drive in movie theatre intermission sign

#Drive in movie theatre intermission sign windows

Jack was the sole architect for the project and the Vogel Building Company, with Hank at the helm, did the actual construction. So we put some chairs up and some popcorn out and left a sign that said, ‘At least sit down and watch the movie.' We were kids once too.The Bengies Drive-In Theatre was the result of a collaboration by Jack, Hank, and Paul Vogel. 'Last week we were patrolling the property in the golf cart, and we saw a hole in the fence,' Kopp said.

#Drive in movie theatre intermission sign windows

He's seen his share of fogged-up windows too, including a middle-aged couple too 'passionately involved' to notice that the theatre's lights were off and gates were locked.Īnd then there are the people who sneak in without paying. It's almost like a tailgate party,' Kopp said. 'We've had some folks that come out on a weekly basis. Disney movies thrive, as do animated films. The sound comes through car radios.įilm fare of the Raleigh Road and other drive-ins typically consists of G-rated films, Kopp said. Today the theatre can accommodate 265 cars and show movies in a 60-foot-by-80-foot screen.

He said they've invested about $300,000 since to clear the seven acres of weeds and modernize the technology. In 2005, he and his wife bought the Raleigh Road Outdoor Theatre in Henderson, N.C., for $22,000 on eBay. Kopp of course bets on the drive-ins' survival. It's a threat in that the digital transition will be expensive to manage, and some may not be able to do it.' 'An opportunity because digital will allow them to get new movies sooner than they do-they are often weeks behind the break for new films. 'Digital cinema will be both an opportunity and a threat for drive-in owners,' said the association's director of media and research Patrick Corcoran in an e-mail. More than 75 percent of the drive-ins in this country are privately owned small businesses, according to the National Association of Theatre Owners.

Kopp said the concept is suddenly becoming popular in China. Another 100 drive-ins exist outside the United States, mainly in Canada and Australia. Today some 400 drive-ins remain in the United States, a number that has not changed much in the past five years. 'There's not enough income in it or else you'd see AMC or others getting drive-ins,' Vogel said. The results were a sinking number of drive-ins throughout the country. Combine that with the fact that so many drive-ins were mom-and-pop businesses that few descendants chose to continue running, he explained. 'People would build on the outskirts of town, and the town would grow,' he said. Vogel, owner of the Benjies Drive-In near Baltimore, Md., said the price of land is the real reason many drive-ins folded. And being naughty helped some drive-ins survive.Ĭars lined up to watch a film at Shankweiler’s drive-in, the second oldest drive-in in the U.S.Ĭourtesy of Shankweiler's Drive-In Theatre Archivesĭ.

Drive-ins were left to show B movies and, eventually, X-rated ones. So to sell as many tickets as possible, the movie studios sent their first-runs to the indoor theaters. The indoor theaters were more flexible about scheduling, however, and could show one film five or six times a day instead of only at night. Drive-ins offered more flexibility than indoor theaters.' People could sit in their cars, they could bring their babies, they could smoke.

'Drive-ins started to really take off in the ‘50s,' Kopp said. By 1958, the number of drive-ins peaked at 4,063. A few others followed, but the concept didn't really get traction until the advent of in-car speakers in the early 1940s. The second drive-in, Shankweiler's, started a year later in Orefields, Pa. He patented his concept in May 1933 and opened the gates to his theater the next month. Hollingshead experimented for a few years before he created a ramp system for cars to park at different heights so everyone could see the screen. 'So he stuck her in a car and put a 1928 projector on the hood of the car, and tied two sheets to trees in his yard.' 'His mother was-how shall I say it?-rather large for indoor theater seats,' said Jim Kopp of the United Drive-in Theatre Owners Association. He first conceived the drive-in as the answer to a problem. However, it took an auto-parts salesman such as Hollingshead to see the genius in giving a car-loving society one more activity they could do in their vehicles. The concept of showing movies outdoors wasn't novel people often watched silent films on screens set up at beaches or other places boasting an abundance of sky.

People paid 25 cents per car as well as per person to see the British comedy Wives Beware under the stars. It was on that day in 1933 that Richard Hollingshead opened the first theater for the auto-bound in Camden, N.J. Capitol commemorated the 75th birthday of a distinctive slice of Americana: the drive-in movie theater.