Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the American Drive-in Movie Page #3

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in my hometown was out in the middle

of a cow pasture, basically. You know, it wasn't paved. It was very low-tech, even by the standards

of the day. -They were placed in areas that were still, at that time,

somewhat rural, before the suburbs were

as built out as they are now. -Eventually,

when drive-ins started to sprout up all over the place, you couldn't just have everybody

called the drive-in theater, 'cause then which one

are you talking about? So they would start naming them after whatever road

they were on. -You would have

a lot of highway 39s, a route-66 drive-in,

or a city that they were in. -There are a handful of, like,

maybe 15 to 20 really common drive-in names. -Starlite drive-in was probably

the most popular name. -"Sky View," "Skyline." You know, there's a whole series

of "skies." -The Starlite drive-in

and the Moonlight drive-in and the Stardust drive-in. -With the occasional

creative names. We had a theater

in Beaumont, California, called the Cherry Pass. Now, I don't know how

Bengies drive-in got its name, other than it's sort of

a cute-sounding '50s name. -The name of the area

is Bengies -- Bengies, Maryland,

at one time it was known. There's still remnants

of Bengies, Maryland. -When they opened, it was rural, and you'd be going

down highway 32 and drive for half an hour, and so it would be

a little adventure to go out into this rural area and have a gigantic,

drive-in movie theater. [ Old-time movie

instrumental music plays ] - Drive-in movie Sure sounds groovy Take me to a... -Originally, drive-in-movie-theater screens

were wood. -Wood frame. The screen is actually

a corrugated metal. -They attach a facing

that is galvanized steel. -Painted with

a reflective paint. -The most complex mechanism

of building a drive-in screen is actually building

the support. -The screen tower --

a lot of the early ones were made of wood, constructed on the ground,

usually, and then raised into place

with cranes. -It's a structure. It is actually a little house with a screen

on the front of it. -It slants down in the front

and has a storage room that we keep

all of our supplies in. -Wooden towers didn't handle

the winds too well. - ...Movie Sure sounds groovy -Subject to termites, gets blown down

in big wind storms. And at this point,

all of our screens have now been replaced

and are corrugated metal. -Some of the early drive-ins

were constructed with concrete blocks. Withstood the test of time,

for sure. -The standard aspect ratio

was 1:
33. -And that was

what 35-millimeter film is. -So it was almost like a square. -I worked the projection,

the old-school way. Carbon arc projectors,

20-minute reels. -And it was truly an art form, running the projectors

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