Revamped, retro-style theaters allow residents to drive in, drive out

If you ask your grandparents (and some of your parents) what it meant to "go to the movies," their answer may be significantly different than yours.\nFifty years ago, few were the posh theaters with 20 screens, stadium seating, air conditioning and a smorgasbord of overpriced candy. And reserving tickets ahead of time online was not even a fathomable luxury.\nBack in the good ol' days, "catching a movie" suggested one thing; a nearly obsolete practice that's usually seen only in movies themselves: pulling up in your car to a drive-in theater.\nThe beloved drive-in made its debut on June 6, 1933, when it was invented by Richard M. Hollingshead during an experiment he held in the backyard of his New Jersey home. Hollingshead nailed a white sheet to a tree trunk, affixed a projector to the hood of his car and placed a radio behind the sheet for sound. He got in his car, rolled down the windows, and the rest is history.\nHe even tested under several different "weather conditions." He put his lawn sprinkler on high to emulate a rain storm. \nHollingshead's visions soon took him to the patent office, allowing him to open the country's first drive-in theater in Camden, New Jersey later that year.\nBy 1946, there were roughly around 200 drive-ins opened in the United States—a number that would quadruple in just two years.\n"With the concept of the drive-in theater being strange to most people, new drive-ins would host an 'open house' during the day to let people know what to expect," says driveintheater.com, one of the web's largest drive-in theater information databases. "They would show the future customers how to park, how the sound systems worked, and what food was available in the concession stands. Some drive-ins reported as many as 400 cars would show up for the open house."\nBy the end of World War II, drive-ins spanned nearly 30 states, each replete with plenty of parking space, a bustling concessions building and soon enough, playgrounds for patrons' kids to utilize during the movie.\nBy 1960, the number of drive-ins skyrocketed to a massive 5000. Not only that, but drive-ins single-handedly put many indoor theaters out of business—indoor cinemas reduced from 17,000 to 12,000 during the same years drive-ins saw such proliferation. \nDrive-ins also grew in physical size. Detroit and Lufkin, Texas enjoyed the largest theaters in the country, each with enough parking space to hold up to 3000 cars.\nAdditionally, more side features were added. Pony rides, miniature golf, petting zoos and talent shows became commonplace at drive-ins during the '50s.\nOne thing drive-ins didn't need more of, though, is patronage. They were more than comfortable with customers showing interest.\n"Many theaters would open three hours before the movie would start," says driveintheater.com.\nThe food served also became more serious. Gone were the days of simple chocolate bars and popcorn.\n"Theaters began to serve a wide variety of dinners, such as fried chicken, barbecued sandwiches, hamburgers, and pizza," says driveintheater.com. "A few theater owners even gave their customers the ability to order from their cars and have a car hop deliver. To increase sales, the intermission trailers were invented. Theaters using these gained increased sales between films."\nAnd so the trend of familiar images of dancing candy and soda singing, "Visit our concessions stand!" was born.\nUnfortunately, the buzz around drive-in theaters gradually started to decline as America entered the '60s and '70s. \nMany managers started to remove the playgrounds from their theaters. Screens started to suffer from wear and tear, while weeds and other signs of neglect claimed most of the parking space.\nTheaters slowly started closing down, and by 1990, the number of drive-ins in the country nose-dived to a miserable 900. People just lost interest.\n"Personally, I think going to a drive-in would be a lot of fun," says IU sophomore Rachel Skiles. "It's something different, and it would just be something really cool to do with a group of your friends."\nLuckily enough for IU students, faculty and Bloomington residents, there's a drive-in theater in close vicinity—making a nostalgic movie experience only a short drive away.\nThe Starlite Drive-In is located in Harrodsburg, about five miles south of Bloomington. They're open Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights and usually show two feature films. This past Labor Day weekend, they showed the new animated film "Barnyard: The Original Party Animals" and "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby." \n"I'd also like to go to a drive-in because they tend to be a lot cheaper than regular movie theaters," Skiles says.\nIndeed, admission to the Starlite is only six bucks, three bucks for patrons aged six to twelve and free admission for those under six years old. \nAnd as of 2005, drive-ins have already made a comeback in several states, including Texas.\n"Texas as it sees the biggest surge of drive-ins in decades," said Paul Weber of the Associated Press in an article that ran in the Victoria Advocate in Victoria, Texas. "At least five outdoor theaters have opened since 2003. \nAnd business has been so good at the three-screen Galaxy Drive-In that co-owner Marsha Murray points to a flat tract where the gravel and sod have already been groomed for a fourth screen. She hints that Galaxy may ultimately house as many as 12 screens."\nAs one can see, the allure of drive-ins has captured a new generation. While it may be an anachronism for many, you shouldn't knock it 'til you try it.\nJust remember to take the speaker out of your car at the end of the movie.