Vintage shots from days gone by!

1950s car parking

http://s145.photobucket.com/albums/r230/BobW57/?action=view&current=50s-Newsreel.mp4

 

preview from modern mechanix stuff

 

California ANG F-86 Sabre, based at Van Nuys, cavorting over Los Angeles. Could be Chavez Ravine at top left.

 

What a blast, enjoying movies, cartoons and ad trailers
in the comfort of your own car! Bring your own snacks,
or hit the concession stand for real, theater-made popcorn
and soda pop mixed on the spot, fountain style, with car-
bonated water from one tank and syrup from another, using
REAL sugar instead of today's high-fructose corn syrup
(yuck!). Then there was a wide selection of candies (many
no longer made!), plus dogs and burgers from the grill with
your own choice of dressings and condiments. If you were
a kid, you'd fall asleep by the second flick and wake up in
your own bed, wondering how you got there! LOL. What
a time!

Anybody got drive-in memories to share?



1937 news wire photo


Hey, it could happen! Honest! Mysterious scientist
hypnotizes his beautiful lab assistant to revert her
into the hideous sea beast she was in a previous life!
Weren't the B-horror movies great at the drive-in
theaters??? LOL If the names Nicholson, Arkoff,
Castle or Corman were associated with a movie, you
knew it would be schlock BUT good fun!

 

Opened June 23, '54 with capacity for over a thousand cars, the Westbury
was Long Island's only remaining drive-in theater when it finally closed
to make way for "development" in 1998. Newsday reported that it had
featured three separate screens of 35 feet high, 75 feet wide. Photo is
from the '54/5 edition Theater Catalog and THANKS to James Goble.



Don't ya have to wonder HOW MANY B-movies were done
from the early '50s to early '60s based on the theme of
the natural disasters and radioactive, blood-thirsty giant
mutant life forms caused by man foolishly splitting the
atom! Die, you puny, stupid, insignificant humans!

 

Besides 'rod and custom rags, I'll bet I wasn't the only boy
in the early '60s to haunt the magazine stands to sneak
a peak at Mad, comics AND various horror and sci-fi mags
-- at least 'til the owner ran us off! "Hey! This isn't the public
library! You gonna BUY something?" LOL. Am I right? Myself,
I was sucked in by the snarling monster paintings Basil
Gogos made famous on early mags for Warren Publishing
and other titles. It was great to be a kid!



(Famous Monsters of Filmland, 1958-1983,
Publisher James Warren, Editor Forrest Ackerman)

 

Jimi;there was also the hot,scantily-clad babe in distress in every flick-hell,look at the posters and promo cards. I'm sure those scenes drove our Puritanical parents nuts.

I try to catch these Bad-B's around Halloween when the classic movie channels show them. Great fun;pass the popcorn,please!

 

Holy mackerel, SouthPaw! Is that a W-30 sitting there
in the junkyard series you've shown? Sure not a regular
Cutlass, I don't think. Wow, look at the overall condition!
Wonder if it was the motor or tranny that sent it to the
boneyard???

 

WOW! It's going to take a week to look over this whole thread. Some good stuff here.

Here's my addition.

 

Word up on the gratutious, vulnerable babes! Their presence in B horror flicks was quite a laughable stereotype of the era, particularly in retrospect. But in my small hometown, this was one of the few places a growing boy could see cleavage or a bare thigh.

Speaking of stereotypes, how about the predictable PLOT twists? Authority figure says, "Now don't go out there after dark." OF COURSE, the girl will wake up and go out in her skimpy nightgown, get disoriented or lost, get CHASED by a monster or fiend. NOW: Anybody with common sense would beat cheeks, BUT the girl keeps looking back, causing her to fall over a log/etc. She wakes up in some underground, poorly lit "lair," her vain hope being rescue by the guy who will win her hand by the end of the movie. Sound familiar?

 

Thanks for this pic Jim



Been there many times myself back in the day. Even got busted with friends in the trunk once!

 

Ouch, NitroBrother! Hurst? My lights said the paint scheme was unique. That would be the 455 then, wouldn't it? A LOT of cubes in a light but sturdy body. No WONDER guys loved 'em.

And, YEAH, it looks like it was boosted and then abandoned by a joyrider -- not junked, per se.

 

I have a LOT of memories from Drive In Movies....most of which I cannot share here...

 

I love these old drive in movies...My cable system shows three different cult movie shows on Saturday night. Wolfman Mac's Drive In Theatre, Elvira, and Off Beat Cinema.

 

gotga by the.......OO's

 

Since we touched upon the subject of movie damsels-in-distress, here's diminutive Fay Wray with her '27 Packard. Cordial and considerate, Fay was one of the busiest and hardest working stars in Hollywood in the '20s and early '30s, even modeling fine fashions! She was quite versatile, more than capable of depth, and critics notably praised her RARE portrayals of "bad" women! A spate of vulnerable roles in the early '30s got her the label, "Hollywood's Scream Queen." (In reality, Fay Wray's scream has probably been pirated as often as Sheb Wooley's "Private Wilhelm scream"!) LOL! But gracious Fay did not complain publicly of type casting.

Though the general Mary Pickford model fell out of public favor in the mid-'30s, Wray was ever grateful for her time in the spotlight. After years in England and rearing a family, Fay returned to films in supporting roles and last appeared in a 1980 movie. Born in 1907 in Wray County, Alberta, she passed on, just shy of 97 years, in 2004. Her career had spanned six decades.

(Notably, fully one HALF of Fay Wray's many movies wrapped BEFORE the one film she's best remembered for: RKO's "King Kong" of March 1933 release.)

 

Great pic and narrative about Fae Wray. She certainly had great taste in automobiles.

'28 526 convertible coupe (body # 329). Eight lug wheels are the giveaway.

Vintageride