I love movies, and I love drive-in theaters.
But they are in short supply. Investigating their history, I found that in their heyday, which was the 1950s, there were nearly 5,000 drive-ins across the country. As of 2011 (according to Wikipedia), 371 continue to exist.
The first drive-in opened on June 6, 1933. Richard M. Hollingshead invented the concept through maternal inspiration: apparently his mother was a large woman and had difficulty sitting in regular movie theater seats. Mr. Hollingshead played around with the idea in his New Jersey backyard, by mounting a 1928 Kodak projector on the hood of his car and projected movies up on a screen he’d nailed to trees. For sound, he placed a radio behind the screen. He then experimented with all kinds of weather and various stages of rolled-up to rolled-down windows. Used his sprinkler system to simulate rain. Even figured out how to deal with the parking of cars so everyone could see the movie.
Drive-ins spread across the country and their popularity grew through the 1950s, and the additions of playgrounds and actual meals proliferated, generating pretty nice incomes for drive-ins. However the 1960s and 70s saw a nasty decline. Fewer families were attending, so playgrounds were pulled, and the movies also began changing from the more family oriented fair to teenie-bopper/adult-oriented flicks. In the 1980s, it was nearly their death knell. Then the 1990s saw a resurgence, and in the 2000s, they continue to claw out an existence. In fact, there has even grown (if the term can be so used) a “resistance movement,” called Guerilla Drive-ins, or Mobile Movies (MobMov).
Now, a truly unique drive-in experience is the Kelloff’s Best Western Movie Manor, in Monte Vista, Colorado, a place we’ve gone several times. It is the only drive-in theater where you can watch the movie from your hotel room, yea, even your bed. Yes, you can drive-in and park to watch either of its two screens, but you can also watch one of them from your room, with recently renovated rooms and great sound. This is highly recommended!
The atmosphere cannot be beat–and we should do our damndest to not allow this time-honored institution to die! There’s something truly magical about summer nights and watching movies outside, or from our cars and trucks. It’s really a cool community, where people have even taken grills to have a tailgater before the movies roll. At one theater that used to exist in our town before Walmart took it over, we used to bring our black lab and blankets and pillows, and all of us piled into the truck bed after backing up the truck up to enjoy the experience. Let’s all keep the magic alive!
Here are a few links you might find useful. Enjoy!
For Colorado:
Mesa Drive-in, Pueblo.
Holiday Twin, Fort Collins.
Star Drive-in, Kelloff’s Best Western Movie Manor, Monte Vista.
Went to the drive-in MANY times as a kid (there were 2 in my hometown); recently discovered a drive-in a couple of hours away and have taken my family there to get the experience themselves.
Where I grew up, in the Adirondacks of upstate New York, we used to occasionally go to the drive-in just outside of Lake Placid, between Lake Placid and Saranac Lake. Last movies I remember seeing were a weird coupleing: “Love Story” and “Patton.” Kinda dates me, huh? :-] I don’t think we were supposed to be watching them, but sleeping, since my grandparents had taken us kids and I remember being in the back of the station wagaon and told to go to sleep–but I kept sneaking peaks (“Patton” used quite the colorful array of language!). Anyway, every time I go back home, I try to find that little clearing, because it’s long since gone and terribly grown over. It’s kinda sad.
Thanks for stopping by!