My sister and I would rush to get into our pajamas, run to the car as Mum and Dad took us for an evening’s adventure, a first run film at the local drive-in theatre. There was no place like it on a balmy summer’s night. Today, as we celebrate its 75th birthday, nearly every theatre we visited as a child and indeed all outdoor theatres in Massachusetts and 98% of those across the USA, lay dormant or shuttered forever.
While we would often fall asleep, the South Shore Plaza Twin was the one place we all loved. We’d edge the car part-way up our semi-private hill so the front window pointed skyward towards the screen, hang the giant grey speaker unit on the inside car window and watch through the back window for Dad to return from the snack shack with tubs of popcorn, cups of soda and bags of candy.
Today the Plaza Twin’s wide open spaces serve as a bus terminal and long-term parking lot for The Logan Express shuttle bus and its half-hourly regular service to/from Boston’s Logan Airport. The giant white screens have badly faded, rain and rust stains cover them and trees have grown to a height that halfway obscures them as people queue for the $22 round trip from across SE Massachusetts to avoid the hassle of driving into the city. Most never knew it’s original incarnation and who would have thought the ancient snack shack would become a bus terminal building?
The drive-in is said to have been invented by Richard Hollingshead Jr., who conducted experiments at his home in Riverton, N.J., by placing a Kodak film projector on the roof of his car and directing it at a white bedsheet hung between two trees in his yard. The New York Times reported that “he invented the drive-in for his mother, who was a large woman and did not fit comfortably in regular indoor theatre seats. In 1933, Mr. Hollingshead patented a special parking arrangement, where every car would have an unobstructed view of the screen. He opened the Camden theatre a month later. His partner was his first cousin, Willis W. Smith. Before 1933, neither had any experience in the theatre business.”
We didn’t care. It was a hit with us and it was sad to see the drive-in lose favour as Star Wars and other special effect movies with Dolby Surround sound sounded a death knell for drive-ins as the sound experience could not be duplicated through that tiny, tinny speaker.
I remember going to the drive-in in 1974-75 with my girlfriend during high school and my focus was no longer on pajamas and snacks by then. Indeed we cared not a whit what was playing on the screen.
As the quality of home video theatre systems improved and viewership declined, the issue of crime whilst sitting in the dark brought the issue of safety at a drive-in to the fore and folks had a new reason to stop going, fear. As it began to wind down, the theatres went wireless offering sound through an unused channel on your FM radio but it was too little too late (and it was quite a strain on the car’s battery/electrical system over 2-3 hours…).
The Avon Drive-In theatre was something I overlooked during my first job, cutting grass around cemetery headstones. It was a doubly sad day when that screen came down and was eventually replaced by the region’s first WalMart super store.
By the end of 2005 the drive-in was not the only casualty as the local dry cleaner and chemist also fell victim to low prices in a scene reminiscent of horror movies across the USA.
Hi Denis,
You know me from TBD. You’ll be glad to know that here in Kingston, Ontario we still have a drive-in, mind you they’ve added go-karts, mini-golf, and a small midway to help keep them going. They have a few screens, I think it’s 3, I haven’t been there in a few years (I don’t own a car), but I do know on long weekends they still offer a 3 movie marathon.