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Great Drive-in Memories

 
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 10:15 pm    Post subject: Great Drive-in Memories Reply with quote

___________________________________

For the last few days I’ve been making copies for a friend of several CDs and DVDs I’ve created over the last several decades which were inspired by my fond memories for drive-in theaters, based on my experiences as a kid in the 1950s.

The CDs and DVDs eventually resulted in my actually providing preshow and intermission recordings for the Starlight Drive-in Atlanta and the Pipestem Drive-in located in West Virginia. Both theaters are still alive and well, two of the last surviving drive-ins in America.

I took the pictures below in 2006 at the Pipestem during a week I spent in West Virginia while visiting my daugher’s family, when I delivered the four CDs I created for the Pipestem. The owners of the Pipestem were eager to play the CDs through their speaker system each evening to the patrons before the features began.

Being able to help the Pipestem recreate that aspect of the Golden Age of drive-ins by using my recorders was a dream come true.

















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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Tue May 01, 2018 10:21 am; edited 1 time in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue May 01, 2018 10:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

By the way, the owner of the Pipestem gave me two drive-in speakers to thank me for the CDs I made to be played before the movies each night.





After cleaning them up with steel wool and making them look considerably better, I attached them to the handrails of my back deck of my 2nd floor apartment when I lived in Georgia, positioned on either side of my grill. Very Happy

They were wired to the stereo in my living room, which allowed me to listen to music or the audio of my TV while going back and forth between my deck and my kitchen. Cool

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue May 01, 2018 11:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

One guy in Kings Mountain, NC, is bucking the trend and actually building a twin drive-in theater which uses digital projection instead of film!

The article at the link below is about a news report from Charlotte's channel 46 which tells the remarkable story.


______Giant drive-in theater opens in Kings Mountain










Notice the two buildings which look like large houses. One of them contains the snack bar and the project booth. The other one, I suspect, actually is the owners house! Cool





The pictures above are screen shots from the beautiful video below, which offers a rotating aerial view of the drive-in.

_________ Hound's Drive In, Kings Mountain, NC


__________

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Tue May 01, 2018 12:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

One of the factors leading to the demise of the Drive-In Theatre was the industries switch from film projector to digital projector. Most drive-ins were hanging by a close profit margin that the expense of conversion was just too big an investment!
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue May 01, 2018 6:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

By gum, the more I learn about the Hounds Drive-in, the better I like it! The projector definitely appears to be digital.

And the snack bar is more like a restaurant than any drive-in I've every been to.








They even have a fancy menu like a real restaurant!





The snack bar is literally connected to the owner's home with a covered walkway.





The family who owns the Hounds Drive-in has a unique "movie room" — a large window that faces the screen, with a comfy sofa and two large stereo speakers on either side of the window! Laughing*





The patrons (who get to part much closer to the screen than the owners' movie room) seem to really be enjoying themselves.

The Facebook website of the Hounds Drive-in mentions that the patrons line up at the snack bar each evening and are given radios which they use to receive the audio for the movies.

In other words . . . wireless speakers!
Very Happy[/size]



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


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Wed May 02, 2018 12:48 pm; edited 2 times in total
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scotpens
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PostPosted: Wed May 02, 2018 12:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gord Green wrote:
One of the factors leading to the demise of the Drive-In Theatre was the industries switch from film projector to digital projector.

Drive-ins began to decline in the 1970s -- way before the introduction of digital projection.
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Wed May 02, 2018 1:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Scotpens wrote :
Quote:
Drive-ins began to decline in the 1970s -- way before the introduction of digital projection

Very true. Other factors were the spread of the multiplex concept and the movement of multiplex theaters into the suburbs.

However, it was the digital projector revolution that drove a final nail into the drive-in's coffin.

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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Wed May 02, 2018 1:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Come to think of it, as I recall, many drive-ins had multiple screens several years before indoor theaters.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed May 02, 2018 12:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Note ~ Before you read this post, scroll up to my previous one and check out the picture I added which shows the unusual "movie room" the owner of the Hounds Drive-in has in his home. Very Happy
________________________________

The reasons that caused drive-ins to decline are not really hard to understand. Despite my lifelong fondness for drive-ins, even I realize that in many ways they're a poor way to watch a movie. Sad

The picture quality on a drive-in screen is dim and fuzzy compared to average indoor theaters. There's two reasons for this. First, the screens are not made of the highly reflective material which indoor theaters use, because they have to withstand the ravages of weather, like drenching rain and direct sunlight.

Many screens were made of painted plywood, and some were even made of white ceramic tiles which overlapped like roofing shingles! Shocked

Second, the projectors are required to beam the movie across a much greater distance than any indoor theater, and this causes the image to be dimmer and less sharp — especially when it has to penetrate misty air or a light rain.

When the weather is too cold or too hot, sitting in a car is not very pleasant. A light rain means the patrons have to run their windshield wipers, and a heavy rain means that nobody can see the screen clearly while they sit in their cars with the windows rolled up and the windshield fogs over from the humidity.

Going to the snack bar and the restroom when it's raining is not much fun, either.

Finally there's the sad fact that only the first few rows at a drive-in are close enough to the screen to have a good view of movie. The rest of the viewing area is so far from the screen that even halfway back the patrons are watching a screen about the size of the one shown in this picture I took at the Pipestem Drive-in in 2006.

Bear in mind that the Pipestem is relatively small drive-in.





The photo below shows the Roosevelt Drive-in near Atlanta, the one my family went to back in the 1950s and 1960s. Imagine being parked halfway back . . . much less anywhere near the last row!



I'm hoping that the digital projector at the Hounds Drive-in will be sharper and brighter than the old arc lamp projectors.

Back in the heyday of drive-ins there were a number of theaters whose screens were truly monolithic. They weren't just simply billboard-like rectangles with girders in back, they were true architectural wonders!

These were the theaters which inspired the artwork used in the intermission snack bar promotions, like the one shown below.





Here's a few examples of the real theaters from back then. Cool












The Gratior Drive-in actually had a waterfall on the back side! Shocked


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