actually, our drive-in usually showed mainstream films …our favorite night to go was Wednesdays because it was 5 dollar a car night I think when I was a little kid they had something going on Saturday also
Now when I was 3 or 4 and my parents were still together and living near fort ord … StarWars was my favorite movie but I couldn’t go to see it in the normal movies because of a hearing problem I wasn’t old enough to correct yet … so there’s a pic of me sitting on top of dads car in my StarWars pjs sitting in my star wars little kids folding chair seeing it for the 5th time …dad says it should have told him something when I didn’t think darth vader wasn’t entirely a bad guy …
Neat article on the history of San Diego Drive-Ins: Field Of Screens
The Best Western Movie Manor in Monte Vista CO shares it’s location with a drive-in. The idea is you can catch the movie from the comfort of your room. The rooms face the theater, have big picture windows and built-in speakers for the audio feed. The concept sounds pretty cool but in reality it’s pretty disappointing. The viewing angle isn’t that great and the screens are just too far away. The only upside is you have access to the parking area so you can hop in your car and watch the movie as you would a normal drive in.
I’ve posted about this one before, I think in a thread called something like “Movies That Scarred You For Life”.
When I was about eight, my parents took me to a movie at a drive-in. My mom thought it was a natural history movie, “All about chasing animals in the jungle.” My dad said “No, it’s about chasing a man.”
The movie was The Naked Prey. This movie has graphic depictions of different kinds of imaginative tortures inflicted on some European travelers by African tribespeople. It was way too intense for eight-year-old me. It sickened me and I vomited up my popcorn and candy outside the car. Then I hid behind the front seats for the rest of the movie.
I was well into middle age before I could look at that movie again. It’s still rather intense.
I’ve been to a few, all of them mainstream releases. Off the top of my head, I saw Ghostbusters II, Men in Black, and Waterworld. The latter two I didn’t even need to pay for: At the time, I was working at a kiddie amusement park, and the owner of the park also owned a mini-golf course and the drive-in, and employees of any of them could enjoy all three for free.
Near the small town where I grew up was the Comet Drive-In. I don’t know how they managed to stay in business as long as they did, but I have great memories of my dad taking me there when I was very young. We would watch Godzilla movies – the originals from the 50s and 60s. I don’t remember much about the movies themselves, but I remember that tradition very fondly. We probably went once a month or so during the summers.
I remember also my older sister going on a date there to see The Poseidon Adventure, and my mom suggesting she take me as well. I think this would have been in 1973 or thereabouts; my sister was probably 17, and I would have been 7. I was really excited to go; my sister was less thrilled, but she finally agreed. It wasn’t until years later I understood mom’s rationale for having me go, and my sister’s resistance.
The Comet closed down sometime in the early 80s, I think. I believe the land where it stood is now a small subdivision.
Interesting fact: The Comet Drive-In was about a quarter-mile away from where a woman was struck by a meteorite in 1954. Funnily enough, the name of the drive-in wasn’t based on the event; the drive-in opened in 1949, five years earlier.
When I was quite young I recall my older brother taking me and his friends to the drive-in theater in his car. He drove me into the lot in the trunk. Not fun for a claustrophobic lad I must say.
On reflection many years later, it dawned on me that the movie was G-rated (Gorgo) and there was no legitimate reason to hide me in the trunk. He was just being a jerk (not the first, or last time).
It definitely happened where I grew up. There was one right on a heavily travelled road, and I could see the screen from where my Boy Scout meetings took place. My Dad usually picked me up after a meeting, and it was usually a few minutes after everyone else had left. I was lucky, I could catch a bit of soft core (like Night Call Nurses, Gas Pump Girls, ect.). I remember a friend and I going to “all night dirty movies”, which I believe was a quadruple feature. Even at that young age (17, probably) the plotlines were so ridiculous we spent a lot of the time laughing.
Fond memories of being a kid going with my parents to see ‘The Dirty Dozen’ and such…Many dates at the drive-in, though I don’t remember too much fooling around. I mostly went with friends, and we were there - seriously - to absorb the kitschy fun vibe of dawn-to-dusk creature features , hoot at the bad parts, eat popcorn, drink a sneaked-out beer, and go to McD’s or somewhere after…I remember going to see ‘Interiors’ (Woody Allen’s imitation of Ingmar Bergman). with a stuffy pretentious guy, and when we exited, the drive-in directly across the road was showing a naked-women-in-prison movie - all doing jumping jacks in the yard, LOL. that would have been a lot more fun, except for Mr. Stick Up His Hiney … Finally…my father was a manager for a chain of theaters, including two drive ins. They were his favorites! Always something going on. And that was when they actually made pizza at the snack stand to sell. He used to bring home an occasional giant can of sauce or shredded mozzarella. Good times!
There’s still one drive-in open in my hometown, so I’ve taken my wife and kids to one. That was the first time in ages I’d been to a drive-in without a 6 pack of Mickey’s. Pace ourselves sharing a 6 pack through 2 movies and both of us would be fine 2 drive.
I went to many movies at the drive-in in the 1950’s and 1960’s. The fare was exactly the same as indoor theaters’ 2nd run houses. Except for the big downtown first-run houses, all the 2nd run houses, whether indoors or out, got the same releases about the same time.
The exception might be the B-movie, the first one to show at the drive-in, starting just before dusk. That one was sometimes waaay down on the latest release list.
And they always had 3 movies, plus shorts and cartoons. You could spend a very long evening into the night if you wanted.
All the theaters I went to charged by the car, not the person, so no one tried to sneak in thru the trunk. It was actually cheaper to have a large group, where you could split the cost. I guess the theater figured more people per car meant more concession sales, but not for us – we brought coolers and bags of snacks.
One of my fondest memories was a drive-in right next to a local bar that had a BBQ pit at the back. We would stop at the BBQ and get giant plates of fantastic food, and take them to the show. Far, far better than the concession stand offerings.
That was always the best thing about the drive-in; there was no way they could enforce a “no outside food” rule. A stop first for a takeaway pizza or a bucket of fried chicken was always part of a night at the drive-in.
Speaking of concession food, one of the items I only ever saw at the drive-in was Flavos Shrimp Rolls. They even had commercials at intermission (although the only one I recall is the animated one). I never knew anybody who bought one – they looked so unappetizing
I just showed this to my wife, who cringed in recognition.
She and some friends went to see A Clockwork Orange at the drive-in, and one of them was gullible enough to buy a Flavos Shrimp Roll. During the film, he shouted “Hey! I lost the shrimp out of my Flavos shrimp roll!”
Note – ONE shrimp
It fell onto the floor of the car. Everyone shouted “Don’t eat it!”
Flavos Shrimp Rolls – part of my warped childhood.
Oh, man, those commercials. Now I want to try one.
Of course, I’m the guy who while in the doctor’s waiting room and seeing a capsule coffee maker with all kinds of weird flavors declared, “Let’s try them all and find out which is the worst!”
About the only movie I remember seeing at the drive-in was Fist of Fury aka The Chinese Connection (the one set in 1910 Shanghai, not the one set in modern Thailand). My older brother was a martial artist, and a huge Bruce Lee fan.
In one scene, a group of the villains are being entertained by a strip-tease dancer. Somehow, my mother saw that coming ahead of time, and arranged for a trip to the restrooms and snack bar, so my younger brother and I only caught a very brief glimpse of the nakedidity.
I never heard of them until now but they look awful. What we got was Bambino Pizza – I could not find a YouTube of the ad but it showed an ecstatic crew-cutted guy bringing one back to his red convertible where his date waited so they could chow down on it. I begged my dad to get one but he never did.
An “ozoner” near where I live was next to a cattle auction. Every once in a while, cattle would get loose and roam around the lot. People would get out of their cars and lead the cattle back to where they were supposed to be. Great fun!
In its heyday, that drive-in was open all year, and this is in a mid-Atlantic state where it gets cold in the winter and occasionally snows. They never closed. If there was one car in the lot, they ran the movie. One time the snow drifts reached as high as the roof of the snack bar/projection booth. They plowed it all out before showtime and didn’t miss a beat.
That drive-in wasn’t a family-owned thing. It was owned by what was then a large regional theater circuit. I interviewed one former manager many years ago for a newspaper article. He and his family actually lived there, in a mobile home next to the lot.
I only went to a drive-in one time as a kid. My parents didn’t like drive-ins, but my brother and I somehow talked my father into taking us to see the Marlon Brando version of “Mutiny on the Bounty.” I don’t think I made it to the end.
We had a drive in that switched to porn a few years before it permanently closed.
I didn’t buy a ticket.
The screen was visible from parts of the local shopping center. Watched briefly and left. Its not the same without sound.
My teenage drive in showed exploitation films. Burt Reynolds films Gator and White Lightening. Shaft. A lot of hard R too.
It’s unfortunate because 10 years earlier they showed family films. Parents bundled up the kids in blankets and bought them popcorn and soda. That was a few years before I went.
, hoot at the bad parts, eat popcorn, drink a sneaked-out beer, and go to McD’s or somewhere after…I remember going to see ‘Interiors’ (Woody Allen’s imitation of Ingmar Bergman). 
with a stuffy pretentious guy, and when we exited, the drive-in directly across the road was showing a naked-women-in-prison movie - all doing jumping jacks in the yard, LOL. 
that would have been a lot more fun, except for Mr. Stick Up His Hiney … Finally…my father was a manager for a chain of theaters, including two drive ins. They were his favorites! Always something going on. And that was when they actually made pizza at the snack stand to sell. He used to bring home an occasional giant can of sauce or shredded mozzarella. 
Good times!
