Drive-In Ads: Westworld

WESTWORLD (1973) Original Drive-In Theater Newspaper Ad twitpic.com/c61viz

— Starts Today! (@StartsTodayFans) February 23, 2013

Digital Projection and Drive-In Theaters

Throughout the summer of 1982 I spent a summer working at the now defunct Cascade Drive-In Theater in Yakima, WA. Among my many duties of monitoring the field, pulling weeds and helping behind the concession stand, I had the enjoyable time lugging upstairs heavy canisters of film. Oh, how they dug deep into the palms of my small hands.

Projectionist Walter Becker gets a 35mm projector ready at the Cascade Drive-In Theater. | John Konstantaras~For Sun-Times Media

Nowadays, with the advent of digital projection, those heavy spools of film are on their way out, on the heels of cassette tapes, VHS movies and compact discs. However, this isn't welcomed news for most drive-in theaters, as explained in this article excerpt by David Gatham of the Chicago Sun-Times Media...

In recent decades, movies have been delivered to theaters in cans of film. Projectionists then had to lay these out on a “platter” some 6 feet wide and splice each reel together so the film could be fed into a projector.

Each can of film weighed about 9 pounds and contained about 20 minutes of movie. The film for a movie such as “Titanic” weighed about 100 pounds, required physically splicing together five miles of film, and cost its studio more than $1,000 each to copy.

Special Events: Your Continued Patronage is Appreciated

'Saturday Night at the Drive In', March 2nd 2013.To all you car enthusiasts out there who would love to check... fb.me/1XBdyC43I
— Dromana 3 Drive-In (@dromana3drivein) February 28, 2013

Keep 3/14 open! We are hosting a special screening of #SELENA for the @sdlatinofilm fest! #pbdrivein #sandiego #movielovers
— Full Moon Drive-In (@FullMoonDriveIn) February 27, 2013

Drive-in Theater Looks to Put Down Roots

From KWQC.com, a story of a drive-in theater struggling to come to life:

Many in the QCA have been waiting years for another Drive-In movie theater. In 2008, plans were made for a drive in theater to open up in Davenport but that never happened. Now, those owners are working to bring the big screen to Blue Grass, IA.

Owners want to put in the West end of Blue Grass, just past the fire department on Mayne Street. Randy Lorenz and his wife have 9 acres of land that they're hoping to bring the big screen too. Currently, the land is empty but by spring the owners of this property say it's not going to look like that at all.  That's if anything goes as planned.

Drive-in Movie Theaters Popular Again

Drive-In Tweets: Your Patronage is Appreciated

Oz the Great & Powerful starts next Friday, March 8. We can have an early premier Thursday March 7 as long as we... fb.me/1hLoF334A

— Hwy 21 Drive In (@Hwy21DriveIn) February 26, 2013

A Pee Chee Folder, a Shoe Box of Baseball Cards, and a Fan Trailer

Let me set the stage: it's late 1998 and I'm in a theater lobby waiting with my then two youngest daughters to see The Rugrats Movie, and when I look up I see hanging on the wall a rather large poster. There are no words on this advertisement, only a young boy standing amid sand dunes dressed like Luke Skywalker.  It takes me a few moments but I soon notice the boy's shadow, how it stretches out into the shape of Darth Vader. This wasn't my first clue that this film was on its way. Still, I nearly pee my pants with glee. But I am waiting for the movie trailer...

On the advent of that film's teaser trailer a CNN article (11/20/98) put it this way:

"Star Wars" junkies eager to catch a glimpse of the first prequel, your wait is over: 75 theaters in North America got to show a sneak preview [italics mine] of the trailer for "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace" among the trailers shown before other full-length feature movies.

The preview will appear nationwide on Friday. But loyal fans who paid close attention to the official Star Wars Web site learned there would be a sneak preview Tuesday in some theaters across the country.

Some people are apparently paying the full price of a movie ticket just to see the two-minute preview. Variety reported that nearly two-thirds of the 500 people in an afternoon showing of "The Siege" in Los Angeles walked out after seeing the trailer. Movie theaters across the country reported other fans doing the same thing.

Asked to comment, one fan who saw the trailer in Washington said "Unbelievable. I consider myself a harsh critic, but after the trailer I was applauding."

Drive-In Culture Documentary

Here's a small clip from an hour long documentary on drive-ins I privately produced, wrote and edited in 2009. It's still in the rough-cut stage and when I have the time to really give it a good going over I will finish it. But here is a segment from that documentary that I want to share. This pretty much captures my mind-set and style throughout the work.

Retro Cars of the Atomic-Space Age: The--What, Mobile!?

When the climes begin to succumb to the arrival of spring, as the new drive-in theater season ramps up across the nation, consider loading up your snacks and kids into the following vehicles for your evening jaunt to the big screen.

The Ford Futura

If this looks like the Batmobile from the 1960s TV series...you're not mistaken. But it's not the Batmobile. This 1950s sci-fi looking beast is a futuristic concept car from Lincoln, a division of the Ford Motor Company and, as you can quite and plainly see, was not mass produced. What this car did was drum up a good deal of attention for Lincoln and Ford, and was featured prominently in 1959's It Started with a Kiss starring Glenn Ford and Debbie Reynolds. 

A Night at the Skyline Drive-In Theater

My daughter and I enjoyed an evening watching Despicable Me and Toy Story 3, both of which were very entertaining, Toy Story 3 being the better film. This is our first trip to The Skyline this summer. We're hoping to get back.