Out With the Old; In With the New

Something big is happening at #westwinddrivein..we are going all digital ow.ly/i/1GIZG

— West Wind Drive-In (@WestWindDriveIn) March 14, 2013

No More In-Car Radios?

Does this mean we'll go back to drive-in speakers on poles?

Could AM and FM radio really be eliminated from new cars? And would anyone miss it if it goes away? jalo.ps/QLtdq8d

— Jalopnik (@Jalopnik) March 15, 2013

Great Weather. Come take in a movie at the drive in Tonight and Tomorrow night!! Silver Linings Playbook, 8:00 p.m.

— Graham Drive In (@GrahamDriveIn) March 15, 2013

Songs that Mention Drive-ins

1. Chicago's "Old Days"
2. Grease Soundtrack "Alone at a Drive-in Movie"
3. Bryan Adams "Summer of 69"
4. Lonestar's "Everything's Changed"
5. Chris Ledoux "Last Drive-In"
6. Bob Segar "Night Moves"
7. The Four Lads "Moments to Remember"

Good idea! Via "Going Attractions" drive-in movie theater documentary "There just aren't enough drive-in songs in... fb.me/13ghNnQvT
— Bengies Drive-in (@Bengies) March 9, 2013

It's Intermission Time!

This is an intermission clock that I culled together from my collection of intermission snipes. It's very much like the intermission cartoons I remember watching as a kid while waiting for the second feature, you know, the boring adult movie I usually fell asleep ten minutes into. Robert Southern on Google+

Drive-In Picture of the Day

Celebrating 50 Golden Years of Memories

Drive-In Tweets: Coming Events

DOUBLE FEATUREFri. Sat. Sun. March 8,9,10Escape from Planet Earth (PG) - 8:00 p.m.Box Office Opens at 7:15... fb.me/CycxnNL7

— Graham Drive In (@GrahamDriveIn) March 5, 2013

Drive-In Ads: Jaws

JAWS (1975) Original Drive-In Theater Newspaper Ad twitpic.com/c3gyvl

— Starts Today! (@StartsTodayFans) February 14, 2013

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.