We do our own drive-in every hallowean on my daughter & son-in-law's front yard. We get over 500 trick or treaters. Hot rods & old horror movie coming attractions at Fright Nite.
The Last one I know off is about 1 1/2 hr. from me in Warwick, NY and its been going on for the last 60 years that I know of It might Be in Operation longer? and the Hold all kinds of events there. Just my 3.5 cents Live Learn & Die a Fool
My grandfather had a 55 gallon drum full of drive-in speakers. when I asked him about them he simply said that my uncle and his friends were hoodlums. We also had the porno drive-in "The Crest". For some reason the hill on the block behind it was favorite hangout with the local kids when I was in high school.
I remember going to a drive-in with my parents when I was a little kid. The movie must've been made in Africa, as there were topless women all over the place. My dad turned around and told us kids to go to sleep. That drive-in is now a dirt track, and the last time I went by, the screen was still up. We had three local movie theaters with the Majestic being the best one, as far as being fancy. One of the others had stars and planets painted on the ceiling, and a white railing around the upper level. Under the railings were small heads mounted every so often, looking like Merlin or others (Merlin is the one I remember).
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh yes drive in theaters.Had one in my home town.Vero Drive In.Right on US1 4 lane.Had two in the first town South of us in Ft Pierce Fl.Worked at my home town drive in.Was the projectionist.Did a lot of speaker repair.Not too many lost to drive offs though. Mostly weather damage.Sure was a lot of fun. Sure do miss them. Good luck.Have fun.Be safe. Leo
Having grown up in SoCal in the '60s, drive-ins were a way of life! Lot's of memories... good, bad and x-rated ! Covina Drive In & Azusa Drive In were my main haunts. Cruising Whittier Blvd., Colorado Blvd., Bob's Big Boy, In N Out plus a dozen or more Drive Ins to choose from in the area, man life didn't get any better than that! I feel sorry for the kids today, video games and not much more...
These is still one in operation today in Newton, Iowa About 30 miles east of Desmoines. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...rive-in.com/&usg=AOvVaw3JimtqZg8MY_qvMGUkyL1n
The basic structure is the same for East vs West, just the names have been changed for the companies... Hey Ron, Like minds run deep. This was a common occurrence at our local drive-ins. One time, my brother came home with a speaker still attached to some long wires. Many years later, luckily for me, there was a memory happening in the 58 Chevy Impala at the drive-in. We used to park in the middle of the speaker poles and put one speaker in each window for a stereo effect. The hardtop windows did a good job of allowing the wires inside, while still keeping us fairly warm. On the passenger side, the cord had dropped down on the ground, when we got out to go to the snack bar. The speaker was still in the back seat floor area. When the door was closed after the snack bar run, the movie finished, my date and I completely forgot about her speaker and drove off. Whoops… no damage to the car, but a clean cut cord on the speaker, sitting on the rear floor of the Impala. As long as the steel drive-in speakers were just sitting in the Long Beach backyard garage, we decided to hook up some wires to our lovely AM radio while we worked on our cars. These speakers were attached to the exposed beams above our heads. The sound? Great to have some sounds, but not the greatest speakers we have ever used. Junji What are the drive in speakers doing these days? After a stint in the current garage hooked up to a high powered amplifier and some better MP3 music, it served its “authentic” purpose. But, for crystal clarity, they did not compare to the quality 8” modern speakers for sound and music. So, back into the office they went, acting as bookends, but still in their 1960 original condition and glory. P.S. You were lucky that both items (speaker/girl/woman) have been with you so long. They are both keepers for sure. My wife has always liked the speakers for book ends as it represented a good time gone by, with only memories everlasting. I suppose a quality small speaker could be inserted inside of the original drive-in speaker for some modern sounds…a garage project perhaps? 2017 https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...-what-works-good.1039238/page-2#post-11940219 2018 https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/the-history-of-los-angeles.446547/page-114#post-12399601
This drive-in was 4 blocks from our home 48 years ago when I was 15, you could hear the movies from our front yard. My 2 brothers and I would go down climb over the back fence and sit by a speaker and watch the movies. It was a good time.
Dave, don't know how old you are but this drive-in was at Central and Holt in Montclair Ca.. The Neon was a sight to see, rolling wagon wheels and a whip on the oxen. Torn down in the 1980's. Not sure who to give photo credit to.
One of my most memorable moments at a drive in was when dad took the family to see "Boy on a Dolphin" in around 1957. Traumatized me for life...........
I remember dad telling about forgetting the speaker and breaking the window of his Plymouth Belvedere after seeing Smokey and the Bandit at the drive In. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I remember that one. "The Valley Drive-In Theater". My parents would load us up in the station wagon in our P.J.'s and take us to the drive in's. Good times! It was pretty cool then and would still be cool today. Too bad it's gone. I found this: VALLEY DRIVE-IN THEATRE, MONTCLAIR, CALIFORNIA, 1954 The world’s largest neon mural made this the most spectacular drive in ever built in Southern California and the centerpiece of the valley it was named for. With a beautiful blue sky, majestic mountain range and Santa Barbara Mission as a dramatic backdrop, a Native American, on the right, and a priest, on the left, witness an oxcart, with a driver and two passengers, cross a stream. The Native American has a jug at his side. The priest carries a bible in his hand. At night the early California scene was completely outlined with more than 2500 ft. of glowing neon. The giant work of art wasn’t the monumental drive-in’s only unusual feature. A year after the grand opening in 1948, the owners who “collected” monkeys, put their primates on display in cages alongside the children’s playground. This was a novel attempt to entertain people before the movie started. They called it Monkeyland. By the time THE END came in 1980 and the monumental screen tower was demolished to make room for an ill-fated Dodge dealer, the monkeys were long gone, the neon had all but burned out and the hot sun had faded giant painting. This is the drive-in theater that I grew up going to. I remember the monkeys and being told not to stick my fingers in their cages. But, yes, it was the neon mural that really stands out in my memory. The priest’s bible, the only part of the scene rendered in royal blue neon, always caught my eye. I haven’t seen a blue neon bible since. Here’s to the Valley Drive-in Theater and you! .
Howdy, Neighbor..... Your comment is about the same drive-in I mentioned in post #5. You're the first HAMBster from my town I've noticed here on the forum. Hope to see you around and about one of these days soon.
...............Me and my friends always used Butch Wax in elementary school, especially on picture day, to make our flat-tops look right.
My first memory of the drive in was when my uncle and aunt lived in a house at a feed lot next to the local drive in theater. You could sit out on the front porch and watch the movie but obviously in those days you couldn't get any sound. I went to the same theater a lot when I was in high school and had to make sure that a group of my classmates weren't there drinking if I got seriously snuggled up with my date. They were known to make the rounds of the cars in the back rows peeking in and pounding on the windows drunker than skunks. My first real memory of going to a drive in when I was young was when my sister who is two years younger than me came home telling my mom that there was this great movie her friends were all talking about showing at the PoulsboWa drive in. Mom made two #46 bags of popcorn, packed some drinks and stuck my younger brothers and sister in their pajamas and off mom and 5 kids went to the drive in. The movie was Physco and wasn't what my mom thought we were going to see. I think that was the last time my sister got to pick a movie we went to.
Remember the drive ins in Pomona, Montclair, Riverside, but my favorite drive in was the Baseline drive in in San Berdoo-Highland,Calif. It was only two blocks from my house and as a boy,i would ride my bicycle with friends to the back fence and watch some of the movies. As a teen with a car, I would take my girlfriend at the time there and never watch the movie. As a father,i would take the wife and kids and watch the movies. And now as a codger- I fall asleep in the theatre. Oh well.
We live in the midwest, And the drive-in experience was extremely important for me to show my 4 year old daughter. They closed up one of the two we had left in minnesota, And this summer we just never made it over there. Fast forward to fall, and we took a little trip to wisconsin dells. I saw on a flyer that they still had a drive-in theatre, we went there saturday night. Two screens, wait in line, cruise in (*unfortunately not in the proper car, but whatever) and watch some movies. Fair pricing, and the place looked basically untouched since the 70s. The snack hut was purple, dim lit, and so awesome. I had to go back in there a few times for snack just cause it was cool. I'll be back if they are still open. They were outside of town and seemed to do pretty well business-wise, i'm sure the dells helps with that.
The Mustang theater Center Point AL..... One of my first movie Memories is going to see Jason and the Argonauts at that drive in. This was around....77. The movie was an old one then (1963). What I remember was the mile long line. Neptune holding the mountains open for Jason's ship... Jason and his crew fighting the big statue and unscrewing the plug on his heel... Finally the grave yard skeleton battle..... This was before VCRs so old movies could still...."pack the yard". A few years later we saw this one at the Mustang. My father and mother went to see it and they liked it so much they took my brother and I to see it at the Mustang. I love it when people cheer at movies... The whole place went nuts! My last memory of the Mustang was full screen ass shot of some blond next to a pond ( baby got back....lets just say to this day, me and Sir Mix-a-Lot have a lot in common)....that's how the feature opened. My grandmother had taken us and that was the starting of the ...Late Feature. She could not crank that car fast enough. Drive ins... The swing sets... The projection house with the Hamburger stand... The colored cups.. The red white plaid french fry trays.... The window speaker.... The elevated banks... The new drive ins with the radio tune....It's just not the same... I believe it was VCRs rentals that really killed the Mustang drive in. That and the Mustang started showing more risque stuff. That did not fly well in the Ridge and Valley region of North Alabama when all the homes on the ridges got a show whether they wanted it or not....
My greatest drive in memory is from back about 1963. My buddy Vince had his Mom's Ford for the night, so three of us came up with a plan for one of us hide in the trunk with some beer and sneak in. Vince volunteered for the trunk, so in we went, headlights off. I was riding shotgun and the other buddy, Ritchie, is driving. A pickup backs out of its slot and BAM!! creams the front end of the Ford. Vince, in the trunk, is yelling, and the guy in the pickup gets out, ranting about no parking lights on. We tell him that the owner is at the concession stand, so he shows us where he'll be parked, waiting. We go to the back row, and Vince gets out of the trunk, pissed of course. We find the pickup and its driver, who admits fault and gives Vince his driver's license number and insurance policy number. WHEW!! Only problem was the license and insurance numbers were bogus, and the guy got away Scott free! Vince had to help pay to get the Ford repaired.
VENTURA, CA: “The 101 Drive-In opened in March 16, 1948 with Ronald Reagan in “Stallion Road” and Dennis O'Keefe in “Mr. District Attorney”. Later, two more screens were added. It was closed in 1998 and demolished in 2001. In its later years, the grounds were used for a swap meet.” Hello, This is typical of what happened in So Cal. In Long Beach, some drive-ins became large swap meets to earn extra income. Others stayed drive-ins with weeknight openings, until the weekly numbers were down. Then, the fad left, but not after all avenues of daily/weekly revenue were exhausted. While driving through Ventura during our last up/down the coast vacation during Thanksgiving week, it reminded me of what happened to most/all of the drive-in theaters in So Cal. Since they were only used during the weekends, the property was usually located in some high value neighborhoods. So, wasted space during the week could be bringing in money all of the time. Down go the big screens and up pop up businesses, restaurants, high rise office buildings, etc. (Did you know one of the best times for travel in the air and ground is during Thanksgiving Day?) In driving through Ventura, North of LA, (on the way to Santa Barbara, we happen to be using an alternate route from the Santa Clarita/Simi Valley area to by pass the recent burn area, traffic problems). We drove by a location we used to see all of the time coming up to this area in the 60s photo and surf trips. The old grounds of the Ventura 101 Freeway Drive-In Theater, could be seen from the surface streets or the freeway. It is gone now, replaced by the ever-present shopping center and tons of restaurants. Jnaki That is a sad state of affairs and one icon of the 50s and 60s is gone for good in most neighborhoods. Luckily, for these Ventura area residents and aficionados of memorabilia, 36 minutes North, is the famous and still standing, Goleta / UCSB area drive-in theater. It is the last of its kind and a stone's throw away from the ocean. They have been showcasing swap meets every weekend since the early 70s. In our local So Cal location: In the photo below, here is one final step before oblivion. But, remembering the annual Christmas Vacation (now, politically correct “Winter Break”) from high school, gave us the time and energy to hit the drive in theaters in mild climate, So Cal. Even if it was cold outside, the hot rods and wagons stayed relatively warm inside !!! The Long Beach Drive-in, a few blocks East from the old Lions Dragstrip.
They closed the Dallas Oregon drive in a couple of years ago. Near Niagara Falls Ontario Canada they have a four screen drive in . You would think Canada's population would be larger.
A few years ago they opened a brand-new one in my town! It seems to be doing well. It's always packed on the weekends if its not raining. And it's open year round. We usually inflate an air mattress in the back of my truck and bring pillows and blankets, I usually fall asleep, especially if its a kid movie. http://coyotedrive-in.com/
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