Ahh, Remember the Drive In!

That should bring back some memories! Remember when drive-ins where cool?! You know, the days before you could tape a movie on your VCR, before Blockbuster, then Pay-Per-View, then Tevo, then Netflix?? Remember the days when people actually had to leave their homes to see the latest feature? I can remember it clearly, it wasn't that long ago. In fact, I remember being about 7 or so and hiding between my sisters legs in the front seat of the car while she read the newspaper over my head in order to hide me. Meanwhile, my brother was in the trunk. What a valiant attempt to hide us both and save the $2 entry fee for us. Only to find out later the admittance was per car, not per person. Thanks Liz!

This childhood trauma is not what inspired this blog however, I became inspired to write about the dying Drive-In industry after yet another 'bike ride find'. Last weekend I decided to take my road bike down to Buena Vista, about 30 miles South of Leadville and generally 20 degrees warmer. I had no plans on where to go, I just thought I'd get on the bike and let the wind take me where it chose. (Quite literally, there was a crazy headwind that day.) I like doing this, you never have any idea what's around the next turn. Sometimes it's just boring open expanses of nothing, sometimes you find cool stuff like this old Drive-In!


Normally I might have just ridden on past something like this, but I was struck by several things on this day. First, this Drive-In seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. I guess they usually are for obvious reasons, but I never expected to see it here. I have also never seen quite a backdrop for a movie theater before. Everywhere you look you see grand Rocky Mountains behind the screen. Pretty cool. The deserted feel was also kind of spooky. There was tall grass and weeds growing all along the parking area and speakers. (Needless to say I was very surprised to learn that this drive-in had been in use until 2008!) -more on that in a second. The last thing that caught my attention was the name.


That's right, Comanche Drive-In! You just wouldn't get away with such political incorrectness today. Though we have a lot to learn on this front, I believe we've come a long way in the 36 years I've been alive. I can remember learning all kinds of crazy culturally insensitive things when I was little. Those same things just wouldn't happen today.

Besides the name, the drive-in itself is an example of a great, yet dying, American tradition. A little poking around online dug up some interesting facts on the history of the drive-in. From the information I found, it appears that the alternative movie watching venue creator was Richard Hollingshead. It was his attempt to combine two great American loves: movies and cars! In the early 1930's he played around in his own driveway with a Kodak projector and a sheet nailed to some trees with a radio behind it. After lots of trial and error, Richard opened the first drive-in in June of 1933. This first drive in was in Camden, New Jersey and the price of admission was 25 cents for the car and 25 cents per person.

Drive-ins where slow to catch on, but when they did, they boomed! In 1946 the number of theaters was about 150. By 1948 that number grew to 820! By 1958, there were almost 5,000 drive-ins! This is actually the peak of the business. From here, the numbers begin to decline. The 60's and 70's were fairly stagnate, and the 80's saw a huge decline. Theater's began to be torn down for lack of attendance. (Hmmm, I believe my family got it's first VCR around 1983ish...). There was a very small resurgence in the 90's, well, nostalgia really. The around 400 dive-ins that are left are really trying to hang on, and there's plenty of people out there advocating for their survival. Americans are quite nostalgic after all.

The Comanche Drive-in I've shown you hear was built in 1966 by John Groy. It was owned and operated by the Groy family until 2008. It appears that Mrs. Groy suddenly passed away in 2008 and the rest is history. I'm amazed it was still going strong until so recently. I for one, would definitely go to a drive-in if there was one close by. (Actually, I would probably ride my bike instead of drive but its the same concept.) How wonderful to enjoy a movie in the fresh air, under the stairs, in the wide open! I think we may need to start a preservation movement here. I'll tell you one thing though, I'm not hiding in the front seat, or in the trunk for that matter to save a couple of bucks!

*Interestingly it appears that a documentary on drive-ins is currently in the works, check out the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMfVfWkx4Og&feature=player_embedded

All of the information for this blog was taken from the following websites: http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa980121.htm, http://www.driveintheater.com/,
http://cinematreasures.org/theater/11721/