark status or something along those lines. And even once that has happened, I know the one on Route 66,

the Azusa foothill -- they were successful in declaring certain

historical status for that site. But that doesn't necessarily

keep it from being developed. -The 41 Twin was the place

I worked at the last few years it was open. I knew

that if it could get a marker, it wasn't gonna stop

the demolition. But I just didn't want it

to be forgotten. The 41 Twin now has a marker

on the site. People can go up there anytime

they want and look at it, and hopefully it will bring back

a little, fond memory. -I can now drive around, and I can spot

a drive-in location. You know

what those properties look like, and you can kind of look at it

and say, "I bet that was a drive-in." -But you can see

that the snack bar still stands the way it was. -Kind of neat to look over time.

You can see a satellite image. People have shared with us

all sorts of things, not just snapshots of drive-ins. We have had people send

aerial maps, terraserver images,

satellite images, photographs of ticket stubs, or an ashtray that has

a drive-in's name on it. -I certainly remember it

in "Grease" and lot of teenage movies in which they're going

to the drive-in. -[ Sneezes ] -I hope you're not getting

a cold. -Oh, no. No. It's just probably

a little drive-in dust. That's all. -I think now when you're trying

to show life in the '50s, you can kind of pinpoint it, like, "Oh, yeah,

this must be the '50s, because they're going

to a drive-in." It gives you a certain

cultural identification. -You sure you want to do this? -I came here to see a movie,

and I'm gonna see a movie. -You can still have dialogue

going on. Whereas

if they're in the movie theater, it's pretty static, or it has to be

before the movie starts. So if you're in a drive-in,

you can still advance the plot and be showing this sort of cultural phenomenon

at the same time. [ Laughter ] -The revolutionary ideals

of your forefathers are corrupted

and sold in alleys... -There will always be a need

to show drive-ins in television and movies, and it's a wonderful

cultural icon for that particular reason. [ Rock music plays ] -One of our challenges

is converting this property from an alternative-use

property, which is used for many events, from the orange county

marketplace to the fair to our drive-in. The atmosphere

that we want to create here is a very friendly,

very safe family atmosphere where people can come together

as a community. If they sit in their car, we hope they'll talk

to their neighbor. We live in a world where

the garage doors come down, and people are very scheduled

in terms of their time. So providing a family-and-community-oriented

activity is critical to what

we're trying to accomplish here. -Despite the fact that

these places are disappearing, they're actually a little bit

on the upswing right now. -There really has been a sort of rediscovery

of drive-ins going on. Over the last 5 to 10 years, we not only have younger people

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