In praise of the drive-in
Dennis Cozzalio has an excellent piece up at GreenCine, a comprehensive primer of drive-in-movie film and culture.The essay includes movies that feature drive-ins, movies that would have played at drive-ins, the design aesthetics, and a handy list of further reading that led me to Drive-Ins.com.I’ve gone to the drive-in in Wellfleet, MA many many times, both to shop the Wellfleet Flea and to watch crappy movies (and not-so-crappy; I saw Big there), and I’d always thought it was one of maybe three or four left in the whole country.Not so, according to D-I.com, which is awesome — but with the nation beginning to reassess for real the high cost of our driving culture, it may put drive-ins in danger.
So, go to a drive-in near you.Make it a bike-in movie if you like, or smugly park your Prius next to the ancient crackly speakers, but especially if you’ve never gone, check one out.It’s fun for families, clown cars full of friends, or just you and your windshield-steaming partner of choice.
And remember the next time you’re making fun of the Jerz that the drive-in was born there.
(Thanks to The House Next Door for the link.)
Ooh! I LOVE going to the Drive-In!!!
The one remaining here in Oklahoma City, is called The Winchester. It still has a neon cowboy waving at you, as you drive down S. Western on summer nights. I freaking love it so much!
We also used to have another one (gah… I can’t remember the name of it) but they finally closed up about 10 years ago.
The one in Weatherford, OK has like 3 screens! I don’t know the name of it either.
Here’s a link to the Winchester’s awesomeness.
http://www.winchesterdrive-in.com/
Aw, I saw Jurrasic Park at the Wellfleet! Glad to know the drive-ins are still around. My dad was just telling me the other day that there used to be one in Morris Plains. It’s a Chevy’s Tex Mex now. So sad.
Went to the Warwick Drive-In last year just over the Jersey border in New York for a group birthday outing. The celebrant had never been to a drive-in theatre before, so her husband surprised her with a group outing of about 20 of us. He was even able to reserve the first row for all of our crew! It was great. My fiancee has a Mini-Cooper, so it made it all the more better for me. Except for one little problem. There’s actually three screens at Warwick, and we were supposed to see the Simpsons movie. However, they actually took us to the screen showing “The Bourne Ultimatum.” Good movie and all, but we wanted “The Simpsons.” Oh well.
One last thing. I didn’t realize that the audio at the drive-ins is now programmed through the car radio. I was like, “hey, where’s the box?” No box.
I went to the closest drive-in to my town (about 80 miles away) a few weeks ago and had a great time. They don’t have the old speakers anymore, though. You just set your radio to the drive-in’s station. And they remind you to occasionally start your car, to keep the battery from dying (they also can give you a jump at the concession stand). The downside was that when the second movie ended at 2 in the morning, I didn’t get home for another hour and a half. But it’s worth it, at least once in awhile.
One word of advice though–make sure you turn your lights off, especially for double features. You do not want to be the person wandering around the drive in asking if people have jumper cables at 12:30 in the morning. Er, not that I know first hand or anything……
Aw, drive-ins! The crappy, half-dead, steel mill town I grew up in had a drive-in, and I loved it! It closed when I was in college, though. Now it serves as overflow parking for the lodge across the street. :(
We have a drive-in pretty near our house here in Jacksonville, FL. This might be the motivation I need to check it out sometime.
There is a drive-in in Mansfield, CT still. When I was in high school, we snuck people in once in the trunk of my car (it was a Plymouth Sundance, so it wasn’t a large vehicle, but the trunk could fit two small people for the purposes of drive-in sneaking from a nearby shopping center parking lot). I learned this trick from my sneaky older sister! Ah, teenage shenanigans…
There used to be a drive-in in my hometown when I was a kid. I saw the Muppets Take Manhattan there, I believe, as well as a few other flicks. It closed down probably over 20 years ago, and remains a sad, vast empty lot.
So many good memories.
When I was a kid, my sister and I would get into our pajamas, Mom would make a brown grocery bag full of popcorn, we’d load up the pillows and blankets, and Dad would drive us to see the double feature. Sis and I were always conked out by the second movie, and Mom and Dad could have a semi-private movie night.
As a teenager, my best friend would drive us in her ancient VW Bug, and we’d smoke pot, hoot at the screen and generally behave like we were too cool for school. I believe that’s the way we saw Saturday Night Fever, the first movie I ever heard the C-word in.
The closest drive-in to me now is probably 80 miles away, but I think I’m going to have to make the trip while I still can.
And thanks New Jersey. :)
Love the Wellfleet drive in (and all others in fact). I had a surreal experience there, when a massive fogbank rolled in, and everything but the screen was obscured. There’s only one left here in Connecticut, but we try to make it up there a few times every summer. Sitting in the truck bed watching movies, with the kids sleeping through the second movie is one of the great joys of summer.
I went to one in Arizona, outside of Tucson, and it was awesome. My friend and I saw some dumb teen horror movie there (Disturbing Behavior? Something of that ilk. I think Josh Hartnett was in it), and it was awesome because you could yell at the screen and not worry about disturbing people. “Don’t open the door, you fuckin’ moron!” Hee. Plus since you tune your radio in to the station, you can control the volume. And I remember we stored a ton of snacks under the seats.
I’m so glad I read this, because I’ve never been to a drive-in, but I’m dying to go to one. I just moved and my new town has a drive-in theater about 20 minutes away. As soon as they show something better than Get Smart, I’m going.
I’ve been to Wellfleet a few times, but I think the last movie I saw there was “Mulan” and “Scooby Doo (1 or 2?)”. I was very proud to be the only one to stay up through both movies. On the homefront, my only central NY drive-in experience was super buggy. The concession stand made a killing from OFF! bugspray. The choice came down to: 1. Windows down and let the moquitoes feast. or 2. Windows up and die of muggy asphixiation/not see the movie thru steamed up windows.
One of the awesome things about living in small town Ontario is that the drive-in is actually closer than the nearest Cineplex, and there are actually three drive-ins (one a “triple drive-in”) within half an hour’s drive of my house. We spent a lot of time there when I was a kid, especially when my cousins, all from Toronto, would come up to visit–the drive-in was the one thing that they didn’t have bigger and better back home. The closest one still shows those awesome concession stand movies at the half: “Let’s go down to the kitchen, let’s go down to the kitchen, let’s go down to the kitchen, and have ourselves a snack!”
Unfortunately, by the time I hit puberty, it stopped being as much fun…the car got a lot smaller. You’ve got me curious, though…now that I have my own car, and thus am assured of a spot in the front seat, I will definitely have to go back.
Thankfully, I still live close enough to the Mansfield drive-in in Connecticut. But I remember when drive-ins were all over the place around here. East Hartford, Manchester, Newington. As kids, our parents used to take us, get us all tired out on the play equipment before the movie, get us into PJ’s, and we would sleep in the back of the station wagon while they watched the movie. As a teens, we paid by the car load, and my friend’s old Buick Electra would fit at least 10. Very little actual movie-watching happened back then, it was just a big party. *sigh* fun times! Anyone else remember the old snack bar cartoons?
I luuuuurrrrrrve the Wellfleet Drive-In. I saw Jaws there a couple years ago for the movie’s 30th anniversary, and it was misting the whole time and you could smell the ocean. Great movie-going experience.
Also excellent, but in a totally different way: 12 friends, 3 cars, 2 cases of beer, 1 double feature. Such an easy, comfortable way to spend a languid summer evening.
For the ultimate drive-in (stay-in?) experience, check out the Best Western Movie Manor in Monte Vista, CO. Check it out on the web, that is – because it is NOT a reason to visit Monte Vista, believe me. But they pipe the movie sound into your motel room. What could be more relaxing than chilling out on a slightly gritty Best Western bedspread with popcorn and beer, watching some flick you didn’t choose on the big screen? Well, it’s very relaxing when you’re obligated to be in Monte in the first place. Seriously.
http://tinyurl.com/3u9y3e
I spent all my summers on the Cape, buying tons of cheap jewelry at the flea market and going to the drive-in almost every week. I definitely remember seeing Independence Day at the Wellfleet (AWESOME). One particularly slow summer I saw America’s Sweethearts (the Julia Roberts/Catherine Zeta-Jones disaster). Shudder.
I have fond memories of the drive-in that used to be in my hometown. My brother and I were allowed to watch the 1st movie BUT the 2nd movie was “for adults only”. Of course, we always stuck our heads up over the backseat of the station wagon to watch what we could. The weirdest thing is… it turned into a porn drive-in when I was in high school. Yeah, porn on that HUGE screen. The trees surrounding it never really did hide it well.
@missbanshee – I used to go to the one in Morris Plains, also the one in Ledgewood, NJ as well. My parents used to stuff all 5 kids in our pjs into the back of the station wagon and head off to one in the 60s. It was the only way they could get to see a move – babysitters for 5 kids were usually too expensive for them.
I was just saying to hubby the other day how I wished there were still drive-ins around here. Summer nights, crickets, crackly speakers, a little petting…MAN! there were SOME good old days after all…
There’s still a drive in near me as well, it’s in Stephens City Virginia which is just south of Winchester VA (and not all that far from DC) it’s called “The Family Drive In’ website here http://www.user.shentel.net/ccrkcr/drivein.html
The best way to enjoy a drive in movie in my book is to get a cheap boom box that is battery powered and some camping chairs then you get to chill outside and see the screen totally unobstructed, they let you bring in coolers, so yay beer! All in all it’s a wonderful (and fairly inexpensive) evening.
I LOVE going to the drive-in. The last one left in RI is the “Rustic”, which has gone through its share of troubles (I think they also went through the porn phase), but is now an awesome spot for a double-feature. And it’s also pay-per-carload, though I never did take advantage of that. I’m always afraid of my car battery dying during the movie. I finally took my husband to his first drive-in outside Allentown, PA. I made him close his eyes till we got there, and he didn’t exactly know what the story was, even when he opened his eyes. It’s too bad we had to watch “Bewitched”.
Cindi, if you’re going to the Cinderella Twin, save yourself a trip. It’s already closed.
I miss it so.