ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

When I was a wee lad in the 1950s, there were five special events between 1956 and 1959 when my family went to the Roosevelt Drive-In and saw fantastic science fiction double features.











In 1959 I saw First Man into Space at the Roosevelt, but I can't for the life of me find out what the second feature was that night. However, I was very impressed with the movie.







I'm sure that many of you folks who are about my age had similar experiences. To jog your memory, here's a few double feature ads for classic sci-fi movies from that era which you might have enjoyed.















This next ad cracked me up! I had to recreate the text at the top, because it was difficult to read. I love the imagination this wonderful promotion displays.





And imagine my amazement when I discovered that the address for the Clover-Leaf Drive-in was 1137 Atomic Road, North Augusta, SC.

My God, how cool is that? And look at that remarkable 2nd feature! Cinema Treasures has this to say about the Clover-Leaf.

Opened in 1951, the Clover-Leaf Drive-In was located in North Augusta, home of the huge atomic bomb site Savannah River Plant. The Clover-Leaf sold itself as, "The Drive-In on the New Super Highway to the H-Bomb Plant"."

I cleaned up the lower left corner of the poster. Look at the text on the right side. A drive-in located right down the road from an H-Bomb plant . . . and they brag about it in their newspaper ads!





I only found one pitiful picture of the Clover-Leaf Drive-in —





— but I managed to enhance it a bit.





The screen seems to be a large structure with a broad base, not just the standard screen with a support structure in the back.

What an incredible drive-in theater the Clover-Leaf must have been!











I took these last two pictures at the Pipestem Drive-in in West Virginia several years ago. The happy family agreed to pose for the cheery scene in the second photo.







The Pipestem Drive-in is still going strong, and about twelve years ago I created a set of CDs for the manager to play through the speakers before the features each evening, with oldies rock 'n roll hits mixed with enthusiastic snack bar plugs performed by yours truly in the traditional fashion of drive-ins from the past.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Gord Green]

Drive-ins were wonderful! I remember many trips there with my family back in the late 50's. Double and triple features made the experience a movie lovers dream! We could bring candy and popcorn from home and save a few bucks. The trip to the refreshment stand meant tasty cheap hotdogs covered in onions, mustard, ketchup and chilli.

The only bad thing was the lousy tinny sound from those industrial speakers (Althoug they did eventually improve them.).

The great thing is the fact that the whole family along with friends could pile in the car together.

And then the movies....I somehow made it to stay awake through two of them often falling asleep only to wake up on the trip home.

Great memories!!!

[orzel-w]

[Bud Brewster]

[Bud Brewster]

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I recently replaced all the Photobucket jpegs in our Art and Photo Galleries with Imgur jpegs. Gallery 13 is called Drive-In Theaters from the 1950s, and it offers some great photos like these.

Enjoy!












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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Gord Green]

Beautiful pictures Bud!
Brings back fond memories of a lost era in our past.
There still are a few drive-ins around (Now only ONE in my area!)!

[Bud Brewster]

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Beautiful photos of a gorgeous theater! Thanks!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Today I finishing up making CD-R and DVD-R copies of my enjoyable audio and video drive-in salutes, some of which were actually created by me for two drive-ins theaters that are sill in operation!

I made preshow and intermission tapes for Atlanta's Starlight Six Drive-In back in 1990s —





— and for the West Virginia's Pipestem Drive-in in 2006.







_______ Drive-In Movie Ads : Drive in Intermission 1960's

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Eadie]

I went to my first drive-in movie! They were about to change the marquee. Do any of these exist elsewhere?


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Art Should Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.

[Bud Brewster]

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If you mean "Are there still drive-ins in America?", yes there are!

The Pipestem Drive-in in Athens, West Virginia is still operating, and every night they play the CDs of "pre-show and intermission music with witty snack bar plugs" I created myself for them in 2006, just for the fun of it!

My daughter's family lived in Bluefield, WV, at the time and when we went to the Pipestem Drive-in one evening I told the owner I wanted to help him make the Pipestem more like the old traditional drive-ins, so I would be happy to create a set of CD's with preshow and intermission music-and-snack bar plugs by a likable DJ (me), which he could play through the traditional "speakers on posts" the Pipestem Drive-in is STILL using!





The owner was very grateful for my offer, and when I came back to visit my daughter's family a few months later and gave the theater owner the CDs, he started playing them through the speakers every night!

They still use the four CDs I created, playing one each week so that the four CDs last a whole month before they have to be repeat the first one.

Eadie, there's also the Hounds Drive-in located in Kings Moutain, NC — a NEW twin drive-in theater which opened recently with digital movie projectors!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Yesterday I had a long and fascinating phone conversation with All Sci-Fi member Phantom, and we shared our fond memories of drive-in theaters.

Phantom had a wealth of great stories on that subject from his younger days, and I begged him to shared these colorful yarns in a post on All Sci-Fi.

I hope some of you other folks will do the same.

This morning I discovered that back in 1953 the Clover~Leaf Drive-in in North Augusta South Carolina offered the most amazing sci-fi drive-in experience in history!

First of all, note how the giant screen is flank by large "wings" that shield the patrons from the headlights of passing cars on the road that runs a few hundred feet to left of the screen, as it's shown in the photo.





And the home of the owner/manager is built right into the bottom of the gigantic screen!

In 1953, the manager of Clover~Leaf Drive-in staged a cinematic extravaganza that was spectacular! They showed The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms . . .and THIS was the incredible marquee they created for that occasion!





The second feature, Enemies of the Universe, is an alternate title for the theatrical release of Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe (1953).

But that's not the only thing the Clover~Leaf Drive-in did to make this unique event so incredible! The photo below appeared in all the local newspapers which covered it.





The caption is amazing, but it's difficult to read, so I created a more legible version below, and I enhanced the photo on the left to show the artillery piece a bit better. I wish I could find more (and better) photos like it!





Can you imagine going to the Clover~Leaf Drive-in in 1953 and seeing artillery pieces and search lights lined up between the drive-in and the highway it was on — the name of which was Atomic Road!

The road was so named because North Augusta was the home of the Savannah River Plant, an atomic bomb assembly facility. The Clover~Leaf boasted that is was, "The Drive-In on the New Super Highway to the H-Bomb Plant"."

I wish I could find some photos of that amazing night in 1953 when the National Guard protected the patrons of the Clover~Leaf Drive-in from The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms!

_The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953) Official Trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

A contributor to the website Cinema Treasures wrote this comment about the amazing Clover~Leaf Drive-in.
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Opened in 1951, the Clover-Leaf Drive-In was located in North Augusta, home of the huge atomic bomb site Savannah River Plant. The Clover-Leaf sold itself as, "The Drive-In on the New Super Highway to the H-Bomb Plant".

I never saw a film there but visited the site back in the late-1980’s. Part of the concession stand could still be seen, and the booth was almost like it was left when it closed in the early-1960’s.

The policy at the Clover-Leaf Drive-In was to play the main attraction twice. On March 7, 1953 they played "Annie Get Your Gun" at 6:30 and 10:15 and the second feature was, "Marine Raiders" starring Pat O'Brien. They also ran two color cartoons. Children were free, and adults were 50-cents.

The day I visited the old site I found hundreds of speaker poles that had been bulldozed off the lot, and trees had grown all around. I dragged one back because it had at least a 50 pound concrete base. I painted it red. I had some speakers from other drive-ins so I rigged up the poles, hooked it up to my stereo, and sound actually came out.

The screen seemed to be a very nice size by looking at the base. The drive-in parked a whopping 776 cars making it one of the largest in the Augusta area. It was owned by the Georgia Theatre Company.
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Despite being happy about finding out a few interesting things about this glorious theater, I was surprised and sadden by the fact that it opened in 1951 and closed in the late 1960s — a short lifespan of less than twenty years.

When you consider the effort, expense, and imagination which went into the creation that remarkable "Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" event, I think it's tragic that this magnificent theater enjoyed such a brief existence.

Compare this to what Cinema Treasures says about my own beloved Roosevelt Drive-in, at which I watched several wonderful sci-fi movies.





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Opened September 1, 1950 with Randolph Scott in “The Nevadan”, the 500 car capacity Roosevelt Drive-In was located in College Park, GA, south of Atlanta. It featured a nice snack bar and a very impressive marquee. Closed about 1975, due in part to noise from the near-by Atlanta airport.

The Roosevelt Drive-In frequently showed sci-fi and horror movies during the 1950’s and 1960’s, as well as generous helping of lighter family fare. It was an extremely popular and well-run theatre during the golden age of drive-ins. It was closed in 1982.
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I question the statement that it opened in 1950, because I once met an older gentlemen in the 1980s who said he was the first projectionist at the Roosevelt when it opened in 1948. His vivid description of his enjoyable experience as a young man work at the Roosevelt convinced me he was telling the truth.

And I'm puzzled by the fact that the article gives two dates for the Roosevelt's closing — 1975 and 1982. My second wife and I went to the Roosevelt to watch a drive-in re-release of 1975's The Giant Spider Invasion — and we didn't get married until 1976!

With that in mind, I think the Roosevelt existed from 1948 to 1982, a 34-year lifespan for a modest drive-in whose loyal patrons endured jet airliners roaring overhead from time to time!

So, it doesn't seem fair that a great theater like the Clover~Leaf Drive-in would suffer such an early demises!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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In 1971 I went to the Scott Drive-in on the north side of Atlanta with my fist wife — a lovely 19-year-old named Patricia (who preferred Trish) — on several warm summer evenings.

We loved this unique little drive-in, perhaps the most patron-friendly theater imaginable.

In addition to having a small-but-appealing snack bar, the viewing area of the theater held fewer cars than any drive-in I've ever seen! As a result, even the folks in the back row weren't so far from the screen they could barely see it!

Count the rows in the photo below and you'll see that it only had ten!





Here's a typical drive-in shown below. Notice that it has twice as many rows as the Scott Drive-in, and the viewing area is a much wider cone shape, placing a larger number of cars well off to the sides than the modest little Scott Drive-in's area did.





Add to this the fact that the projection booth at the Scott Drive-in was closer to the modestly-sized screen, thus allowing the projector to deliver a sharper and brighter image than all those gigantic drive-ins with acre-wide screens located much further from the projection booth!

Even though the Scott Drive-in was in the middle a well-developed urban area, the tall trees (many of which were Georgia pines, green the year round) which flanked it on three sides made it seem secluded and well shaded from the surrounding city lights.

I swear, it felt like you were in the woods!





The images above are the only ones I found of the Scott Drive-in — with the exception of one terrible aging photograph that I had to work on for two hours to restore!

Look closely and you'll notice it seems to be scanned from an old magazine, and the fold divides the picture, causing the left and right portions to be misaligned.

Here's the original image.





And here's the restored version I created.





This simple marquee demonstrates just how humble and quaint the Scott Drive-in really was. Instead of a tall, neon-adorned monolith like the big drive-ins had, this small wooden sign was something the patrons actually drove under as they headed for the ticket booth! :

I remember seeing my first Bruce Lee movies there (Fist of Fury and another one I can't remember), along with a Sci-Fi Saturday Night which featured The Omega Man and The Twilight People.

Trish had seen The Omega Man shortly before we were married, and she enjoyed sharing her reactions and observations. During the scene in which Charlton Heston watches Woodstock all by himself, she commented that he was so starved for the sight of people that he felt compelled to watch the crowds at the huge rock concert!

_______ The Omega man - (Watching Woodstock)


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The second feature, The Twilight People, is pretty low budget, be we enjoyed it.

___________ The Twilight People (1973) trailer


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The secret to a great drive-in night with a 19-year-old bride is to jump into your green Dodge Charger around sunset —





— race down to the nearest Seven Eleven —





— buy a cheap Styrofoam cooler, a bag of ice, and two six backs of Hop'N Gator Malt Liquor!





Then you roar across town in your Dukes of Hazzard hot rod and find a good spot to park at the Scott Drive-in.

After that you just "do what comes naturally!"

Mostly that just means you drink the malt liquor, snuggle up with the cute teenage missus, and try not to get so drunk you fall down while stumbling to the snack bar during intermission . . .

~ Hey, I didn't want you guys thinkin' I only went to drive-ins when with my parents when I was kid.

Just the record, Hop'N Gator Malt Liquor is the official beverage of tomorrow night's All Sci-Fi's Saturday Live Chat, with our drive-in double feature!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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After finishing the post above, it struck me like a thunderbolt!

The Scott Drive-in demonstrated the perfect strategy for the success of drive-in movies!

The key to this success is simply. Smaller is sometimes better!

The 1960s and 1970s was the age in which theater owners realized that big downtown theaters should be replaced by mini-cinemas in local shopping mauls.

Smaller-and-more-plentiful was much better!

Only one drive-in I know of in America realized this. The Starlight Twin Drive-in, located in Atlanta.

During the 1980s they carved up their two mammoth theaters into six smaller ones — and today the Starlight Six Drive-in is still going strong!

The mistake which drive-in owners in the 1950s and 1960s made was thinking that packing more cars into big drive-ins was the way to stay profitable.

They were dead wrong. That's like telling bartenders to water down the booze and serve more customers.

If theater owners had built numerous small drive-ins — well spaced-out to serve the residence in various subdivision — these drive-ins would have become popular social locations at which families and teenagers could congregated.

In other words, big downtown theaters failed because they were BIG and inconveniently located!

And big drive-in theaters failed for the same reason . . . they were BIG and inconveniently located.

The Scott Drive-in was the perfect model for the New Age of successful drive-in movies — small, compact community facilities located close to suburban centers, where families could spend their weekends sharing movies and dinning in their cars, or eating in the comfort of the snack bars which offered quality food in a pleasant environment!

It's a classic case of "big isn't always better . . . "
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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The biggest drive-in theater that existed during their heyday was Johnny's All Weather Drive-In, located in Copiague, NY from 1957 to 1984 — a lifespan of almost thirty years.

That incredible outdoor movie complex covered approximately 28 acres and could accommodate 2,500 cars with one large screen.

But it also included an indoor theater that seated 1,200 people!

For most of its life, Johnny's All Weather Drive-In showed the same movie (with different prints, of course) on both the indoor and outdoor screens.

This giant drive-in's experience included an outdoor roof-top viewing area, a full-service cafeteria, an outdoor concession stand, a playground, and a trolley train named Tally-Ho that would take you from the front gate to the indoor theater!

Guys, I just learned about this drive-in today, and I promise to do more research on the subject. That place sounds like "drive-in heaven" to fan of drive-ins like me.

Unfortunately I've yet to find a single good image of this legendary drive-in worthy of being posted here . . . so I'll shift gears now and make a startling announcement!
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I learned today that the "largest drive-in in the world" is now being built in Eustis, Florida, a relatively quiet waterfront town.





The pandemic has caused the few remaining drive-ins in America to become popular again, because they offer a way for families to go to the movies without worrying about getting Covid-19.

And now somebody has decided that drive-ins might be worth reinventing . . . in a big way!

This totally new kind of drive-in theater is called the Lighthouse 5 — the brainchild of the CEO of Veritas Theatres, Spencer Folmar. He wants to feature a five-screen outdoor theater which is unlike any other!

Instead of one giant parking lot with hundreds of cars — many of which are so far from the distance screen that if they watched a movie on their cell phone it would provide a bigger picture — the Lighthouse 5 will have five screens, each one with a reasonably-sized viewing area, all arranged in a pie-shaped pattern with the cars facing outward from the center.

The whole complex will cover 72 acres — which is why this new outdoor theater is being called the "the world's biggest drive-in".

It isn't because it will have the largest screen or hold the most number of cars — a record still held by the legendary Johnny's All Weather Drive-In.





At the center this new and well-designed complex will be a gorgeous restaurant / snack bar — with a lighthouse on top!





Lighthouse 5 is not just going to be an outdoor movie theate — it will also have an elegant on-site restaurants, camping ground, and many other activities to make it an all-inclusive place for people to enjoy.

Mr. Folmar envisions the 72-acre property as a family destination, because he wants to reignite tourism in the town where he was born.

I gotta admit, guys, this sounds like a cool idea.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)