Planes watching Planes at Oshkosh
Posted on 06/17/2017 4:49:03 PM PDT by drewh
Last year, while visiting national parks in Colorado, I happened upon a real treat: Star Drive In, an outdoor theater that opened in 1955 in the southern part of the state. But my delight didn’t end there.
Next door, I found the Best Western Movie Manor Hotel, where you can look out a big window and watch the Star’s outdoor screen … from your bed! Each room is named for a movie star. Booking a night at the motel was a no-brainer. I checked into my no-frills Mel Gibson room and crawled into bed for the feature.
According to Wheeler Winston Dixon, a film expert at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the first drive-ins appeared in 1933 in Camden, N.J. They hit their peak midcentury with about 4,000 locations, roughly one-quarter of the nation’s total movie screens. Now, he says, they account for just 1.5 percent.
“Like so many things, it belongs to the past,” Winston Dixon says. It was tough for all the theater operators to run a business dependent on weather, he notes; the fuzzy projection and tinny sound from the window speakers didn’t help.
“Today’s audiences want a huge screen, enormous chairs and surround sound,” he says. “They want a more immersive experience.”
But moviegoers who long for nostalgia and low-cost fun are in luck. A few hundred drive-ins still exist, and we’ve highlighted a few of our favorites. Remember two things: Use your parking lights when entering and exiting, and please take a moment to enjoy the stars on the ceiling.
(Excerpt) Read more at floridadiary.com ...
That is too cool! What state is this in?
Ya I remember that one...kinda. It was barley pop and kissy face at some of those shows.
The thing with the Texas CSM is that it was better on the outdoor screen than in a show house.
I am of the opinion air conditioning and daylight savings time slowly strangled the drive-in theaters. Nice to know a few still survive.
Sit back with a case of beer and a quart of Boone's farm wine and.
Either in his 57 nomad or my 65 dodge. His had a 327 with dual quads on a high riser and mine was a 440 magnum with three deuces. Both with four speeds.
Planes watching Planes at Oshkosh
Today’s drivers are being sold tiny cars with no room. No room for sex/making out (Elvis said there’s no room to rhumba in a sports car) but it’s not a good spot to sit for 2+ hours anyhow anymore.
And the existing drive-ins have had to “upgrade” (buy new) equipment as the studios are all going to digital projection and distribution.
I have 3 of them near my house.
Drive ins dont necessarily have the window hanger speakers (or heaters) any more. They transmit an FM signal and you listen on the radio.
Its still a better experience at the drive in. The last couple of movies I went to in the theater, I wound up sitting near some brood sow with the endless trough of corn just corking and swilling with her mouth open like she had never eaten before. There was also the enjoyment of some moron dancing in an aisle at one show with of course a chorus of idiotic friends egging him on. When youre real lucky you get to sit by the kids who dont like the movie and play games on their phones.
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