In a few days time we are taking our 7 year daughter to the Drive-In for her first time. We are seeing Nanny McPhee and King Kong.

Ive been explaining to her what a Drive In is. I dont think she has quite grasped the fact thatt itts all outside. I think she expects a roof over the cars or something. I told her about having speakers hooked onto youur car windows, but aparently they dont have them any more at the Heddon-Greta, they transmit through the car radio.

Back when I was a kid drive-ins were slowly in decline, but here in Newcastle we had 3. The Heddon-Greta (which is still open and is a 40 minute drive from here), the Skyline at Lambton and the Metro at Gateshead.

When I was a kid I saw most of my movies at the drive-in. The atmosphere was like nothing else. During the ads Id play on the playground next to the Kiosk at the Skyline, or beneath the screen at the Metro. The metro was my favorite because I always remember being scared that the screen would fall on me and would get a little thrill running back to the car as the movie started. Once (for my 2nd time of watching Star Wars) I was allowed to watch it from the playground for the entire movie.

The first movie I ever saw at the drive-in was The Shaggy D.A and  Herbie Goes To Montecarlo. I alro remember seeing The Last Flight Of Noah's Ark, The Rescuers, Mad Max, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, An American Werewolf In London, Break Dance 2: Electric Boogaloo, Gremlins and Ghostbusters. The last three were the last movies I saw at a drive-in until 1996 when I saw Twister and then a string of other movies.

If you didnt like the movie you could slash the seats.

The smells, the sounds, the sights.

Here is a link to the home page of the drive-in Im going to in the next week or so:

http://www.drive-in.com.au/  Go for a look around...Its pretty good.


Does anyone have any fond memories of going to the drive-in in the 1970's?

















AN

(There's been another thread on this topic, but I'd be more than happy to post in here anyway.)

When I was a kid growing up in Lincoln, NE in the 70's and 80's, there were 3 drive-in theaters, but as the town grew it engulfed the areas surrounding the drive-ins, and as the property suddenly shot up in value the theater owners realized they could make a lot more money by selling off the land rather than keeping the drive-ins open, and one by one they vanished, the last one closing for good in 1989. I saw "The Naked Gun" with a friend of mine at the old 84th & "O" Drive-In a few months before it closed down for good, and that was the last time I went to a drive-in.

  That is, until last summer. I moved down to Kansas City, MO about a year-and-a-half ago, and to my delight I discovered that there are still two drive-ins that are still in business down here, and one just happens to be right next door from where I work. My brothers drove down to visit me, and after debating what to do we piled into my Ford, grabbed some beer, and went to see "The (new version of) Amityville Horror" and "Sin City" at the I-70 Drive-In. It was great, and we witnessed several of the "extracurricular activities" that are traditionally associated with drive-in movie theaters take place. To our immediate right there was a beat up old Chevy station wagon parked backwards toward the screen with its rear window open, and we could smell the aroma of marijuana wafting out of it. We all got a good laugh out of that, and then later on this girl who looked about 17 pulled into the space to our left in an old Crown Vic. She had two guys with her inside the car, and then she got out, smiled at us, popped the trunk, and sure enough there were two more guys back there who were rather large and were packed in there rather tightly, and they had to struggle a bit to unfold themselves out of such a confined space. My brothers and I laughed really hard at that, and we gave them a thumbs-up. Some things never change.
    I hope you have a good time, and I'm sure your daughter will enjoy the experience.  :)
   

How funny to have seen Twister at the drive-in, with the scene of the twister taking out the drive-in in the movie, I'll bet that added a bit more excitement.


I love the drive-in, luckily, we still have 3 around here, although we've lived here for about 3 years and have only gone to one thus far.

I don't remember going to any in the 70's, although mom said she took me to see one when I was in diapers (in the early 70s) along with the neighbor and her chihuahua.

I remember my first movie was at a dirive-in, it was Whinny the Pooh.  My last movie was Young Guns 2 in Wisconsin enroute home.  I haven't seen a drive-in since.  I would love to find one and take my daughter to see what it's like.  I did see BTF on the gig screen of a drive-in. 

The first time I ever went to a Drive-In was in 1984 when my mom took me to see 'The Last Starfighter'

That Drive-In used to be right in town, but in the late 80's, was torn down in favour of a shopping plaza

My first time at a drive in was to see Jaws in the mid 70s, the same drive in is still in business and doing well in the summer months. There was another one here just on the outskirts of town but the city ate up the land, and it's now houses. :)

They never really took off in Britain...

...probably due to the weather!

I remember seeing Xanadu/Coal Miners Daughter.  Where the theater was is now a furniture store.

8) OOHH the drive in brings back soo many memories..I posted before as well but.. A friend of mine had a HUGE car and at least 4 of us would pile in the back and sneak in... then another friend would drive a pick-up and we would put lawn chairs in the back ,,,with coolers of beer of course..and we would have the BEST time..here it was called the SUMMER TWIN DRIVE-IN..its still here today but with a really BAD crowd1

Well...I didn't go to the drive-in in the 70's...I was too young...but in the early to mid 80's our parents would take us all the time....and we still go all the time even to this day. We are fortunate to have 3 drive-ins near us.  It is one of my favorite summertime things to do! :)

My parents would take me to the drive in when I was little.  Around here, at least, if you were under the age of say, ten, you usually wore your pajamas to the drive in.  Probably because most kids couldn't keep their eyes open through the whole double feature.

My friends and I would go a lot when I was in high school.  I remember seeing The Exorcist at the drive in the year after it came out in regular theaters and laughing my head off during one scene and hearing this guy in the car next to us (he was about our age and was there with his mom) saying "don't laugh, it's not funny....it's scary" which made us laugh that much harder.  He had this look of both fright and consternation on his face that I've never seen before or since.

There's still one drive in left near where I live, just over the state line in Wisconsin.  I can never get any of my friends to go, they always just want to go to the local multiplexes.  I think it would be a hoot to pile a bunch of us in the car like we did as teenagers and go see a movie.

Well...Just to update...

Took my 7 year old to the drive-in to see Nanny McPhee and King Kong...


She absolutely LOVED it!!! She couldnt get over the fact that we were watching movies outside from our car.

When we first got there, after parking, I took her up to beneath the screen. She turned to me with a very serious expression on her face and asked, "So, how does the TV work if theres no wires coming from behind it?" I explained that the movie was projected onto the screen like at the cinema. During the first movie she looked back and, I think, got the idea when she saw the projection box all lit up.

She fell asleep just after King Kong took Anne Darrow the first time. She definately wants to go again.

Unfortunately they dont use the old-time speakers any more. They have their own radio station on which they broadcast the sound of the movie. I thought this was sad. I took a video camera and filmed the night (NOT the movies).


There were only about 30 cars there. In a way this was good, but in another way it was sad because my daughter didnt get to get the feel of a packed drive-in. Still, it was a great night, the movies were awsome, the food was great, and my daughter had a blast.




AN

I saw Halloween 2 at a drive in. Okay, I feel asleep after a certain time, but I was there. lol

I've actually never seen a movie at the drive-in, unfortunately. I am 20 years old and around the time I was born all the drive-in's in my area started to disappear! (I live in Ontario, Canada) There might be a few left. My mom told me she went to the drive in when she was a kid, back when they used to have all night features and she saw a whole bunch of movies there.  I can't remember any of the movies she saw there though. Maybe eventually, I'll convince my boyfriend to drive up and pick me up and we will drive out to one of the drive-in's in our area :) Might be fun.

Just a few other memories, as such, of drive-ins.  Where I grew up, there were two drive-ins within an hour driving distance, one showed x-rated films only, so of course, I'd never went there.  How funny to think about it now, seeing as how campy those movies are.


The other drive-in was in another state but still within a ten minute drive, and although I didn't discover it until I was in my late 20's, on big summer holiday weekends, they'd have movies till dawn.  They'd show 4 or 5 movies and then serve breakfast (well something resembling breakfast anyways) after the movies were done.  Quite fun. Wish I could still go and do that now.