Drive-in movies were apparently once quite popular, but haven’t really been a thing during my lifetime. I’ve always wondered, quite frankly, why? What’s the point?
OK, I’ll try to answer my own question in part - I guess it affords a couple going to the movies more privacy for smooching. But other than that, why would anyone want to watch a movie from their car? Just so they don’t have to get out of it or park it?
Honestly, I’ve had the impression that a drive-in movie is a second-rate experience ever since I got introduced to the concept as a small boy in the book Babar Comes to America, where the elephant king Babar, after an official visit to the President of the United States, takes his family on a tour of the USA. In one of the many vignettes, Babar, Queen Celeste, and their three kids go to a drive-in movie, and Babar says, “The children enjoy the movie, especially as they have a picnic supper in the car.” The image didn’t really appeal to me, it all seemed pretty improvised, and imagine being 3 kids in the back of a car trying to get a proper view of the screen through the windshield AND the gap between their parents’ headrests.
Why would someone want to see a movie through the medium of their windshield? And listen to the sound through a little metal tin thing that you pull in through your side window, when you can go and have a proper seat in a dark room directly in front of a screen? What if it starts to rain heavily, obscuring your view?
There must be something I’m missing here. Care to fill me in?
Well, it doesn’t appeal to me today. But when I was in college (graduated 1970), my then-boyfriend had a pickup truck and we’d get together a bunch of friends, an ice chest full of snacks (can’t remember if beer was included or not-- probably not), blankets, lawn chairs, pile everything into the back of the truck. Admission was often by the carload, so very cheap per person. He’d back into the parking space and we’d hang a speaker from each side on the truck bed. The movie didn’t matter all that much. It was a party with entertainment!
We went a few times when I was a kid. I think it was cheaper for the carload than to pay separately for admission for every member of the family. Also, we were bundled up in the back seat and could, and did, fall asleep back there. And of course the family can bring whatever food it wants.
An early selling point of drive-ins was that parents could bring their young children without worrying about disturbing (or being shushed by) the other viewers.
Usually inexpensive. At the one we used to go to, kids under 12 were free. So Mom and Dad paid admission, and we kids got to see the movie for free. Along the same lines, you could often sneak a friend or two in by putting them in the trunk.
Often, two movies for the price of one. One was the feature; the other was the B-picture. In between was a bunch of previews and entreaties to visit the snack bar.
As mentioned, you could take your own alcohol. Of course, you weren’t supposed to, but people did anyway.
Same with smoking. Back in the day, theatres did have smoking sections, but if they were full, you were out of luck. At the drive-in, every car could be a smoking section, if it wanted to be.
It can be a bonding experience. I have only happy memories of being in a car at the drive-in with my sisters and parents (especially on Independence Day when there was live fireworks!) eating popcorn and drinking A&W root beer from a cooler. And then going with friends, and with girlfriends, and with Madame P. and our daughter. Even a bad night gave us a memory to share later. And sometimes drive-in movies show older stuff that we couldn’t see again at a regular theater. And there were no videotapes/cable/dvds/streaming.
Favorite moments from a Drive-In:
After the previews one time (just me and Madame P.) there was a drive to collect money for the Will Rogers Foundation. The screen/speakers told us people would be coming to our cars to collect. And then, in the dark, came a thud on the driver’s door. We rolled down the window to look into the barely lit face of a young man who could have played professional football, and who asked “Ya wanna give to Will Rogers!”. Not so much a question, really. We were generous. Since then, whenever we’ve felt more obliged to perform a charitable act than actually wanting to do it, we just say “Ya wanna…”
A bunch of us were crammed in one car watching the wonderfully lame Message From Space, a very low-budget Sci-Fi Japanese space flick with cosmic glowing walnuts. When we reached the scene where the Emperor Ming-wannabe was about to speak, he stood up from his throne, walked down the carpet and addressed the camera to briefly state his evil threat. But what we heard as he began his speech was “The Concessions Stand will be closing in fifteen minutes. In fifteen minutes the Concessions Stand… will close!” And then he swept his cape around him, and returned slowly to his throne. We nearly never stopped laughing.
The movie seldom mattered. In fact, I can hardly remember a film I saw at the drive-in. But I was there in my car (or more likely, my boyfriend’s car) and we had the freedom within that space to do as we pleased. (It was mostly innocent.) My friends were there in their own vehicles. No one stayed in their car, so time spent at the drive-in became an impromptu party.
It was the only way my single mother could realistically go to a movie on a weekend night with two young children. Remember, the drive-ins showed movies that were already out of the theaters, and they had double features, usually with short cartoons preceding the first movie or during intermission. The first movie was usually family-friendly or kid-oriented, and the second was often more grownup. She’d put us in our jammies, bring snacks from home, and her younger child (me!) would more often than not fall asleep before the sexy or gory parts of, say, a Bond or war movie (I remember seeing the first ten minutes of “Tora, Tora, Tora.” If your little kids squirmed or fussed, it didn’t bother anyone else, and you didn’t have to pay movie prices for snacks.
When I was a teenager, it was a cheap date, and there was the prospect of more involved making out than possible in a theater.
Also, this was pre-VCR era, so outside of waiting another year to see if a movie maybe would hit network TV, a drive-in might be your last chance to see a movie that had left theaters. Even post-VCRs, I could see the appeal for teens who wanted to spend the evening away from parents’ watchful eyes. Apparently, that wasn’t enough to support the industry, though.
For one you can talk and eat popcorn without disturbing others.
You can sit on the car hood and watch the night sky at the same time.
There always was a bit of a seedy element roaming the parking lots and concessions which added to the thrills and chills of the evenings triple feature creature. I believe I only saw scary movies at the drive in. The poor thunderbird had playgrounds with rusty swings and jagged slides. Broken glass everywhere.
Now the idea of trying to walk through a broken up parking lot to a trashy restroom holds no allure. But as a youngster the whole vibe was an adventure.
Incidentally, drive-in movie theaters did have a brief revival in the early pandemic days, since they allowed people to go out in public while still isolating.
[Drive-ins] were a cheaper alternative to indoor cinema theaters because not only did they save the gas of driving out to the city and then back home, but the cost of building and maintaining a drive-in theater was cheaper than that of an indoor theater, resulting in the lower overall cost of attendance.
We did the drive-in thing a lot when I was in high school. It was cheap, private, you could bring your own food and drink and if you parked in one of the back rows, out of a direct path to the concession stand, you could smoke dope and boink your girlfriend without anybody seeing or bothering you. For $2.50/carload it was ideal.
The writer Pierre Berton once observed that a Canadian is someone who knows how to make love in a canoe. The drive-in is where you went to canoodle if you didn’t have a canoe.
Stretch out in (relative) comfort without having to worry about neighboring asses jabbering and wandering up and down your aisle. Jabber yourself or snicker about the quality of the movie(s) if you feel the need.
Bring snacks or eat theirs.
Take your pet to the movies (we once watched White Line Fever and the original The Hills Have Eyes at the Lambs’ Grove (Iowa) drive-in with our guinea pig, Eno. Great company, quality entertainment.
And of course, make whoopee or sub-whoopee with your beloved.
Thanks for sharing your memories.