Do any of y'all have Drive-In Theaters near you. We're lucky enough to have one about two miles from my mountain top home. It's called "Hilltop Drive-In" and there's nothing better in the world that sitting in the lawn chair, having a cooler full of beer, a hibachi grill with burgers cooking, and watching a BIG damn screen showing movies. Our Drive-In has stereo sound that is transmited to the car radio and I've put removable speakers in the car that I can take out and lay right behind us. It's a wonderful experience. "Dawn of the Dead" was just damn fantastic on this screen.
I've never been to one, but I really want to go. I think the closest one to me, though, is in Sacramento (2 hours away).
We've got one we go to a few times a year that's about an hour away. It's a great time (especially with the two year old, we don't have to get a babysitter to go to the movies), and the price is right: $5 per person for two, sometimes three, movies.
I havent been to one since I was a kid. What I remember most is the cartoons before the movie. Playing at the little play ground in front. I also remember that the pizza we got at the snack bar was the best greasiest pizza in town. What memories!
I was actually the cashier at the local one back in '78-'79 while I was going to school. We occasionally had X-rated marathons and the boss would come down to check ID's . She told me once, wait until it gets dark and the Baptists will start showing up. We ran out of speakers and were selling parking spots (who needs sound).
I got to watch a lot of classic 70's B movies like Pirahna and the Manitou. In high school we used to go pretty often, I saw Night of the Living Dead, The Wild Bunch, and many others there for the first time.
It's a shame , the screen is still there but there is a Moose Lodge on the property now.
I used to go in Highschool (late 80's) at the one in Council Bluffs Iowa. (I'm from Omaha originally) , I loved it.
There's one in town here. I'm right across the Puget Sound from Seattle. Probably not a great place to have a drive-in, with all the rain. Come to think of it, I think it might only be open in summer.
I think there may still be 1 or 2 drive-ins within about 45 minutes of where I live. I haven't seen them advertised in the newspaper recently, but I think they are still open. The last time I went was probably 3 or 4 years ago. The drive-in experience just isn't the same as when I was a kid. If they showed movies from the 60s and 70s, I'd probably go more often.
I think "Something Weird" did a great job with the "Let's go to the Drive-in" feature that is available on some of it's DVDs. If you switch this feature on, you get to watch vintage snack bar ads, commercials for local businesses, public service announcements, coming attractions, etc., from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, plus 2 feature length films, and usually 1 or 2 short documentaries. It's great and it brings back fond memories . . .
We have one in a nearby town about 25 minutes away, that opens for the spring and summer. But I've never been, I see the ads and tell myself to go when they have a good schlocky action movie, they only show new releases. The last time I checked I think they were showing "White Chicks" and "Spiderman 2". The owner said in an article (the local entertainment editor/lousy film critc tends to write a puff piece about it and his other favorite people/things at least once a year) that they have to fight to get prints of the newest releases, since distributors put a higher priority on getting prints to the chain multiplexs.
I wish they'd have an old movie revival festival out there, but there would be little local interest.
The last time I was to a drive in was in Oceanside CA back in the early '80s. We saw that Henry Winkler movie where he ran a whore house out of a funeral parlor or something. I also remember going to one in my home town as a little kid, with mom and dad. We saw the Poseidon Adventure, and probably a ton of other ones I can't remember. Clockwork Orange, god only knows what else.
Man, those were fun times.
There's one about half an hour from my house. I went last summer, and it was everything one could expect, except it only plays first-run movies. Up until a couple years ago, there was another one about ten minutes from my house (called the Mohawk!), but it has sadly been turned into a housing development. And I'm told there's a great one on Cape Cod, a few hours from me (Geez, can anyone tell me why Massachusetts, of all places, still has so many drive-ins?)
Mr. Hockstatter wrote:
> We saw that Henry Winkler movie where he ran a
> whore house out of a funeral parlor or something.
"Nightshift," also starring Richard Belzer (thug), Shelley Long (prostitute) and I believe it was Michael Keaton's first movie (Bill).
I used to have this one on VHS, but don't anymore.
That's the one where Mr. Mom has the idea to sell tuna with the mayo already mixed in. I love that idea!
Here's a great website about everything it takes to own and operate a successful drive-in.
Check it out at DRIVEINWORKSHOP.COM (http://www.driveinworkshop.com/index.htm)
I went a few times as a kid, and once a couple of years back when I was visiting relatives al long way away. Unfortunately all the drive ins in my area have closed. Its especially tragic because we have perfect drive in weather most of the year.
But every summer they have a kind of replacement for the drive ins, were they set up a screen in the botanic gardens and you can have a picnic at the movies. I saw Pirates of the Caribbean there, it was pretty good, but not as good as a drive in.
There aren't any drive-ins left around here. I only went a few times with my parents. I recall seeing Dumbo, The Giant Spider Invasion, The Land that Time Forgot, The Bad News Bears, and Every Which Way but Loose.