American baby-boomers and their children are rediscovering
the charm of seeing movies on an outdoor screen
Posted on 06/15/2003 3:57:39 PM PDT by Pokey78
UNDER a starry Alabama sky, surrounded by cotton fields, maple trees and the chatter of cicadas, the pick-ups and Chevrolets glow and flicker, lit by the colossal white screen.
Inside the cars parents and children settle in their seats, munching hot dogs. Love-struck teenagers snuggle up; the air fills with the glow of fireflies and smell of buttered popcorn. The lights of the tiny town of Centre, a mile away, are too dim to penetrate this enchanted scene. The movie begins. It could be 1953.
This was Saturday night, however, and across America, from this beautifully restored drive-in cinema in northeastern Alabama to Colorado’s Rocky Mountains and the valleys of California, the same nostalgic scene was being played out in hundreds of locations. Despite the country’s enslavement to the internet, the video game and mobile phone, or perhaps because of it, baby-boomers are rediscovering their love of the drive-in movie while a new generation is being captivated.
In 1957, when the Everly Brothers sang Wake Up Little Suzy, about a teenage couple who fall asleep at the drive-in, there were about 5,000 outdoor cinemas in America. By the early 1980s, overgrown and rusting, thousands had shut. As the home video revolution took hold, hundreds made way for shopping centres and car parks. Some estimate that the number of drive-in cinemas had dropped to fewer than 200 by 1985.
Now they are rising into the night sky again. Since 1995, 22 have been built and many more restored.
Jennifer Sherer, of Drive-on-in, Inc, says that there are now nearly 450 outdoor screens in the US. New drive-ins are to be built in Texas, Kentucky, Alabama, California, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Ohio and several other states next year.
“What is significant is that we are seeing new drive-ins being built from scratch, not just the restoration of old ones,” Ms Sherer said.
“I think our lives have got more and more hectic, and drive-ins represent a simpler time for a lot of people. The baby-boomers have a lot of childhood memories with drive-ins, and there is something timeless that is appealing to people of all ages.
“And it is a place where families can spend time together, and those places have become few and far between.”
At Centre’s 411 Drive-In, Emory Johnson is still captivated by the magic of the outdoor screen. After flying 63 escort missions for US bombers across Europe during the Second World War, he left the Air Force and built the drive-in in 1953, just off Highway 411 — then just a two-lane road — in a gently undulating field that was once an apple orchard. Admission was 50 cents.
There is something exhilarating as you first glimpse the screen amid the cornfields. Bolted on to the original oak posts and slatted wooden frames, it rises into the sky in the shadow of the Appalachians’ Lookout Mountain, like an ancient Trojan horse.
It closed in 1983 and remained untouched for nearly 20 years. In July 2001, however, with the help of his sons, Rex and Carl, Mr Johnson restored the snack bar, repaired the 40ft by 65ft screen by replacing the original asbestos with white-painted tin, and reopened.
The 250-car site was filled nearly every night.
Mr Johnson, 80, helped by his wife Sara, grills his home-made burgers. She wraps the hot dogs. Rex and Carl take turns at the ticket booth and projection room.
People come from as far afield as Atlanta, 100 miles away, and Chattanooga in Tennessee. Alcohol is banned; there is never any trouble.
“This last weekend we had to turn ’em away. We had ’em lined up down the road,” Mr Johnson said. “It was much more popular than I thought it would be. People can bring their children — that’s the big draw.
“There are some who like to park out back. I don’t condone what they do, but most 14 and 15-year-olds just like to sit outside on blankets and talk and socialise.”
Recently, Mr Emory said, a couple arrived “and told me they had their first date here in 1957”.
Inside a Dodge pick-up, about to watch 2Fast2Furious, a new release about car races, sit Tony Phillips, his daughter Sumer, 15, and her boyfriend Randy Hutchens, 12.
“I’m out on the date with them,” Mr Phillips said. “I guess we had forgotten about drive-ins. But they’re coming back, for sure. People around here love this one.”
Parked 600ft from the screen, in the shadow of a wood, sit Charles Conkle, 17, and his girlfriend Jessie Nail, 16. ”I like being further away,” Charles said. “We come here all the time.”
Then the moon rose, and the soundtrack crackled to life on the car radio. “Wouldn’t you rather watch a movie here than inside a theatre jammed up against a whole lotta people?” Mr Johnson asked.
It was hard to disagree.
The fluctuating fortunes of a US institution
BTW...I'm still married to that lady despite my best efforts to provoke her...
(Those were the days)
More money using them as flea markets. Plus the drive-in movie sound is crappy compared to what you get in theaters. I really don't see much of a drive-in revival.
My brother and I went to a drive in in Tucson Arizona on a when we were on our way back from a trip to the Grand Canyon in 1993. This drive in had a sound system that used low powered FM stereo radio signals to distribute the sound rather than the old fashioned speakers placed in a window. The quality of the sound was excellent but mainly depended on the quality of the stereo receiver and sound system in the car.
This one's in Centre in Cherokee County. There is another one in Marshall County near Boaz. I think that one is $10 per car. Not bad.
They have advantages, however. You can bring a girl to one of those things, lose interest in the film, and move on to other things (in a big car with a bench front seat....or a van). Plus the cost in mininal, and food is sometimes served right up to your window. On a regular movie (theater) date, on the other hand, you end up having to actually take the girl out to dinner (either before or after the flick), the movie tickets cost you at least $10 a piece, the cokes and popcorn cost another $15 dollars, and if the movie is bad you have a very difficult time ignoring it.
That one is off Highway 431 in Mountainboro (just outside of Boaz).
I was just up that way for a week with my sons. Planned to take them to the drive-in but never got around to it.
This may be part of the comeback.
Lake Park Drive In, Williston, North Dakota, has been going strong in the summers (closes for the winter) at least since 1979, when I got to town. Sometimes it is nice to NOT live in a too trendy area, that way, when the pendulum swings back, you are already there.
And dating.....well, that's a chapter or two.
Huh? Do you mean the drive-in at night or the flea market in the daytime? I go there a lot but never noticed that "reeducation camp" bit. Huh?????
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