Michigan, 1973.
It was a warm June night, and I was five years old.
My parents decided to take me to see a Disney movie, Song of the South, at the theatre. We pulled into the theatre, drove through the parking lot which was littered with bumps (which were intentional; at the drive-in, you would park your front tires on one of these inclines to tilt your car up at the correct angle for viewing the screen), and found a spot.
My dad pulled the speaker from its stand and hung it inside the window of our ‘72 Chevelle.
My mom doled out the candy to me and my brother in the back seat.
I don’t remember much of the movie, but what I do remember is the overall experience. I always preferred drive-ins when I was younger because when I was a kid it was difficult to sit still inside a crowded theater. The movies seemed long, the chairs uncomfortable, and the views depended solely on the height of the person sitting in front of me.At a drive-in, you could squirm around in the seat, make noise if you wanted to, and the car in front of you never blocked your view.
Drive-ins seemed like the ideal solution for parents who wanted to bring their kids to the movies without worrying about them disturbing the rest of the audience. Also, there were no concerns about being disturbed by other members of the audience. You don’t even have to pay for a babysitter! If you are a frequent moviegoer, you know all too well about the distractions of cell phones, texting, and people who just can’t seem to keep their mouths shut.
So why aren’t drive-ins popular anymore?
A lot of reasons are cited, including the cost of land, lack of air-conditioning, and even the advent of videocassettes. While those all play a role, there are a few other factors to consider.
To begin with, modern indoor theaters can boast of advantages like uber-advanced sound systems that make the monaural speakers of the drive-in, or even the stereo feed that you could tune to on your car stereo to hear the movie, seem hopelessly antiquated.
Next, the picture quality: Are you really going to pay to see a movie with eye-popping special effects and out-of-this-world animation if you have to sit in your car, potentially hundreds of feet away, and watch it through your windshield?
What if it’s raining?
Those special effects tend to lose a bit of their eye-popping quality when viewed through the swishing and streaking of windshield wipers.
Drive-ins simply can’t be open as long as indoor theatres, due to the requirement of actual darkness. In some areas, this is not that big of a deal. In southern states, drive-in theaters can be open almost year round.
In the winter, this is beneficial, as it gets dark earlier. For northern states, drive-ins are essentially a summer phenomenon due to inconveniences like snow and ice. Trying to produce enough revenue in summer months for a few hours a night to cover the expenses for a year just didn’t work as the price of land rose.
But as far as nostalgia goes, you could definitely do worse than drive-in theaters. They are definitely more casual and relaxing than indoor theaters. You can recline your seat, call somebody on your cell phone during the movie, or even just watch what’s going on in the other cars (which in some cases ends up being more entertaining than the movie itself).
Some people would even get drunk in their cars while the movie was running (NOT recommended) or smoked to their heart’s content.
It isn’t as though drive-in theaters have gone the way of the dinosaur. There are still some out there. It may take a little searching to find one, but they do exist.
If you’re interested in watching a movie under the stars without the distraction of Blackberry screens lighting up throughout the audience of an indoor theatre as jaded kids text their friends about how awesome or lame the movie is, a drive-in movie might be just what you never knew you were looking for.
