Have you been to a Drive-In?
As a kid going to the movie theater was something I always looked forward to. Seeing a movie on the big screen, getting movie theater popcorn with movie theater butter, a soda and some candy was always something I looked forward to. I still look forward to these things when I go to a movie theater. Going to the theater is something to do as a pass time, as a date, or to just enjoy a movie on a big screen with surround sound. Many people enjoy this activity and this form of entertainment.
In the past there was Movie Theater AND drive in theaters (3). You would drive up in your car, pay an admission fee for the car, roll in and find a spot. You would then put the sound box in the window of the car and enjoy your movie from the comfort of your own car seat. You could roll up your windows, roll them down, fall asleep, make a bed in the back of your car, and there were many other things you could do. The kids could go off to the play grounds and run and play with the other kids. You could go get food and drinks while still watching the movie from the line. If you did not want to buy things you could sneak your own cooler of food in.
Drive in theaters became popular with the rise of the popularity with the auto mobile. In 1933 Richard Hollingshead had created the first movie theater in Crescent Boulevard in Camden, New Jersey (1). This was a place where people could bring their cars (which was a craze) to view a motion picture. These types of theaters were originally called park in theaters, with the drive in theater coming in later (2). The idea had sprouted because the inventor’s mother had a hard time being comfortable in a regular movie theater seat. He thought that she and others would be more comfortable in a different setting, hence came the idea of the park in. Later in time however, in the 1950’s, was the start of the decline of the drive in theaters. The theater number went from around 2000 to about 400 theaters (4). The peak however was reached in 1958 when there were 4,063 drive-ins all over the country (7). They began to decline with the expansion of cities and the rise of property values (7). When the home-video was introduced in the 1980s put the nail in the coffin (7). This is like what streaming services did to Block Buster and stores alike. The car craze had calmed down as well (3). The other big reason was the introduction of the television (1). When TV came into the home they occupied the main focus in the living rooms, and it took away the need to go out in the world to socialize and view a motion picture (6). With these factors at this time theaters were going bankrupt and closing down. It was an end to era.
However these theaters just like now were a dating spot, a family adventure, and entertainment. Drive in theaters were also something else, they were a hangout, a social event per se. You could go hangout on the swings and part take in gossip with your friends, away from your parents, and you could all being hanging out in a car and having the movie in the back ground. In the hay day of this attraction there was more to the drive in’s than a regular theater. There were attractions, and they differed from theater to theater. The film industry often speculated that drive ins were more about the attractions, often thought of as mini fairs, that people did not go to these drive in’s for the movie, but everything else they offered. With the social aspect they even had events for adults and kids to interact with each other while the movie was playing, or before and after (3).
The most common example I can think of for this kind of social scene is from the movie Grease. There is a part in the movie where they all go to the drive in, but they are not all just watching a movie. Risso and the other Pink ladies are in the bathroom gossiping and having a social hangout. Risso tells one of the others that she is pregnant (possibly). Then that piece of truth goes around like wild fire to the others. It gets passed from car to car to car, and ends up in the ear of a possible father of the child. On the other hand Sandy and Danny are on a date, where they are sharing a nice time. This example demonstrates the kind of atmosphere drive in theaters had along with the two different types of uses the drive in had for this age group.
My love for movies from a young girl has stayed with me through my entire life. I love experiencing a movie on the big screen; there is just something about it that brings joy into my life. There are some movies, I believe, that are just better experienced on the big screen. I have seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens in a movie theater and there is just something about it that was different than when I watch it at home. The movie pulls you in on the big screen and takes you somewhere else. But I have also had the chance to go to a traditional drive in theater. I have watched The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay Part II and The Finest Hour. These two experiences where different in more ways than one, and they are similar in more ways than one as well. My experience is something that as an observer was interestingly insightful. When looking at drive in theaters and movie theaters they are different yet the same in the way they are set up, the experience they offer to the consumer, and how they are used by society.
Drive in theaters and movie theaters are like identical twins. Their DNA is the same, but their finger prints are not. For a drive in and movie theater their DNA, the structure in which they are formed and their purpose, are the same. They are there for entertainment. They are both there to deliver to their audience a movie on a big screen, and to create an experience for their viewers they cannot get anywhere else. This is the DNA, the structure of which these two types of theaters are fundamentally at their core. Where they differ is in their finger prints, which is how they present themselves, how their materials are delivered to an audience.
When you go into a movie theater, DNA, the things you cannot see with just the naked eye is their structure and purpose. Every time I go to view a movie on a big screen is because I want to have the sound bigger, the screen bigger, and the experience more than what I can achieve when I am at home. Both theaters have a bigger than life screen where you can view your movie. They both have projectors to project the movie for the audience, they both offer snacks, they are there for dates, family time, and they all have bathrooms. They have sound, unless the movie has none, they have personnel there to monitor, vendors to sell you food, and so forth. These are things that I experienced were the same. Even finding a seat was the same, the only difference was how you did this. Everything you can find at one you can find in the other, just like the DNA of identical twins.
The things that were different were the representation, the experience. You can feel and feel the experience, just like it is easier to see the difference of finger prints with identical twins. Instead of parking and walking into the theater at the drive in we drove in and parked the car. There was no need to get out of the car unless you wanted/needed to. The differences araised when you wanted to go get concessions. You did not have to miss your movie at the drive in. They had the sound outside through speakers; therefore when you were waiting in line you just had to turn around to watch your movie. Instead of being inside you were outside, instead of sitting in a seat you are in a car, instead of listening through speakers in a theater you are listen through speakers in a car, instead of viewing it with a body in front of you, you are viewing it with a car in front of you. The actual setting you are in is different like finger prints but you are still watching a movie on the big screen.
When I was observing I could see the differences right off the bat. When you pull up to the drive in for the first time you have the tinge of excitement. There is something exciting about being able to do something you always have done but in a different way. I did not know what it was going to be like at first, but it was a pleasant surprise. You drive in and in a semi-circle around the screen are places to park your car. There were poles separating each parking spot, which is where they had the speakers. Now to listen you have to dial to a radio station they have preset. Once you park you can get out and walk around if you wanted to, or you would go to the swing set, or sit at one of the picnic tables, or stroll around the grounds. When you got out of the car the first thing you notice is all the outdoors types things they have for the kids. They have several play areas. The main one is in front of the screen, like and an open field area where you can go to lay down or do whatever you would like. This area however does not obscure your view of the movie. Back to the example earlier of the Grease scene, there is a scene were Danny after Sandy storms off upset, is found on a swing set swinging in front of the screen in an open field area.
This is the same thing at this drive in theater. When going to get concessions there was a cart filled with goodies for every age. What I liked most is they had corn dogs, hot cocoa, burgers, and other items that you could not find at a movie theater. They had a kitchen in the building with the projector!! The other thing that was different was the area where they had the projector. It was think area where it had a white picket fence and looked like a little garden area. The one thing I enjoyed was being able to stand in line and watch my movie. I went to the bathroom and was still able to hear the movie, so when I came back I felt like I had not missed a beat. This was something that a movie theater would not be able to give me. (1)
While both types of theaters give you the experience of viewing the movie on a big screen their experience is different. You are looking at this motion picture with sound around you, and it swallows you into this space where you feel like you are somehow in the movie. This is where the experience differs. While at the drive in you are next to other cars and kids who are playing. During The Hunger Games movie there was not an issue with people being loud during the movie or turning on their lights. During The Finest Hour however, there were kids playing around, and other people in the cars surrounding us had their windows down, and they were yelling and joking around. I could not enjoy my movie even with the windows up during this time. There was also the issue that other people kept leaving or moving their cars, or they turned on their lights. This would go onto the screen and make it harder for you to see the movie. These things distracted me from movie, making The Finest Hour somewhat different from my experience with mocking jay. Even though it was semi raining during the movie with mocking jay part II I was still able to enjoy my movie.
McLuhan talks about how media is an extension of us, of our own bodies (5). I feel that movies can be this for us, and these two types of theaters offer two different types of extensions. The main thing I found different was I could not be totally swallowed into the movie at the drive in. There was always something to distract me from my movie, but yet it still offered a unique experience that I want to partake in again. I got to see a movie in a way not a lot of people get to. It is something that not a lot of people get to do now a days. There is something about being in this space that is for a social interaction but also for viewing a movie. When people get to partake in things not everyone gets to, when someone gets to partake in something that we thought was a thing of the past makes you feel this emotion that is indescribable. It somehow makes you feel like you are in the past, but you are in the present, it makes you feel like you are getting to connect with other things other than just that one movie you are viewing at the time.
Society uses a movie theater to get away for a couple of hours. You get to watch this movie in a dark room. Everything is quite with nothing distracting you from your experience. This is a time for a date to not be so awkward and filled with small talk. It offers a place to view a movie like you cannot at home. People do not gather with their friends to stay there all night to hangout or gossip, they hang out there to watch a movie and then leave. With the drive in I observed that people come there to watch the movie, but to also hangout with friends, to have social time, to share gossip, and to come together. With the girls on the left to us being completely loud and rude to everyone trying to view the movie, there was a couple to our right who had brought their kids. The kids went off to the playground to play. They were perfectly content with watching an adult movie because they didn’t have to if they did not want to. The atmosphere and the feel are completely different.
If you ever get a chance to go to a drive in, go. This will be something that you will remember simply because it is a once in a life time experience. This is something you can take your kids to and they will have the best time. This is something that you have to experience to fully understand.
I will end on this note. I found this statement from an article I read. I feel like it explains what movies are to us. The World Exposition was a fair, a spectacle of sorts, and I feel that this is what the drive in theaters were, a spectacle. I feel this way about movies as well, and this is why I will leave this quote to close, “The World Exposition, then, offered abject lessons in technology through the medium of visual spectacle which presented the astounding transformations of modern life within a form designed to dazzle as well as instruct. But it is possible that the enduring legacy that the World Exposition left modern visual culture lies precisely in its dazzling effects which may convey as much about the transformations of modern experience as the lessons they were supposed to communicate.” (8).
P.S.
To make this article appear as an experience I did not cite in the article, but instead I used a number to indicate which source was used. The information in this article came from personal experience but it also had other resources for information. They will be stated below.
Listed here are all the sources where the information was gathered from.
Resources:
1. Cohen, Mary Morley. “Forgotten Audiences In The Passion Pits: Drive-In Theatres And Changing Spectator Practices In Post-War America.” Film History 6.4 (1994): 470–486. Film & Television Literature Index. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.
2. “Drive In Theater.” University Of Michigan. University Of Michigan, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.
3. History.com Staff. “First Drive-in Movie Theater Opens.” History.com. A+E Networks, 2009. Web. 22 Apr. 2016
4. Etter, Larry. “Drive-In Disciple.” Film Journal International 119.3 (2016): 65. Film & Television Literature Index. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.
5. McLuhan, M. (1969). The Playboy Interview. Playboy Magazine.
6. Spigel, L. (2011). Making room for TV. In D. Crowley and P. Heyer (eds.), Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society (6th edition). New York: Routledge, 237–244.
7. Breznican, Anthony. “Can The Drive-In Be Saved?.” Entertainment Weekly 1373 (2015): 46–47. Film & Television Literature Index. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.
8. Gunning, Tom. “The World As Object Lesson: Cinema Audiences, Visual Culture An The St. Louis World’s Fair, 1904.” Film History 6.4 (1994): 422–444. Film & Television Literature Index. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.
