Movies Behind the Wheel: Allure of Drive-ins Renewed

Note: This article first appeared in The Elks Magazine.

By Bill Thorness

When was the last time you enjoyed a movie with the stars overhead, popcorn odor wafting on the breeze, snuggled in the comfort of your own car? You might think drive-in movies are part of our cultural past, but they’re making a comeback in many communities. Driving to see an outdoor movie is once again becoming an inexpensive family treat.

From the time the gate opens until the wee hours when the projector flickers off and engines spark to life, we’re transported into a private screening room that’s as familiar as our living room couch. Through previews, double features, intermissions and trips to the concession stand, a balmy summer evening is turned into a night out on the town.

Coming Attractions
Drive-in theaters exploded onto the American landscape of the 1950s, when people were buying cars, dreaming of road trips down Route 66, and settling in the suburbs. Land on the edge of many towns was bought, leveled and fenced, and the unique elements of a drive-in were added.

Foremost, of course, was the giant movie screen, which looked like a Hollywood backlot set: a blank, white wall propped up in a field. In front of the screen, rows were demarked, and the ground sculpted so you could nudge your front tires over it and tilt your car slightly up, giving you a better angle for movie-watching.

Thousands of drive-ins popped up as the “American Graffiti” culture came to life. “The peak number most quoted is 4,063 in 1958,” says Debrean Loy, co-executive director of the Germantown, Md.-based United Drive-in Theatre Owners Association (UDITOA). The numbers tumbled in the 1970s and 80s, though. “As of last season,” she says, “there were 433 operational drive-ins in the U.S.”

“The majority of them closed because of land value,” explains Tom Agnes, owner of the Lake Park Drive-in in Williston, N.D., the last drive-in standing in that northern prairie state. “Most of them were built back in the 1950s on the outskirts of town, which became suburbs, which became great areas for shopping malls.” Williston, a town of 10,000 on the Montana border, never saw development quite reach the drive-in’s gate.

Today the big outdoor screens are making a comeback. Loy says 16 new drive-ins have been built since the 1990s, and 40 have re-opened, with more new and refurbished theaters on the way.

Our Feature Presentation
The outdoor movie experience is especially making a comeback with families. “Demographics are diverse, however,” says Loy. “You will find teenagers, young families, older folks and singles. The family minivan may be parked next to a Mercedes.”

She notes that “a new generation is discovering the drive-in.”

That’s been Darci Wemple’s experience too. She and her husband Bill, who are in their 30s, own the El Rancho Drive-in in Palatine Bridge, N.Y., and are opening a second one, the Ozoner 29, this summer in nearby Broadaldin. “I got an e-mail from a woman,” Wemple recalls, “that said, ‘my husband and I came to the El Rancho in the 1950s when we were dating. In the 60s we were there with our children, and just this last weekend we were there with our children and our grandchildren.’ ”

A playground in front of the screen is still common to many theaters. “On a summer night, my entire front lawn is just filled with kids and parents bouncing balls,” says Wemple.

“We might have two to three hundred kids out here some nights,” says Frank Kulesza, executive director of Hull’s Drive-in in Lexington, Va., the country’s only non-profit drive-in theater. “It’s tough walking around with bubblegum on your shoes.”

“The movie field opens at 7, and people come and picnic,” explains Elise Sheffield, president of the board of Hull’s. “A lot of families have said that this is one of the things they can afford. Kids are free, and the other tickets are $4. It’s really great to see – when we have kids’ films – oh, 500 kids on the field, all getting good attention.”

Of all the stories about drive-ins being brought back to life by new owners, Hull’s is the most heartening to those who love drive-ins. Four years ago, when owner Sebert Hull died and the theater was going to go dark after 48 years, a community meeting brought out many who wanted to see it continue. Fundraisers were held, a non-profit organization was created with the catchy name Hull’s Angels, and the gates opened again, run by a volunteer board and committees.

A “really neat cross-section of society” came out to support the effort, says Sheffield. “The common ground is the love of the drive-in, and it’s a literal common ground that we share.”

Drive-in fans may turn green hearing about Hull’s idyllic setting. The theater is built in an amphitheater style, with 11 rows terraced into a grassy hill. “The traditional thing is, you stash your car with blankets and pillows and sleeping bags,” Sheffield explains. “The way the rows are terraced, you can lay your blanket out in front of your car and lay down and have a view of the screen below you.”

Although most people experience the drive-in from behind the windshield, Hull’s is definitely an exception. “I’d say 90 percent of the people don’t sit in their cars,” says Kulesza.

Grassy hillsides and big screens aside, many drive-ins today lure their customers with events and special attractions. Theaters will host antique and hot-rod car shows, and some have mini-golf courses, video stores or indoor theaters on the property. Theme weekends are popular, often centered around a particular movie.

“I had a pajama party for a Disney movie,” recalls Wemple. “Part of our experience of the drive-in is the little kids in their pajamas. I posted a note on the Internet and ran a blurb in the newspaper that said wear your PJs and get your picture on our web site.”

The event was a success. “Gosh, so many – even the adults – came in their PJs,” Wemple says. “It’s really neat to see how enthusiastic people are.”

She also held a prom party, where she encouraged all the local high school students to stop in free on their way to the prom and have their picture taken in front of the big screen. “They’re there in the back row all season, so I figured I’d try to get them in,” she says. “The picture would be part of their memorabilia.”

Wemple recalls hearing of even more unusual promotions, however. Drive-through grocery and laundry drop-off services offered to fill your list or clean your clothes while you watched the movie. Fireworks displays and wild-animal shows have been tried.

This summer, Hull’s is bringing in the Blue and the Grey. “We’re calling it the Colossal Civil War Weekend,” explains Sheffield. They will show two movies filmed locally, “Gods and Generals” and “Sommersby.”

“We’re inviting reenactors to come and do demonstrations to add to the atmosphere,” she says. At 4 hours long, the recent “Gods and Generals” will help make the evening close to a marathon. “We think it will go until about 3 a.m.,” Sheffield says. “We’ll offer free popcorn coupons to anyone who survives.”

Intermission
While all-night marathons are mostly a thing of the past, double features are the norm today, which means an extra opportunity to visit the concession stand. With movie companies taking most of the profits from ticket sales, the mostly small, independently owned drive-ins rely on food sales.

At Hull’s, the cooked-to-order food is so good, Kulesza says, local factory workers on the late shift call in their orders and pick up on their lunch break.

At most drive-ins, you stretch your legs with a walk to the concession stand, but at the country’s largest drive-in, the popcorn comes to you. Along with several snack bars, “we have golf carts that bring concessions around,” says Preston Henn, owner of the 13-screen Swap Shop Drive-in Theaters in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Henn’s operation, which he started by taking over a single screen in 1963, includes a giant flea market operating every day, complete with restaurants, a discount mall, and a live circus. The Swap Shop drew 13 million visitors last year, and each one got a flyer advertising that night’s movies on the screens that dot its massive parking lots. On a good night, 3,000 cars pull up to the outdoor multiplex, according to Henn.

“I got the flea market going and then I bought more land, and then I had the land to use for free, so to speak, to put in more drive-ins,” Henn says, explaining how he solved a major problem for drive-in owners. Distributors don’t want to schedule a movie with a single-screen drive-in for only one week.

Second Showing
“You’ve got to have additional screens,” says Henn, but usable, affordable land near population centers is a problem. In many areas of the country drive-ins are seasonal operations, making it economically more difficult to afford to expand. Still, many drive-ins now are two or three screens, bringing the estimated number of screens in the U.S. to 667, UDITOA says.

Distributors are reacting to a supply-and-demand issue, too. “Today’s audience demands a first-run product,” explains drive-in association executive Debrean Loy. “There is a short window of opportunity for a theater to show a film because Hollywood quickly rushes films off to video and TV.”

The double feature – with a kids’ movie first and a light adult film second – tries to meet that audience demand. “We always run double features,” says Jane Agnes, who runs the Williston, N.D. drive-in with her husband. “Children under 12 are free all the time. We think it’s a good deal for families.” Today, most drive-ins take such an approach: choosing movies the whole family can enjoy together.

It’s also a good draw for movie purists. The Agnes’ also own the only other theaters in Williston, two downtown locations that they divided into five smaller theaters. The equation means they can show a movie in two locations over two or three weeks. “We get a lot of people saying they wait until the movie comes out to the drive-in instead of seeing it downtown,” says Tom Agnes, “because they want to see it on the big screen.”

Besides making the economics work, drive-in operators face technical challenges. They surmounted one in the last decade by switching over from speakers on poles to radio-transmitted sound. “Those who haven’t been to the drive-in in decades are surprised to find out that the sound is broadcast over the car or portable FM stereo radio,” says Loy.

Many people still like the speakers on poles, which are hung inside your car window, and often drive-ins will have at least a few of those in the field. “At one time, there were 400 speakers out here,” explains Tom Agnes, “so I have an unlimited supply of replacements.” A sleepy patron will still occasionally drive off with one hanging on the window, he says, which results in both a broken window and speaker.

At Hull’s, that icon of the drive-in became a means to fund-raising. “We sold speaker plaques to donors,” said Kulesza, “and for $250 you’d get your name put on a pole.”

Although sound was solved, the next technical hurdle may be in the picture. The industry is discussing digital projection, which would cause both cost and technical issues for drive-ins. To convert the projection room to digital would cost many thousands of dollars. But because of screen size and distance from the projection booth, even the brightest projector bulb on the market may not throw enough light to make such a big digital image crisp and clear.

“It’s quite a to-do to get enough light, if we had digital prints, to project it on a drive-in screen,” says Henn. “But by the time they do away with film – and they will do away with film 10 or 15 years down the road – then we’ll have enough xenon light to put on the screen.”

“Few films are being released in the digital format at present,” says UDITOA’s Loy. “It’s too soon to know whether and when the technology will be widely in place.”

But technology and the future are most likely not on moviegoers’ minds when they decide to attend a drive-in. “Being at the drive-in is both nostalgic and modern at the same time,” says Loy. You may be watching the latest Hollywood special effects while remembering your first high school trip to the drive-in in Dad’s car.

And if you’re nostalgic for the Route 66 experience – as the song says – “get hip to this timely tip:” take a road trip and hit all the drive-ins you can find. On Route 66 itself, which “winds from Chicago to L.A.,” you would find at least three Drive-ins named for the highway, including a new one scheduled to open this summer in Williams, Ariz.

How many of that classic song’s towns still have drive-ins? Well … “you drive through St. Louis [nope], Joplin, Missouri [no], and Oklahoma City is mighty pretty [indeed, with two open drive-ins].

“You see Amarillo [and a movie!], Gallup, New Mexico [uh-uh], Flagstaff, Arizona [no], don’t forget Winona [no], Kingman [no], Barstow [yes!], San Bernardino [sorry].”

Ah, well. Drive-in movie fans can still get quite a few kicks on Route 66. And if the rebuilding trend continues, maybe the road trip can be taken to the tune of America the Beautiful.

If you go…

To find a drive-in near you, start with the Internet. Drive-in fans, theater operators and associations have created lists of theaters around the country. Many of the sites will offer show times, movie listings and tips about a theater’s special attractions. Here are a few favorite sites:

Drive-in Movie.com www.driveinmovie.com - A great state-by-state listing of theaters.

Drive-in Theater.com www.driveintheater.com - Lots of history, including old movie ads and concession trailers.

Drive-ins.com www.drive-ins.com - Stories of road trips to drive-ins taken by the site operators.

United Drive-in Theatre Owners Association www.driveintheatre-ownersassociation.org - Industry information, and a listing of drive-ins for sale.

Hull’s Drive-in, Lexington, Va. www.hullsdrivein.com - For only $5, you can become a member and part-owner of the nation’s only community-owned drive-in!