Drive-in Movies

and they are having a Cruise In, this Sunday at 5:30 with movie to follow!

 

Find a drive-in near you:

http://www.drive-ins.com/theaters/

 

We have one here in Atlanta it's called The Starlight Six. the conession stand is just like it was in 1961... they show B movies and host the Dixie Fried Car show in Sept. Its in a really bad neighborhood but still its like going to the movies back in the 60's.
http://www.starlightdrivein.com/

 

Back in the '70s we had five drive-ins here. Now we have none and I really miss the experience.

 

The Brazos drive-in is a survivor, it opened in the 50's and I dont think it ever closed since then.

 

We have one outside Mount Sterling called the Judy Drive-In. Every year in late August/early September there's a car show and they show old car flicks. A couple of years ago they showed Thunder Road. Not sure what they have lined up for this year.

My cousins own the 49'er up in Valporaiso, IN. We were up there in June and they looked to have a pretty good crowd.

Here in Morehead, KY on the site of the old drive-in is an elementary school. Considering how many kids were conceived at the drive-in, it's probably only right.

 

We had 13 different drive in in the Albuquerque area over the years, kinda amazing considering the size of the town. 3 of them were all next door to each other, if you parked in the right spot you could watch what was playing at all of them (that is assuming you were there to actually watch a movie). Another theater started playing porn when times started getting tough, hmmm wonder why that didn't last after the town developed behind it!
Sadly, the last one open was mowed over in the early 90's, now a Century 24 on the lot. Still have one left standing, still complete with the snack bar, ect, but been closed since the 80's. Bad part of town, guess the property value hasn't warrant tearing it down.
Funny story. A few years back my teenaged step-daughter and her boyfriend was helping me clean the garage. They pulled out a box of drive-in speakers I had umm, somehow aquired over the years. The boyfriend pulls one out and asked my if these were a heater or something. Had no clue what it was! Made me feel old, he had never heard of a Drive-in movie.

 

You answered your own question.

Nobody else went enough either.
No attendence, no ticket sales, no concession sales, no movie rentals, no income, NO DRIVE-IN.

 

This one is fairly new...I think it opened up a year or two ago. Just a few minutes down the road from me.

http://www.tylerdrivein.com/

I love the idea of drive-ins, but have still never been to one. When all of your money is going to the car projects, there's none leftover for movies!!!

 

We use to have quite a few ,even a Porno drive in up in Bethlehem called Becky's

 

Lol....oh yeah, we have a porno one too...but I wouldn't know anything about that...

 

The land was worth more than the drive-ins,,taxes on the property,,people building homes out in the country where the drive-ins were originaly built complained about the noise and traffic,,VCR's,,you could watch movies at home,,and malls & apartment complexes

And the generation I grew up in got married and we didn't need a place to go park and,,,well,you guys know what went on in the back seats at the passion pits!

When I was a teenager there were 3 drive-in theaters here in this small town,,we have none now,,,BTW,,my twin girls are 32 years old and have never been to a drive-in.

The Skyway was raised to build a K-Mart

The Fox went to build apartments

The hi-way 29/Viking,,only showed X-rated moves,,,the property now has mulch and rock for sale,,,but the very rusty old screen still stands.

Last time I checked there were only 3 Drive-ins that we listed as still in operation in the state of South Carolina,,that's a shame.HRP

 

There's one in Gibson City, IL called the Harvest Moon...

 

medicine lodge, ks. still has a nice drive in, they are seasonal
in the summer on weekends. one of only a few in kansas
nice cruise in the scenic gyp hills.

www.pageantdrivein.com

 

in portland we don't have any still operating. a bit south of portland in NEWBURG OR theres a family style drive-in. the wife and i go a couple times a summer. it's a lotta fun and really brings back memories of movies when i was a kid. don't forget to buy some things at the concession stand!!! most of these places make their profit on candy / popcorn sales, not the gate receipts. support your local drive-in, it's american as apple pie!

 

There are 10 of them still open in Idaho. Here is one with a yearly car show in September.
Spud Drive-In near Driggs, Idaho
http://www.spuddrive-in.com/car_show.html

 

There's a drive in up in Auburn still operating. http://valleydriveins.com/, Havent made it up there yet but plan on it soon. Wanna take the kids and show them how we watched movies old school.

 

Hell yea! I looked up my ol' alma mater in the school of love! The Rubidoux Drive in, Riverside ca. thot it had been torn down but its goin strong. I first went there when it first opened, and I guess its all fixed up like the old days but more screens now. Wow!! I emailed my ol g' friend from hi skool and asked her for a date when I get my jalopy runnin, she asked me if it was that ol POS Model A with the broken seat, and I said it was a 39 chevy with a heater. She said she would havto ask her ol man, but my ol lady said 'hell no!' dam

http://www.rubidouxdrivein.com/#/movies/

 

As previously stated, development and progress had something to do with it. The main reason was TV, families would dress the kids for bed and go to a drive in, with TV the could just stay home and be entertained. Various reasons combined to their dying out.

 

Hard to believe some of you have none. I guess you must not have had many in the day then either. We had hundreds in the day. They started really closing in the late 70`s-early 80`s. We still have 31 up and running.

The theatres took over I guess. And especially nowadys with the muti-plex crap. All crammed together in little rooms. But most cars nowadays are too small to have groups at a drive-in as well. Man I used to party at a drive-in...Glad we still have so many left. I guess we are lucky in that aspect, along with the 15 dragstrips left as well...

 

Theres one about 20 minutes from the house, we try to go at least once a year.

 

When my twin girls were 2-3 years old we took the back seats out of my 48 Plymouth Woodie Wagon, put their playpen back there and went to the Town and Country drive-in movie here in Pasadena TX several times. Couldn't do that anymore what with seatbelts and child safety seat laws and so forth.

 

The evolution of drive-in movies:

first-run films
B-movies
Porno flicks
flea markets
truck lots
steel yards
down comes the screen
no one remembers

The Redlands drive-in movie in Redlands TX is now in the steel yard phase.

 

Well, yes, it's still there and it is still functional, sort of. The land was sold for an industrial park a couple of years ago and only the down turn in the economy has kept it from being scraped into a pile. There has been no maintenance on it in years. The Midway is a Big Box, the Duwamish was leveled years ago, Puget Park is still a swap meet, the Kenmore is an apartment complex, the BelKirk is MicroSoft offices, the El Rancho is a mini storage, not sure what is there instead of the Aurora. A long time ago in a land far far away.

 

Here is the website for the one in Granbury. We need to get a car meet together there. Maybe we could request certain films to be played. Maybe a 3 feature set.
http://www.thebrazos.com/home.htm

 

the only one i know of in my city closed down this year

 

The Orange County Fairgrounds was doing a drive a couple fo years ago with an inflatable screen. It was pretty cool to take the wife who is too young to have ever gone to a drive in. Unfortunatly they have stopped doing it though. Now the closes one to use is in Riverside CA

 

In their heyday, in RI there were only a Dozen or so, and now we're left with one... Hope that sticks around for a long long time

 

Still runnin'. Got a bunch still operating here in Virginia, not just the new one in Goochland. Shot these pics about a month ago in Keysville, VA an hour south of Richmond, where I live.

 

we've got one in san jose

-scott noteboom