Drive-In Movies
Moderators: AArdvark, Ice Cream Jonsey
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Flack
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Drive-In Movies
Both ICJ (in person) and TDarcos (on Jolt) have mentioned Drive-In Movies to me in the past week. Drive-In Movies are kind of a cool, nostalgic thing and I'd love to hear your old (or new) drive in stories!
"I failed a savings throw and now I am back."
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AArdvark
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..From my notes page on Facebook:
(8) When was the last time you were locked in the trunk of a car?
Well the LAST time was at the Lakeshore Drive in. My friend from question #1 and I got in for free. We still have the old RCA speakers that hooked on the window. They kept falling off the posts somehow and we had to gather them up and give them a better home. There was beer there. Lots of beer.
(8) When was the last time you were locked in the trunk of a car?
Well the LAST time was at the Lakeshore Drive in. My friend from question #1 and I got in for free. We still have the old RCA speakers that hooked on the window. They kept falling off the posts somehow and we had to gather them up and give them a better home. There was beer there. Lots of beer.
Last edited by AArdvark on Sat Jun 25, 2011 12:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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AArdvark
- Posts: 18190
- Joined: Tue May 14, 2002 6:12 pm
- Location: Rochester, NY
Tdarcos wrote (in the wrong thread):
Flack wrote:
People all over the country are bemoaning how there are no true arcades left. I have one 5 miles from my house that I rarely visit. I should go there more than I do.
I don't know if people are bemoaning it, but there are only two outdoor drive-in theaters within 100 miles of where I live, one (I've never been to) is the Fork Union Drive in, located near I85 in Fork Union, Virginia; and the Bengies' Drive In, located in Essex, Maryland just outside Baltimore.
The owner, D. Edward Vogel, is famous for saying over the PA system that if you're leaving early before seeing all three of the films on the schedule (that you paid for), "You're Stupid!"
According to a pseudo public-service-announcement they show before the main feature, there are only about 400 drive-ins left in the United States. Part of the problem is the distributors don't like them because they run more films than a regular theater for the same admission fee and thus they pay less than a single-film regular "walk in" one.
I remember going to several drive-ins back in the late 1970s back in Long Beach, California. Enormous increases in Real Estate values caused them to close down and be sold. I think from San Diego to Santa Barbara there isn't a single drive-in theater any more, the real estate just became too valuable. Despite the fact that in Southern California the weather is so mild you can run films every single night. A drive-in theatre like the Bengies in Baltimore has to close during the winter.
This sort of problem drove almost every farm in Southern California out of business as the land became way too valuable plus property taxes went up. So the legislature instituted a change in the rules: if you ran a farm in California in a city or other urban area, you got a complete exemption from property taxes for ten years as long as you agreed to use the property for farming for the 10-year period.
So it was wierd: I'd ride the bus in Orange County, pass through these areas of tall office buildings, and then a plot of land about two blocks long and maybe 3 wide, and they were growing strawberries on it! Like a normal farm. In the middle of a bustling city. Across the street on every side from the farm was another 10-or-more-story office building. The farm even had a fruit stand next to the road where you could (if you were driving) pull over and buy some baskets or bushels fresh picked (that's how I knew it was a strawberry patch.)
_________________
"The lessons of history teach us - if they teach us anything - that no one learns the lessons that history teaches us."
Flack wrote:
People all over the country are bemoaning how there are no true arcades left. I have one 5 miles from my house that I rarely visit. I should go there more than I do.
I don't know if people are bemoaning it, but there are only two outdoor drive-in theaters within 100 miles of where I live, one (I've never been to) is the Fork Union Drive in, located near I85 in Fork Union, Virginia; and the Bengies' Drive In, located in Essex, Maryland just outside Baltimore.
The owner, D. Edward Vogel, is famous for saying over the PA system that if you're leaving early before seeing all three of the films on the schedule (that you paid for), "You're Stupid!"
According to a pseudo public-service-announcement they show before the main feature, there are only about 400 drive-ins left in the United States. Part of the problem is the distributors don't like them because they run more films than a regular theater for the same admission fee and thus they pay less than a single-film regular "walk in" one.
I remember going to several drive-ins back in the late 1970s back in Long Beach, California. Enormous increases in Real Estate values caused them to close down and be sold. I think from San Diego to Santa Barbara there isn't a single drive-in theater any more, the real estate just became too valuable. Despite the fact that in Southern California the weather is so mild you can run films every single night. A drive-in theatre like the Bengies in Baltimore has to close during the winter.
This sort of problem drove almost every farm in Southern California out of business as the land became way too valuable plus property taxes went up. So the legislature instituted a change in the rules: if you ran a farm in California in a city or other urban area, you got a complete exemption from property taxes for ten years as long as you agreed to use the property for farming for the 10-year period.
So it was wierd: I'd ride the bus in Orange County, pass through these areas of tall office buildings, and then a plot of land about two blocks long and maybe 3 wide, and they were growing strawberries on it! Like a normal farm. In the middle of a bustling city. Across the street on every side from the farm was another 10-or-more-story office building. The farm even had a fruit stand next to the road where you could (if you were driving) pull over and buy some baskets or bushels fresh picked (that's how I knew it was a strawberry patch.)
_________________
"The lessons of history teach us - if they teach us anything - that no one learns the lessons that history teaches us."
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Flack
- Posts: 9156
- Joined: Tue Nov 18, 2008 3:02 pm
- Location: Oklahoma
- Contact:
As a kid, we used to go to the drive in all the time. My dad had a 1975 Blazer (the last year in which the top came off both the rear and the cab) and he would take the top off and we would lay in the back on big pillows and watch movies.
I remember going one night and seeing (I think) Tron, Time Bandits, and Dragonslayer all in the same night. Talk about a life changing couple of hours! I also remember seeing The Wrath of Khan there too, so I may be getting multiple trips intertwined.
There was a long time I didn't go to the drive in, and then started going in right after high school. I remember one night I saw Beverly Hills Cop III and In the Line of Fire. I think I also saw Blue Chips that night? Or maybe Hoosiers.
I remember going one night and seeing Menace II Society and thinking I was going to get killed. Rough crowd, literally.
The last time I went was a couple of years ago. We went for my birthday and saw G.I. Joe. The kids were bored and between wrangling them and everything else I saw very little of the movie, but sill had a good time. If it cools down a little bit this summer, we may go again sometime soon.
I remember going one night and seeing (I think) Tron, Time Bandits, and Dragonslayer all in the same night. Talk about a life changing couple of hours! I also remember seeing The Wrath of Khan there too, so I may be getting multiple trips intertwined.
There was a long time I didn't go to the drive in, and then started going in right after high school. I remember one night I saw Beverly Hills Cop III and In the Line of Fire. I think I also saw Blue Chips that night? Or maybe Hoosiers.
I remember going one night and seeing Menace II Society and thinking I was going to get killed. Rough crowd, literally.
The last time I went was a couple of years ago. We went for my birthday and saw G.I. Joe. The kids were bored and between wrangling them and everything else I saw very little of the movie, but sill had a good time. If it cools down a little bit this summer, we may go again sometime soon.
"I failed a savings throw and now I am back."