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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsRetrospective/Memories: Drive-In Movies
Do you have any memories about drive-in movies? Do post them, please.
If you don't know about drive-ins, ask about them. Someone will be sure to oblige with an answer.
In the summer of 1980, my hopes of going to Los Angeles Baptist College in the fall of 1981 were dashed by their financial assistance office. That summer, I went one night to the Fountain Valley Drive-In to console myself with Superman II. It worked a treat. That summer, in my screaming yellow Toyota Corona, I saw the film 22 times. My disappointment was numbed. (Why save money? I wasn't going to college. But in early 1981 I received a Pell Grant and my dream came true. (If only I'd known.))
A few years before this, they'd replaced all the heavy, clunky, metal sound boxes with little yellow clips that one attached to the car's aerial. The sound would then come through the car radio. It was said that one could pick up the sound without the yellow clip, and it proved true.
My favorite trip ever to the Fountain Valley Drive-In didn't involve paying at the kiosk or driving across the hilly rows to just the right spot. In 1977, in her very yellow Plymouth Arrow, my sister drove the two of us to the top of a hill just behind the drive-in. We could see the screen perfectly. She tuned the radio and we heard the sounds of the previews. I jumped when I heard the first notes of the Star Wars overture. (Who didn't?) That night with my sister is one of my best memories. It didn't matter that we'd cheated to see the movie. I was with my sister.
The Fountain Valley Drive-In opened in 1967 (with Snow White and Tammy and the Millionaire). It was demolished in 1984. I cried when I heard. In its place now sits the MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center. (If I have an emergency, I go about eight miles down PCH to Hoag Hospital ER. It would take a lot for me to go half a mile down the street to MemorialCare.)
Tell us your drive-in memories.
Auggie
(31,172 posts)Summers of course, while in high school and during college break. It was an incredible experience, with an accompanying cast of co-employees so eccentric, diverse and ethically starved you could use it for the base of a movie about Drive-Ins (think of "a day in the life" film, like Carwash).
I should try my hand at a screenplay, actually.
Eastlake Drive-In, Eastlake Ohio, on Vine Street. Cleveland metro area. Long gone, land is now a big box retailer, and maybe some housing.
Biggest show we had in my time was Smokey and the Bandit. Sellouts, two weekend in a row.
Don't eat movie theatre food. Smuggle in your own.
Not Heidi
(1,288 posts)such a motley crew.
Oh, please, DO write a screenplay. I'm thinking - yes, Carwash - maybe Carwash meets American Graffiti. Hmm? I can see the Oscar in your hands. (Work out - I hear they weigh nine pounds.)
The only movie food I eat is popcorn, and that rarely. Why not eat movie food? (Do I want to know?)
Auggie
(31,172 posts)you're at the mercy of the crew that prepares the food and/or management in charge of it. Not everyone follows sanitary and food storage safety rules -- slim-profit margins mean squeezing every penny imaginable from inventory. Employees don't care much either. Maybe it's different now than in the 70s.
Like the American Graffiti addition. I'd want Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza, Boogie Nights) to direct.
Not Heidi
(1,288 posts)Here in So Cal, there was a chain of records stores called Licorice Pizza. I thought that was so clever.
Do you know who you'd hope would play the parts in your screenplay?
Auggie
(31,172 posts)A Margaret Hamilton type. In her late 70s.
That's all I have so far.
lark
(23,102 posts)My boyfriend and I had a best friend who drove an old large Caddie. We'd hop in the trunk and our friend would drive through and only pay for his entrace. Once we got in, we'd go buy his food so everyone made out.
I saw 2001 Space Odyssey for the first time at a drive-in in Dallas - WOW!
I don't like country music but love Patsy Cline because mom and dad took us to the drive-in to see a movie about her when I was a young kid and I fell in love with her voice.
edit: fixed typo
Not Heidi
(1,288 posts)Jessica Lange has always been one of my favorites. 😍
In the trunk, eh? . . . Sneaky. Fun!
zeusdogmom
(994 posts)Back seat laid flat. Quilts and blankets to soften the floor. Mom made lots of popcorn and put it in big brown grocery bags complete with butter stains on the paper. Thermos bottles of green kool-aid. Green was our favorite flavor - to this day I have no idea why. We would go to the drive in, battle mosquitoes as we watched because the car windows had to be down to survive the heat, enjoy the popcorn and watch a little of the movie. Youngest kids slept. Big kid (me) watched the movie. Mom and Dads date night. They could ignore us in the back - we were happy to snack on the pop corn. Admission was minimal. Something different from sitting at home watching the corn grow. And a bit exciting for the kiddos because we were up way past our normal bedtime.
Then I got old enough to go on car dates. Again the drive in was a summer happy place to go. But no little kids in the back seat. 😄. I remember watching Whats New Pussycat? Oh my that was a long time ago. Good memories.
Not Heidi
(1,288 posts). . . complete with grease stains on the grocery bag. 😎
Aristus
(66,380 posts)Even as a kid, I thought there was something cool about being able to watch a movie while sitting in the family car. I was around six or so, so I could watch the movie (The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean is the one I remember most), or fall asleep, whichever mood took me.
Years later, when I was joining the Army, I was at our local Military Processing Station in Seattle, and a very attractive sergeant was taking down my information. She happened to mention that she had grown up in Sierra Vista, and we both reminisced about the Geronimo Drive-In.
Not Heidi
(1,288 posts)I'm sure that was a pleasant conversation.
I was a little gobsmacked. She was gorgeous. She looked like a younger Melora Hardin. She was a Sergeant First Class, Enlisted grade 7. And there I was about to become a lowly private-recruit.
She was, obviously, unforgettable.
She was very nice to me. Usually, once the enlistment contract is signed, active duty personnel tend to treat recruits like shit. But she was warm and friendly.
Not Heidi
(1,288 posts)with you for a long time, to bolster yourself against other sergeants screaming in your face.
Aristus
(66,380 posts)Back then, all I wanted in the world was to crew the Army's Abrams-series tank. No amount of shouting and screaming by drill sergeants was going to deter me in that goal. I made it.
Conjuay
(1,388 posts)Never saw one
Not Heidi
(1,288 posts)anywhere near where you lived?
Earth-shine
(4,039 posts)It's much better in 4k with surround sound. It's been remastered several times. Looks like a new movie on a new TV.
The drive-in was a frequent thing for my family.
Not Heidi
(1,288 posts)More often than not, it was a bad experience; both parents were irrational hotheads. But even just the one drive-in (rather, outside-the-fence, on-the-hill) movie with my sister made up for all those unpleasant experiences.
AllaN01Bear
(18,242 posts)lpbk2713
(42,757 posts)And B Grade Sci-Fi movies.