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Blasts
from the Past:
Virginia's
Drive-In Theaters
At
Hull's
Drive-In near Lexington last weekend, the double
feature was “Cars” and “The Shaggy Dog.” The
show started at dark between 9 p.m. and 9:15 p.m.
Pets had to be kept on leashes. Admission was $5 and
nobody could sneak in hidden in a car trunk.
Hull’s
is one of eight
remaining drive-in theaters in the commonwealth.
At one time there were more than 100 in the state
and 4,000 in the U.S. Opened in 1950 as the Lee
Drive-In, Hull’s is the nation’s only non-profit
drive-in. When the current owner, Sebert Hull, died
in 1998, a group of aficionados organized as
Hull’s Angels, first leasing the theater and then
buying it in 2001.
In
their heyday in the 1950s, Virginians could watch
John Wayne or Elvis flicks all across the state at
Lynchburg’s Harvey’s Drive-In, Hampton’s Green
Acres Drive-In, the Bellwood in Richmond and many
more.
The
concept was the brainchild of Camden, N.J., resident
Richard
M. Hollingshead. He tested his idea in his
driveway. After nailing a screen to a tree in his
backyard, he mounted a projector on the hood of his
car and placed a radio behind the screen. He rolled
the windows up and down to test the sound volume.
His “Automobile Movie Theater” opened in June
1933. More than 600 people may have attended.
Showing was a second-run release, “Wife Beware,”
with Adolphe Menjou. It ran three times with shorts
on opening night, but the schedule was changed to
twice a night when more time was needed to clear the
lot between screenings. (“Big Picture,” U.S.
News & World Report, June 22, 1998.)
Hollingshead’s
theater lasted only three years, but the popular
idea spread. In 1934, drive-ins had opened in Texas,
California and Pennsylvania By 1939, Virginia had
its first drive-in along with Florida, Maine,
Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan and New York.
It
wasn’t until after World War II, though, that the
phenomenon exploded. Drive-ins appealed to young
post-war families Parents could watch a film without
their kids bothering others in the audience. Many
drive-ins provided playgrounds. The concession stand
was the favorite with the kids, providing hot dogs,
pizza or anything that could be cooked fast. Today,
indoor theaters now provide similar full-meal fare.
By
the 1960s, however, the popularity of drive-ins
began to wane. The theaters became a meeting spot
for teens, a precursor to the malls of a later era.
As the scene of late-night trysts, they gained a
slightly immoral reputation. Some drive-ins started
showing triple X films to survive. The death knell
for the institution was cable TV and VCRs. The fact
that theater owners could make more selling their
valuable real estate to developers didn’t help
either. During a three-year period in the mid-1980s,
the number of drive-ins dropped from 4,000 to 900.
For
the dedicated, however, the drive-in remains a
favorite destination At Hull’s, viewers range from
Virginia Military Institute cadets to travelers from
Europe who have heard about it on the Web. Some
still use the metal speakers attached to their car
windows, but others take advantage of the
low-frequency sound through their car radios – a
21st-century innovation.
And
a new generation is taking the concept a step
further “Guerrilla drive-ins” are often
organized online and film goers view movies
projected on bridges or warehouses. Born in
California, the best known include the Santa
Cruz Guerilla Drive-In and MobMov
in Berkeley.
The
institution was never just about the movies.
Drive-ins live on!
Next:
Crossing the Waters: Ferries in Virginia
--
July 10, 2006
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a Librarian Live.)
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