I’m taking the wife to North America this summer for a trip to have some fun, visit friends and visit family. We’ll be flying from Paris to Mexico, then up to Dallas and across to Vegas, finishing up with a week in California.
We’ll be driving from LA to SF and was hoping that on the way we could check out a 100% All-American drive-in theatre but most of my web searches have come up with lists of closed theatres. It seems that there are very few left open and operating.
Ya and its even on your way. Hi-Way Drive-In is still operational in Santa Maria, Ca. Which is about half way between San Fransico and L.A. and right on Highway 101. Which is how you should be doing the drive.
The Solano Drive-In once again alive and well in Concord, showing first-run movies at the junction of Hwy 4 and 242.
The same company also operates the Capitol Drive-In in the south end of San Jose, between 101, 280, 85 and 87. (it makes sense if you’re looking at a map)
ETA: We’re thinking of going to the Solano on Saturday to see Iron Man.
As long as you are going to be here in Las Vegas, there is a nice drive-in movie theater here as well. Not all that far from The Strip (about 20-30 minute drive in the evening), it has six screens and you clip the sound to your car and listen to the sound through your car speakers.
They usually show first-run movies and I believe it is always a double feature - pretty good deal for the money.
Unfortunately, you won’t be able to re-create the ambiance of going to a drive-in, at least the experience people had in the 1950s-70s. It was primitive, but fun. Cheesy speakers that you hung on your window, hoping you didn’t drive away without removing them. Rushing to the snack bar, getting cheap food, dogs in a fold up cardboard box, drinks, getting back to your car without spilling your drinks on the dogs.
Umm, ((cough)) samclem is right on here, except maybe about the bolded-by-me part above. If it’s just you & the wife, you could re-create one part of that experience and have some good clean fun, too.
…providing that you don’t particularly care about watching the movie…
Heh! If I were to go to a drive-in now, the experience I would want to re-create is sneaking a couple of people in in the trunk so we didn’t have to pay for everyone. Ah, fond memories.
Thanks for all the replies people. It seems that the drive-in scene isn’t as dead as I had believed it to be when I first went looking for information.
I’ve been, a couple times. IIRC it’s $6 for a double feature, they have mini golf, and refreshments are reasonable (though the lines are long). They broadcast the signal on FM, or you can have the old speaker-in-window arrangement. Four screens…if you park just right, you can “change” movies by fiddling with the dial and tuning in another soundtrack.
Quicky recap of our trip to the Solano Drive-In in Concord this weekend.
The gates open about two hours before showtime. Kids under 11 are free, everyone else is $6.75.
There was a Kidsville of sorts that sprang up in the middle of about six different minivans - little kids in playpens, older kids running around and tossing footballs and frisbees. You just won’t find that at the multiplex! There were a few heart-stopping moments with cars cruising down the paths looking for a spot coming uncomfortably close to people. As this was the first weekend of a blockbuster release, the place was crammed full.
Something else you won’t find at the multiplex is people eating food they brought in - you can’t set up a grill, but no other restrictions on whatever you want to bring. (We stopped off at Costco for a couple of pizzas on the way.) They say “no alcohol” in small print, but I’d wager there was some drinking here and there.
Decent variety of goodies at the snack bar - popcorn, pizzas, hotdogs, and such. Prices were decent as well. The large popcorn is $4.75, and comes with free refills.
Sound is through your radio - they could really stand a couple more watts of power or something - the reception was a bit fuzzy. Think back to pre-Dolby sound at the second-run theater in 1974, and that’s pretty much what you get. One note on radios - if your radio has a bright display, plan ahead and figure out something to cover it with - our radio/CD player/GPS navigator has a huge BRIGHT display that was very distracting and far brighter than the movie itself. I eventually tamed the thing with a magazine and a pizza box.
One nice thing was an absolute absence of people yakking on cell phones and kids waving laser pointers at the screen.
