August 27, 2024 • 35 mins
Have you ever visited a drive-in theatre? These fascinating outfits are increasingly rare in 2024, but not too long ago they were all the rage. In the first part of this week's two-part episode, Ben, Noel and Max dive into the origin story of the iconic drive-in cinema.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you as old Ways so
much for tuning in. Let's hear it for the man,
the myth legend. Our super producer, mister Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Loved I am back. Did you all miss me? You
guys got free of me from you get to hang on.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I can't not have a very charitable I can't miss
you because you're always You're always here in my head.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You're like Mufasa.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
You're always watching over me in the form of a
weird anthropomorphic cloud that's shaped like your own head.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I've always suspected that you and Jonathan Strickland have cameras
following me.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Oh god, yeah, I mean we split.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
We split the monthly subscription costs, by the way, extra
spe minute a subscription money that you get paid for
broadcasting our cam videos to the Internet.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yes and no, okay, fair enough, But thank you for
the verbatim reading of my last meal. I very much
appreciated that.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Of course, gotcha, I am been bullying. This is Noel Brown.
We are we are coming to you from across the world.
Here two thirds of us are well let's say we're
all weathering something. I'm weathering some crazy meteorological phenomenon out
(01:48):
the wild, and Noel, U and Max are on the
other side of some of the late summer cools circulating around.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
I was trying to think of like an Alison wonder
any weather or not your weathering the weather, but I.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
That's all I could come up with.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
It almost sounds like an Oasis lyric. Right, Oh god,
the lyrics are the worst by the.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
You know what, it's supernova in the sky.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
What even is that? How you walk down the hall
faster than a cannonball? I don't even that doesn't.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Make any sense to me. And then what was that
slowly walking faster than he's got dirty dishes on the brain.
There's a weird metaphor about washing dishes and romance. Anyway, nostalgia.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
I love that's the way we get in here, because
as seen as we're back together and we're all feeling
hail and harty, we might do something that you can't
do everywhere in America today. We might go to Atlanta's
Drive in theater.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Ben I think I maybe mentioned this not on the show.
I have been to the Starlight Drive in for like
a I've never seen a drive in movie ever. I've
never been to a drive in movie. It fully occupies
the realm of nostalgia, well not even real nostalgia, the
idea of like nostalgia for things that you never actually experienced,
(03:14):
you know. I think of movies like American Graffiti, you know,
I just think of like the Golden Age of Hollywood,
and you know, like girls on roller skates bringing you
your burgers, things like that.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I just I love old Hollywood culture, and the drive
in is squarely a part of that. We're gonna get
to kind of when that actually came along, because it
didn't start out that way, didn't.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
It did not.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
And we also have a big special announcement for Ridiculous Historians.
We're excited about this. Join us in welcoming our new
research associate. Nickname still TBD, but it's our.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Pal, Andrea.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Andrea is still TBD, And no where would where would
where would our friends and listeners in the art audience
tonight maybe recognize Andrea.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
From Andrea is the crack research associate for our sister podcast,
Ridiculous Crime, So doing excellent work over there and now
bringing her own patented brand of ridiculousness over here to
the OG podcast Ridiculous History.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Oh gosh, we are ogs.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
You know. That got to me the og.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Ridiculous OG's of ridiculousness here on iHeart Radio.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
I was hanging out somewhere I can't remember where last
year and got recognized and someone said, oh, you're an
OG of podcasting, And it is meant as a compliment,
but I.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
I would have taken it as such.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
I got voice clocked in line at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in New York, our good friend Jordan. It
always feels weird and lovely that people are randomly out
there in the world listening to our silly podcast.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
But it's true. Man, we've been doing this for a
long time.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
To quote either the The Sopranos or Goodfellas, it's really
hard to get in on the ground floor of something,
and we were lucky enough to be able to do that.
So we thank the podcast gods for that opportunity.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
And man, let's jump right into it.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Dude, I didn't know this, but the very first kind
of modern ish, well it's not really modern, just like again,
it's sort of vintage. But the notion of the design
of a drive in theater consisting of a screen, a projector,
and a space for cars, likely a concession stand of sorts,
was first scene at the Teatra di Guadalupe in New
(05:37):
Mexico in nineteen sixteen. So it is definitely still like
a Southwest originating thing. But this wasn't even considered like
a full drive in. It was a partial drive in.
It was erected in nineteen sixteen. The Rio Grand Republican
newspaper described it as having the ability to seat seven
hundred people in the auditorium, automobile entrances and places for
(06:00):
forty or more cars within the theater grounds, and inline
position to see the pictures and witness all the performances
on the stage. Is a feature of the place that
will please car owners.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
It's a hybrid. It's a hybrid.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
And one thing we also know about the Southwest car
culture baby big deal even to this day, car shows,
you know, muscle cars, all of these kind of things,
rims whatever. I'm not a supercar guy, but I know
you are. But it really is something that still is
a big deal in southern California and that part of
the world.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
And this, you know, journey back with this folks in
nineteen sixteen cars are very different than the cars you
would see here in twenty twenty four. You know, this
is the days of the of the jeloppies as they
would be called, and the augas. Yeah, this is an
I would say this is seen at the time in
(06:57):
New Mexico as a kind of fall word facing, cutting edge,
early adopter technology thing exactly right, right, And not a
lot of people own cars at this point, so it's
definitely a flex If you own a car, you want
people to see it. And it's still you know, it
still speaks to and we'll get into this, it still
speaks to a fundamental human drive that's been around since
(07:20):
the days of theater in ancient Greece and ancient China,
the idea of experiencing a story with other people around,
as Andrew puts it, watching a movie al Fresco, which
I loved, and yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Yeah, well yeah as an alfresco kind of like a picnic.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Isn't that what that means? I think?
Speaker 3 (07:42):
So, yeah, yeah, I believe it's sort of just like,
you know the idea of doing something outside, yeah, in
the outdoors, in the out but it's but usually when
some people talk about taking a meal alfresco. It's sort
of referring to a picnic idea, and that is neat
about the drive in experience because it's you're able to
kind of you got your own kind of mobile tent.
(08:02):
You know, you're almost like camping in a weird way.
And we'll get into some of the other factors that
made it really, really popular, but it's a little bit
easier to kind of do what you want, if that
makes sense.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah, we're a family show. Yeah, we'll get to it. Though.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
There's a reason people love to drive in Atlanta, and
this is something that is fascinating that we learned in
the course of research for this episode. Showing movies outdoors
at this time, pre nineteen sixteen, it was not a
novel concept in and of itself because then is now,
(08:40):
people would set up projector screens maybe on beaches or
other wide open spaces to quote the Dixie Chicks, and
they would watch silent films. There would often be musicians
who would play the score. Right, So this is a
heck of an evening. It's still a kind of party
that we would want to go to, and it hearkens
back again into the idea of watching live theatrical performances,
(09:04):
maybe in an amphitheater out in the Mediterranean countryside. We
know that there are some heroic characters, the pioneers of
drive in films, and that's where we need to introduce
you to our first protagonist of the story, Max. If
we could get some like profound cinematic music.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Really do it up there. It is Robert Is who
is strolling to find out who.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Is strolling onto the stage here, Noel, that would be
mister Richard Milton hollings Head Junior.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Quite the name and quite the legacy of this man
left behind. He was a big gear head, you know.
He was a movie fan as well, and he was
a sales manager at his father's company called Whiz Auto
Products over there in Camden, New Jersey, and he wanted
to combine his two loves movie theaters and movies and
(10:09):
car culture.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Like we said, so.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
He kind of, you know, brain birthed the idea of
the early park in theaters. Drive in is one of
those things that is maybe less coined by an individual
and maybe more just like a term that became what
people referred to him as, and then they sort of
got picked up widely I don't the concept, but not
the name. Well also, you know, I mean a drive
(10:33):
in is I guess you'd have that for like diners
and stuff too, like you have like a certain you know,
like Sonic, which is like the classic you know, drive
in food service situation. It all went kind of hand
in hand with that called car culture thing. But park
in it's not as sexy as it's not as active.
It's like we're.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Powering in with the power of automobiles.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
There were automobiles compels us.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Yes, there were drive ins as early as the nineteen tens,
by which we mean there were people driving to watch
stuff outdoors. But the concept as a patented notion first
opened on June sixth, nineteen thirty three. Our buddy Hollingshead
(11:19):
Junior got a location a sweet spot on Crescent Boulevard
in New Jersey. There's a bit of confusion here because
it's often reported that this drive in opened on Admiral
Wilson Boulevard in Camden, but it's not. It opened on
Crescent Boulevard in Don't kill me here, folks, Pensaken Township.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
I think that was a delightful attempt, if not nailed
its spot on That's what I would have said. Yeah,
And it's funny because I really do associate this the
drive in culture with the West Coast, and you know,
we do have that very very earliest one over there
in New Mexico. But this is kind of the more
the beginnings of the mainstreaming of drive in culture. And
(12:03):
then you mentioned the idea of patenting this. I find
that really interesting and I immediately was sort of like, huh, like,
how do you patent the idea of showing a movie outside?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
You know, I thought you were going to say, how
do you patent the idea of showing up somewhere?
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Wells that is part of it, though, Ben, isn't it
because you're not providing the cars. At this point, they
didn't even have like, you know, obviously there's going to
get to a point where they've got more innovative solutions
like the radio tunable speakers you know that you put
in your car directly personal speakers. But at this point
(12:38):
it's just a big old public address system outdoors and
a big screen and like cars that would pull up.
But he was granted a patent for this, and I
just find that interesting because it seems not particularly novel
because usually a patent requires something that's very very novel
and some sort of very specific design.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Right, Yeah, we should also do a weird history of
patents just so we can figure out how it works.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
We can even get into like the modern development of
like things like Patent Control IV.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Yeah, you know, this would also be immensely helpful to
me because I have a bunch of weird ideas for inventions,
and I swear to god they always sound crazy and
eccentric in my head until I read a news story
about someone doing that very thing, like the like the
screw tops for plastic bottles in Europe.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
They called me mad. They did call you mad, But
I think I told you.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
I used to have a bit of a kooky boss
who was very much of more of like the Ricky
Gervais version of the Michael Scott character in the office,
so a little bit more mean spirited and kind of
like really unpleasant, let's just say. But he was one
of these cats that would just drop these like wild ideas,
and the funniest one that everyone laughed at him about
was what if we had this powder that you put
(13:52):
in your water and it man, it gives it a
flavor and vitamins and it's going to be called wait.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
For it, H two woe. I love it. H two.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
I would have also accepted H two Wow. That would
have also worked. But yeah, man like that, you know
a couple of years past. That's absolutely a thing.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, I love that, and that's prescient. So flowers where
they're due. I had another one, and I'll keep the
short says nothing to do with drive. Ince I had
another one. I was super into this idea.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
It's like, hey, you.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Know how you you ever have that moment where you're
holding something expensive and fragile and you think, what if
I just broke this right just to sort of feel something?
And I said, we should make not a stark bend.
We should make not escape rooms, but break rooms where
you could pay money to go in, get an implement
of your choice, like a hammer, baseball bat, and we
(14:46):
could get a bunch of stuff from a thrift store,
and then you could just go nuts for a little
while breaking it. People said it was violet and crazy,
and now it's a successful thing that it was.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
It's been a I remember Tamika, our long time colleague,
mentioned several years back that she went to one of
those and it's a very I think it's a cathartic
way of releasing your attentions on like old computer screens
and stuff instead of like, you know, punching.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Somebody do that full support.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Oh maybe that will be our next business now of.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
A space you're talking about, right, They smashing the Facts machine.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
And I loved watching that. That's iconic, that that's something
that I'm glad that I watched that for the first
time with other people. With that sublid track, we get
the appeal of the films and that's the way.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
And people also had that same impetus. In nineteen thirty three,
they paid twenty five cents per car as well as
per person to watch films like the British comedy Lives Beware,
(15:57):
which I don't think either of us have seen, and
the local paper called this the first automobile movie theota
in the world. I have to pause here and all
because nineteen thirty three a quarter per car and per person.
It's pricey, right, I think that's right, Ben, And I
think that was part of some of the growing pains
(16:20):
of the early days of drive in movie theaters because
it's kind of interesting if you think about it. You're
paying for the privilege of sitting in your own car.
They don't even have to provide you a seat or
air conditioning. It almost seems a little a little bit
like a grift when you really break it down, doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yeah, you know, it hit me.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
I'm glad you're mentioning this. Not too long ago. It's
in a different city in Japan. We're reading at a
Yaqui Niku place, which is kind of like the Japanese
version koreem barbecue, and it hit me. I thought, hang on,
we're paying these folks to go to a restaurant where
we are the cooks.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Basically, that's right. It's brilliant, but it's also a feature,
not a bug in a lot of ways. It depends
on how you view it and what you're into. But
you know, some people are real particular about the dunness
of their meat, and you know, it's like barbecuing on
a table.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
And again, this is worth a little bit extra price
of admission because it feels like an adventure. You know,
you're taking your car, you're in the great outdoors, you're
sort of glamping in a way, and watching the movie.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
But there were problems though.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
There were problems that needed to be solved in terms
of things like visibility, maintaining an unobstructed line of sight
to the screen. And also again, like I mentioned that
PA system, it was one single sound source that was
supposed to hit all of the attendees sitting in their cars.
And if anyone knows anything about sound traveling over distance
(17:50):
connected to a picture, you're gonna get some lag there.
And that problem doesn't get solved until a little bit later.
So Halling said to backtrack just a little bit.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
He did get his.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Start working at an automotive parts company, Wiz Auto Parts Company,
founded by his father in the early years of the
twentieth century. They sold you know, lubrications, greases, oils, polishes,
turtle wax, things like that, and Hollings had considered he
looked at what his customers were buying and recognized that
(18:23):
people often would give up on food, clothing, automobiles.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
And movies in that order.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Like that was the the hierarchy of needs in the
depression exactly, Ben, Yeah, tell us more.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yeah, because and we see this pattern that haulings Head
astutely identifies. We see this in almost every time of
economic turmoil, people will give up the fancy meals, right,
you'll tighten your belt. Speaking of belts, you won't buy
as many name brand clothing items. You're probably not gonna
(18:59):
pony up the money for a new car. But you
will rationalize entertainment. You will rationalize things like you know,
vices too, honestly, alcoholics, bacco, movies.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Well, it's during the hardest of times that that kind
of escapism is the most crucial, you know, I mean, honestly,
if you think about it, movies and entertainment, it's just
our way of kind of biding our time until death.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
I mean, not to be too.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Gallowsy about it, but like we need those distractions to
kind of distract us from our mortality and from all
of the kind of heavy stuff. And during the heaviest
of times, that's what entertainment is the most valuable and
the most like crucial kind of for keeping you from
burning out and just having like a crisis of the soul.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
And Holly said, is really smart about his approach here.
Instead of immediately jumping into the real estate game, he
goes to his backyard. He sets up an outdoor theater.
It's a thing a lot of my friends in Atlanta
still do. It's very fun when the weather's dice. And
so his house is at two twelve Thomas Avenue in Riverton,
(20:06):
New Jersey. He gets a projection screen. He lets the
town know, and he says, all right, I'm gonna try
this thing out. It's going to be like a cool party.
He's I've got a nineteen twenty eight Kodak projector. I've
literally just nailed a screen to a tree in the back.
And he spends some time experimenting before he brings people
(20:29):
over and does a dry run. He is trying to
figure out the ideal home theater layout because as anybody
can tell you, anybody's been to a concert could tell you,
one of the worst things to happen is to go
to a place like this and to have your view blocked.
Have you ever been stuck behind like a pillar or
(20:49):
some kind of standing.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Pole, And God, you asked, it wasn't that egregious. But
I had never been to a place in year old
stomping grounds in Nashville, Tennessee into a show at the
Mother Church the Ryman Auditorium. Yeah, and I bought tickets
to go see the Flaming Lips there and I was
I thought they were seemed like really good seats in
(21:11):
terms of like the abe through z, you know, kind
of like how close you are to the stage.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
It was like a nice middle kind of ground or whatever.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
I got there only to realize they call it the
Mother Church because the place used to be an actual
church which has a balcony, and a whole bunch of
the seats are under the balcony. So while I wasn't
behind a pillar and most bands wouldn't use what you'd
call like the the entire you know, stretch of the prescenium,
Flaming Lips absolutely did. They had massive inflatables. They were
(21:42):
doing all kinds of crazy stuff way up in the sky, and.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
I was like, what's going on there?
Speaker 3 (21:46):
I mean, you'll totally left out, and like, yeah, I
couldn't see anything above that overhang of the balcony and
it was a little bit of a bummer, but I
still very much enjoyed it. But now I know pro
tip when you're going to the rhyman, make sure you're
not you know, you're you're shooting for either balcony seats
or something before the balcony cuts you off your view.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Yeah, I think the I've been to the Rhyman as well,
obviously being from Nashville, and the my favorite seats there,
as you said, like right on the lip of the
balcony on the second floor. They are very they are
still at least last time I was there. They're real
church views. It's weird.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Yeah, No, it was an incredible experience. It was a
wonderful place to see the show. Beautiful stained glass. But
just be mindful because if it hadn't been a band
that like was using all of that space, it wouldn't
have been a big deal. But like you know, Wayne Coyn,
He's like got this magical mechanical flying bird and it's
all zooming around. I'm like, I want to see the
flying bird, but I couldn't see it. But anyway, I digress.
So the logistics are a big part of this dude's thinking.
(22:47):
He's doing this test run in his backyard and he's
basically laying out how to best make sure that every
single seat in the house is the best seat in
the house.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
And he's doing some real mcgui stuff. He says, Okay,
what if I park the cars in this layout? No,
because you know, twenty percent of the people can't see.
How do I ensure that people who are parked behind
the first row of cars can also see instead of
just trying to like look through the rear view and
(23:18):
the windshield or the car in front of him. And
so he says, all right, I need a series of
terraced rows. I need raised ramps so that everybody has
a good chance of seeing each other. Now, granted this
is before the days of very tall, lifted trucks, you
know what I mean, they can ruin the views. Still
(23:38):
at a drive in, so collings Head places blocks under
the front wheels of cars and this adjust their height
until the driver who is further back can see over
the car in front. And if you go to a
drive in theater today, you'll notice that same kind of
pattern in the pavement. Right, And if you're driving slow,
(24:02):
you might not notice it, but if you pick up
any speed, then you noticed you're going over a series
of tiny hills.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
I mean if even at the Starlight drive in here
in Atlanta, I believe the whole thing is paved kind
of on an incline, you know, And like I think
the most successful venues typically that follow the whole The
classic tale is oldest time design of like an amphitheater
in Greek times would be that raked perspective because you know,
at the farther back you get, you got a little
bit of a rise, so therefore you can kind of
(24:30):
see over the heads or tail lights of the person
in front of you.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Mm hmm. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
And he also he also tried to envision what it
would be like in inclement weather, so he hit sprinklers
and he said, Okay, this is what it looks like
if you're really like this guy. Yeah, that's fun. I
love that you pointed out the importance of sound. He
was trying to figure out the best place to locate
a radio. He ultimately decided that he will put it
(24:56):
behind the screen, and this becase These became the key
tenants of what we call a drive in theater. There
was a personal note that comes to us per Jim
Copp of the United Drive in Theaters Owners Association, and
he says that at least part of Hauling Hollingshead's motivation
(25:19):
was to make a theater that his mom could enjoy.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Yeah, I can relate to this. My mother was a
larger lady, let's say, and this is something that he
was thinking about. He wanted to make sure that his
mother and folks of her, you know, ilk would enjoy
themselves as well. So a typical indoor theater. I mean, gosh, man,
have you been to like an old theater, like in
(25:51):
like La, like a like a real old movie theater.
Even here in Atlanta, the Plaza Theater, the seats are tight,
They're very uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
I'm a big enough and I could certainly still fit
in them.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
But someone much larger than me, I mean, that would
be prohibitive and would really make you feel not welcome,
especially if he can't move the arm rest You can't
move the arm rests, you know. I mean, it's it's
definitely no fun because of that sense of just this
is not a place for me, and he having you know,
this person who he loved, his mother, fall into that set.
(26:23):
He was very concerned with people that were a little
bit larger being able to enjoy a movie with the
rest of them without being judged or being uncomfortable. So
he stuck her in a car before any of this stuff.
This is almost like the germ of the idea, right,
and he stuck her in a car and put a
nineteen twenty eight projector on the hood of the car
and tied two sheets to trees in his yard. I'm sorry,
(26:45):
I'm gonna say it again. I like this guy. It's
very sweet.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
He's taking care of his mom. I think that's cool. Man.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
So this is again, you know, like kind of like
just the very first spark of the idea. Now he's
tested things and he's kind of all to the races.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
He sure is.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
And this would also this would be a neat movie, right,
the creation of the drive in film.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
I think it would.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Hollywood loves films about film. So anyway, he has made
these breakthroughs. His intentions are noble, his aspirations are pure,
and he says, look at all these things, I've figured out,
maybe this concept is specialized enough to be patented, because
(27:32):
something like this, with all these bells and conceptual whistles,
had not existed before he did successfully get a patent.
So every for like the next almost twenty years, for
the next seventeen years, all the other people who built
drive in theaters ended up paying him royalties. If you
look at his patent application from August sixth, nineteen thirty two.
(27:56):
He says, my invention relates to a new and useful
out to a theater, where by the transportation facilities to
and from the THEATO on me to constitute an element
of the CD facilities. Super sexy writing. He does get
the patent number one million, nine hundred and nine thousand,
five hundred and thirty seven. The day the patent paperwork
comes through, they start building the thing.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Well, you know, and earlier I was kind of poo
pooing the idea of like granting a patent for something
like this, because it really is even when you look
at there is a design, you know. And then I
certainly got to give the guy credit. He did some testing,
he figured out the best arrangement for cars. But if
you really look at it, it really is just kind
of like I guess the novel thing must have been
the series of ramps, right, because that's the only kind
(28:40):
of inventioning part of this, because when you look at it,
you know, and the graphic we have here is kind
of small, but it really does look like a sketch
of like you should Greek theater, like an outdoor amphitheater,
And the only difference is that it's cars, but he's
not providing the cars. It's just an open space, you know,
where a car can go. And I believe there'll become
later down the line. This patent gets called into question.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Yeah, nice foreshadowing there, man, Because of course it will.
That's how these things work. So him and his buddy
Willie Warren Smith have formed their theater, or that formed
their company, park In Theaters Incorporated. And they bring another
guy on, a contractor named Edward Ellis, and he is
(29:26):
our It's like if they're putting together a highst crew.
He's the pavement man. He's the paveman, and he's the
guy who grades up the lot for the first theater
to make it conform to Holling's head's designs. And he
does this work not for cash but for stock shares
(29:46):
in the company. And then there's another guy who, in
my opinion, comes out of left field. His name's Oliver Willitts.
He's a big mukety muckett Campbell's soup. He's a soupman.
I can only picture the conversation where he's like, there
are two things I like soup and the movies.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
The pictures he what have called them?
Speaker 1 (30:08):
So we've We've got a varied crew of specialists. We've
got the parking lot operator, Willie Warden Smith, he's kind
of the money. Hollins Head is the brains, Edward Ellis
is the pavement, and then the soup guy you know,
is also there.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Yeah, well, yeah, I've been.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
I want to take a quick pause here just to
point something out that I noticed and really cool graphic
that Andrew included in the research document. It's an advertisement
on the side of a building, or maybe this is
actually the backside of the screen. I know, for example,
at the Starlight in Atlanta, the screen is this massive
thing and on the back of it they have like
(30:49):
text and advertising. But this is drive in theater, World's
first sit in your car, see and hear movies. It's
not only is it twenty five cents per person, it's
twenty five cents per car.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Right, yeah, so you pay as well a quarter for
the car, and then if you have let's say three
people in the car, then you're out a dollar.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
I know that seems high, and we're gonna get to that.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
It does seem high, and it actually causes a little
bit of a stir. And this monopoly that Hollingsworth has
over the industry, starts to kind of ease up a.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Little bit, and here will pause for a brief intermission,
just like a long film, because this is a two
part episode. The first time I saw a film that
had a long intermission, it was a Civil War film
called Gettysburg that my dad dragged me to, and I
(31:43):
was probably too young to watch an in depth four
hour film about the American Civil War?
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Was that the one with Matthew Broderick in it? Or
what am I thinking of?
Speaker 3 (31:54):
There was another one that was like with Matthew Broderick
and Denzel Washington that I thought day off.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Was it was it called matt X. Is that Glory? Yeah?
It was. It was Glory exactly. That was a big
one as well, you know.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
I actually it's funny a lot of times when they
show old movies on TV, they little have an intermission
built in. They just like leave the little card on
there for a while. But I thought it was pretty cool.
When quin Tarantino released The Hateful Eight, they did a
road show of the like seventy millimeter print of it,
and it had a proper intermission, which I thought was
(32:29):
really nostalgic and fun.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
So did Gettysburg.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
I just realized as we're wrapping up this episode, Gettysburg
is four hours and fourteen minutes long, and to this day,
that makes it the longest film ever theatrically released by
a big time studio at the United States.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
So, Dad, if you're hearing this, I'm.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Still sore about that man, because I thought that was
I thought that was the end of the movie. I
escaped to the bathroom and I got pulled back. I
know too much about Gettysburg.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Do you remember back in those days where when you
would rent movies like that from Blockbusters, they'd be like
six VHS tapes and they'd all be kind of rubber
banded together in this weird little hinged clamshell array.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Dude, did I tell you the first time I watched
the Godfather series dating myself here, I rented it from
Blockbuster and the tapes were out of order, so is
the set of The Godfather and Godfather Too. And because
the tapes were out of no I watched the first one,
the first tape of Godfather one, and I actually put in,
(33:33):
you know, like the first or second tape of Godfather too,
and I thought this is crazy.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
The way they're jumping around in.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Time, but there already is some jumping around anyway, so
you could even be made to believe that you were
barking up the right tree.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
But that's fascinating. But we'll tell you what else is fascinating.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
The history of drive in movie theaters and old Hollywood
and the technological revolution that came along with the boom times.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Of drive in.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
So don't we end this episode we're today part one
of you Auto go to the drive in the history
of drive in movie here, as named by our crack
research associate extraordinaire Andrea. Thanks again for this inaugural contribution
to ridiculous history.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Big big thanks to our super producer, mister Max Williams.
Big thanks to Alex Williams who composed this cinematic masterpiece
that is our theme song. Thanks also to ag Bahama's
Jacobs do check out his show The Puzzler, And thanks
to Jonathan Strickland aka the quizt.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
Huge thanks to Christophrasiotis and he was Jeff Coats here
in spirit to Max Williams. If you've already thanked Max,
I'm thanking you again.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
He's so nice, you got it.
Speaker 3 (34:43):
Thank him twice and of course Ben, thanks to you
for taking this ride with us.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
It's been a good one and they're looking forward to
part two. Oh yeah, Well, see you next time, folks.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you as old Ways so
much for tuning in. Let's hear it for the man,
the myth legend. Our super producer, mister Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Loved I am back. Did you all miss me? You
guys got free of me from you get to hang on.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I can't not have a very charitable I can't miss
you because you're always You're always here in my head.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You're like Mufasa.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
You're always watching over me in the form of a
weird anthropomorphic cloud that's shaped like your own head.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I've always suspected that you and Jonathan Strickland have cameras
following me.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Oh god, yeah, I mean we split.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
We split the monthly subscription costs, by the way, extra
spe minute a subscription money that you get paid for
broadcasting our cam videos to the Internet.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yes and no, okay, fair enough, But thank you for
the verbatim reading of my last meal. I very much
appreciated that.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Of course, gotcha, I am been bullying. This is Noel Brown.
We are we are coming to you from across the world.
Here two thirds of us are well let's say we're
all weathering something. I'm weathering some crazy meteorological phenomenon out
(01:48):
the wild, and Noel, U and Max are on the
other side of some of the late summer cools circulating around.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
I was trying to think of like an Alison wonder
any weather or not your weathering the weather, but I.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
That's all I could come up with.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
It almost sounds like an Oasis lyric. Right, Oh god,
the lyrics are the worst by the.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
You know what, it's supernova in the sky.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
What even is that? How you walk down the hall
faster than a cannonball? I don't even that doesn't.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Make any sense to me. And then what was that
slowly walking faster than he's got dirty dishes on the brain.
There's a weird metaphor about washing dishes and romance. Anyway, nostalgia.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
I love that's the way we get in here, because
as seen as we're back together and we're all feeling
hail and harty, we might do something that you can't
do everywhere in America today. We might go to Atlanta's
Drive in theater.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Ben I think I maybe mentioned this not on the show.
I have been to the Starlight Drive in for like
a I've never seen a drive in movie ever. I've
never been to a drive in movie. It fully occupies
the realm of nostalgia, well not even real nostalgia, the
idea of like nostalgia for things that you never actually experienced,
(03:14):
you know. I think of movies like American Graffiti, you know,
I just think of like the Golden Age of Hollywood,
and you know, like girls on roller skates bringing you
your burgers, things like that.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I just I love old Hollywood culture, and the drive
in is squarely a part of that. We're gonna get
to kind of when that actually came along, because it
didn't start out that way, didn't.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
It did not.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
And we also have a big special announcement for Ridiculous Historians.
We're excited about this. Join us in welcoming our new
research associate. Nickname still TBD, but it's our.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Pal, Andrea.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Andrea is still TBD, And no where would where would
where would our friends and listeners in the art audience
tonight maybe recognize Andrea.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
From Andrea is the crack research associate for our sister podcast,
Ridiculous Crime, So doing excellent work over there and now
bringing her own patented brand of ridiculousness over here to
the OG podcast Ridiculous History.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Oh gosh, we are ogs.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
You know. That got to me the og.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Ridiculous OG's of ridiculousness here on iHeart Radio.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
I was hanging out somewhere I can't remember where last
year and got recognized and someone said, oh, you're an
OG of podcasting, And it is meant as a compliment,
but I.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
I would have taken it as such.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
I got voice clocked in line at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in New York, our good friend Jordan. It
always feels weird and lovely that people are randomly out
there in the world listening to our silly podcast.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
But it's true. Man, we've been doing this for a
long time.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
To quote either the The Sopranos or Goodfellas, it's really
hard to get in on the ground floor of something,
and we were lucky enough to be able to do that.
So we thank the podcast gods for that opportunity.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
And man, let's jump right into it.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Dude, I didn't know this, but the very first kind
of modern ish, well it's not really modern, just like again,
it's sort of vintage. But the notion of the design
of a drive in theater consisting of a screen, a projector,
and a space for cars, likely a concession stand of sorts,
was first scene at the Teatra di Guadalupe in New
(05:37):
Mexico in nineteen sixteen. So it is definitely still like
a Southwest originating thing. But this wasn't even considered like
a full drive in. It was a partial drive in.
It was erected in nineteen sixteen. The Rio Grand Republican
newspaper described it as having the ability to seat seven
hundred people in the auditorium, automobile entrances and places for
(06:00):
forty or more cars within the theater grounds, and inline
position to see the pictures and witness all the performances
on the stage. Is a feature of the place that
will please car owners.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
It's a hybrid. It's a hybrid.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
And one thing we also know about the Southwest car
culture baby big deal even to this day, car shows,
you know, muscle cars, all of these kind of things,
rims whatever. I'm not a supercar guy, but I know
you are. But it really is something that still is
a big deal in southern California and that part of
the world.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
And this, you know, journey back with this folks in
nineteen sixteen cars are very different than the cars you
would see here in twenty twenty four. You know, this
is the days of the of the jeloppies as they
would be called, and the augas. Yeah, this is an
I would say this is seen at the time in
(06:57):
New Mexico as a kind of fall word facing, cutting edge,
early adopter technology thing exactly right, right, And not a
lot of people own cars at this point, so it's
definitely a flex If you own a car, you want
people to see it. And it's still you know, it
still speaks to and we'll get into this, it still
speaks to a fundamental human drive that's been around since
(07:20):
the days of theater in ancient Greece and ancient China,
the idea of experiencing a story with other people around,
as Andrew puts it, watching a movie al Fresco, which
I loved, and yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Yeah, well yeah as an alfresco kind of like a picnic.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Isn't that what that means? I think?
Speaker 3 (07:42):
So, yeah, yeah, I believe it's sort of just like,
you know the idea of doing something outside, yeah, in
the outdoors, in the out but it's but usually when
some people talk about taking a meal alfresco. It's sort
of referring to a picnic idea, and that is neat
about the drive in experience because it's you're able to
kind of you got your own kind of mobile tent.
(08:02):
You know, you're almost like camping in a weird way.
And we'll get into some of the other factors that
made it really, really popular, but it's a little bit
easier to kind of do what you want, if that
makes sense.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah, we're a family show. Yeah, we'll get to it. Though.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
There's a reason people love to drive in Atlanta, and
this is something that is fascinating that we learned in
the course of research for this episode. Showing movies outdoors
at this time, pre nineteen sixteen, it was not a
novel concept in and of itself because then is now,
(08:40):
people would set up projector screens maybe on beaches or
other wide open spaces to quote the Dixie Chicks, and
they would watch silent films. There would often be musicians
who would play the score. Right, So this is a
heck of an evening. It's still a kind of party
that we would want to go to, and it hearkens
back again into the idea of watching live theatrical performances,
(09:04):
maybe in an amphitheater out in the Mediterranean countryside. We
know that there are some heroic characters, the pioneers of
drive in films, and that's where we need to introduce
you to our first protagonist of the story, Max. If
we could get some like profound cinematic music.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Really do it up there. It is Robert Is who
is strolling to find out who.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Is strolling onto the stage here, Noel, that would be
mister Richard Milton hollings Head Junior.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Quite the name and quite the legacy of this man
left behind. He was a big gear head, you know.
He was a movie fan as well, and he was
a sales manager at his father's company called Whiz Auto
Products over there in Camden, New Jersey, and he wanted
to combine his two loves movie theaters and movies and
(10:09):
car culture.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Like we said, so.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
He kind of, you know, brain birthed the idea of
the early park in theaters. Drive in is one of
those things that is maybe less coined by an individual
and maybe more just like a term that became what
people referred to him as, and then they sort of
got picked up widely I don't the concept, but not
the name. Well also, you know, I mean a drive
(10:33):
in is I guess you'd have that for like diners
and stuff too, like you have like a certain you know,
like Sonic, which is like the classic you know, drive
in food service situation. It all went kind of hand
in hand with that called car culture thing. But park
in it's not as sexy as it's not as active.
It's like we're.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Powering in with the power of automobiles.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
There were automobiles compels us.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Yes, there were drive ins as early as the nineteen tens,
by which we mean there were people driving to watch
stuff outdoors. But the concept as a patented notion first
opened on June sixth, nineteen thirty three. Our buddy Hollingshead
(11:19):
Junior got a location a sweet spot on Crescent Boulevard
in New Jersey. There's a bit of confusion here because
it's often reported that this drive in opened on Admiral
Wilson Boulevard in Camden, but it's not. It opened on
Crescent Boulevard in Don't kill me here, folks, Pensaken Township.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
I think that was a delightful attempt, if not nailed
its spot on That's what I would have said. Yeah,
And it's funny because I really do associate this the
drive in culture with the West Coast, and you know,
we do have that very very earliest one over there
in New Mexico. But this is kind of the more
the beginnings of the mainstreaming of drive in culture. And
(12:03):
then you mentioned the idea of patenting this. I find
that really interesting and I immediately was sort of like, huh, like,
how do you patent the idea of showing a movie outside?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
You know, I thought you were going to say, how
do you patent the idea of showing up somewhere?
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Wells that is part of it, though, Ben, isn't it
because you're not providing the cars. At this point, they
didn't even have like, you know, obviously there's going to
get to a point where they've got more innovative solutions
like the radio tunable speakers you know that you put
in your car directly personal speakers. But at this point
(12:38):
it's just a big old public address system outdoors and
a big screen and like cars that would pull up.
But he was granted a patent for this, and I
just find that interesting because it seems not particularly novel
because usually a patent requires something that's very very novel
and some sort of very specific design.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Right, Yeah, we should also do a weird history of
patents just so we can figure out how it works.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
We can even get into like the modern development of
like things like Patent Control IV.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Yeah, you know, this would also be immensely helpful to
me because I have a bunch of weird ideas for inventions,
and I swear to god they always sound crazy and
eccentric in my head until I read a news story
about someone doing that very thing, like the like the
screw tops for plastic bottles in Europe.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
They called me mad. They did call you mad, But
I think I told you.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
I used to have a bit of a kooky boss
who was very much of more of like the Ricky
Gervais version of the Michael Scott character in the office,
so a little bit more mean spirited and kind of
like really unpleasant, let's just say. But he was one
of these cats that would just drop these like wild ideas,
and the funniest one that everyone laughed at him about
was what if we had this powder that you put
(13:52):
in your water and it man, it gives it a
flavor and vitamins and it's going to be called wait.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
For it, H two woe. I love it. H two.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
I would have also accepted H two Wow. That would
have also worked. But yeah, man like that, you know
a couple of years past. That's absolutely a thing.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, I love that, and that's prescient. So flowers where
they're due. I had another one, and I'll keep the
short says nothing to do with drive. Ince I had
another one. I was super into this idea.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
It's like, hey, you.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Know how you you ever have that moment where you're
holding something expensive and fragile and you think, what if
I just broke this right just to sort of feel something?
And I said, we should make not a stark bend.
We should make not escape rooms, but break rooms where
you could pay money to go in, get an implement
of your choice, like a hammer, baseball bat, and we
(14:46):
could get a bunch of stuff from a thrift store,
and then you could just go nuts for a little
while breaking it. People said it was violet and crazy,
and now it's a successful thing that it was.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
It's been a I remember Tamika, our long time colleague,
mentioned several years back that she went to one of
those and it's a very I think it's a cathartic
way of releasing your attentions on like old computer screens
and stuff instead of like, you know, punching.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Somebody do that full support.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Oh maybe that will be our next business now of.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
A space you're talking about, right, They smashing the Facts machine.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
And I loved watching that. That's iconic, that that's something
that I'm glad that I watched that for the first
time with other people. With that sublid track, we get
the appeal of the films and that's the way.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
And people also had that same impetus. In nineteen thirty three,
they paid twenty five cents per car as well as
per person to watch films like the British comedy Lives Beware,
(15:57):
which I don't think either of us have seen, and
the local paper called this the first automobile movie theota
in the world. I have to pause here and all
because nineteen thirty three a quarter per car and per person.
It's pricey, right, I think that's right, Ben, And I
think that was part of some of the growing pains
(16:20):
of the early days of drive in movie theaters because
it's kind of interesting if you think about it. You're
paying for the privilege of sitting in your own car.
They don't even have to provide you a seat or
air conditioning. It almost seems a little a little bit
like a grift when you really break it down, doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yeah, you know, it hit me.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
I'm glad you're mentioning this. Not too long ago. It's
in a different city in Japan. We're reading at a
Yaqui Niku place, which is kind of like the Japanese
version koreem barbecue, and it hit me. I thought, hang on,
we're paying these folks to go to a restaurant where
we are the cooks.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Basically, that's right. It's brilliant, but it's also a feature,
not a bug in a lot of ways. It depends
on how you view it and what you're into. But
you know, some people are real particular about the dunness
of their meat, and you know, it's like barbecuing on
a table.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
And again, this is worth a little bit extra price
of admission because it feels like an adventure. You know,
you're taking your car, you're in the great outdoors, you're
sort of glamping in a way, and watching the movie.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
But there were problems though.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
There were problems that needed to be solved in terms
of things like visibility, maintaining an unobstructed line of sight
to the screen. And also again, like I mentioned that
PA system, it was one single sound source that was
supposed to hit all of the attendees sitting in their cars.
And if anyone knows anything about sound traveling over distance
(17:50):
connected to a picture, you're gonna get some lag there.
And that problem doesn't get solved until a little bit later.
So Halling said to backtrack just a little bit.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
He did get his.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Start working at an automotive parts company, Wiz Auto Parts Company,
founded by his father in the early years of the
twentieth century. They sold you know, lubrications, greases, oils, polishes,
turtle wax, things like that, and Hollings had considered he
looked at what his customers were buying and recognized that
(18:23):
people often would give up on food, clothing, automobiles.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
And movies in that order.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Like that was the the hierarchy of needs in the
depression exactly, Ben, Yeah, tell us more.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yeah, because and we see this pattern that haulings Head
astutely identifies. We see this in almost every time of
economic turmoil, people will give up the fancy meals, right,
you'll tighten your belt. Speaking of belts, you won't buy
as many name brand clothing items. You're probably not gonna
(18:59):
pony up the money for a new car. But you
will rationalize entertainment. You will rationalize things like you know,
vices too, honestly, alcoholics, bacco, movies.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Well, it's during the hardest of times that that kind
of escapism is the most crucial, you know, I mean, honestly,
if you think about it, movies and entertainment, it's just
our way of kind of biding our time until death.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
I mean, not to be too.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Gallowsy about it, but like we need those distractions to
kind of distract us from our mortality and from all
of the kind of heavy stuff. And during the heaviest
of times, that's what entertainment is the most valuable and
the most like crucial kind of for keeping you from
burning out and just having like a crisis of the soul.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
And Holly said, is really smart about his approach here.
Instead of immediately jumping into the real estate game, he
goes to his backyard. He sets up an outdoor theater.
It's a thing a lot of my friends in Atlanta
still do. It's very fun when the weather's dice. And
so his house is at two twelve Thomas Avenue in Riverton,
(20:06):
New Jersey. He gets a projection screen. He lets the
town know, and he says, all right, I'm gonna try
this thing out. It's going to be like a cool party.
He's I've got a nineteen twenty eight Kodak projector. I've
literally just nailed a screen to a tree in the back.
And he spends some time experimenting before he brings people
(20:29):
over and does a dry run. He is trying to
figure out the ideal home theater layout because as anybody
can tell you, anybody's been to a concert could tell you,
one of the worst things to happen is to go
to a place like this and to have your view blocked.
Have you ever been stuck behind like a pillar or
(20:49):
some kind of standing.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Pole, And God, you asked, it wasn't that egregious. But
I had never been to a place in year old
stomping grounds in Nashville, Tennessee into a show at the
Mother Church the Ryman Auditorium. Yeah, and I bought tickets
to go see the Flaming Lips there and I was
I thought they were seemed like really good seats in
(21:11):
terms of like the abe through z, you know, kind
of like how close you are to the stage.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
It was like a nice middle kind of ground or whatever.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
I got there only to realize they call it the
Mother Church because the place used to be an actual
church which has a balcony, and a whole bunch of
the seats are under the balcony. So while I wasn't
behind a pillar and most bands wouldn't use what you'd
call like the the entire you know, stretch of the prescenium,
Flaming Lips absolutely did. They had massive inflatables. They were
(21:42):
doing all kinds of crazy stuff way up in the sky, and.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
I was like, what's going on there?
Speaker 3 (21:46):
I mean, you'll totally left out, and like, yeah, I
couldn't see anything above that overhang of the balcony and
it was a little bit of a bummer, but I
still very much enjoyed it. But now I know pro
tip when you're going to the rhyman, make sure you're
not you know, you're you're shooting for either balcony seats
or something before the balcony cuts you off your view.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Yeah, I think the I've been to the Rhyman as well,
obviously being from Nashville, and the my favorite seats there,
as you said, like right on the lip of the
balcony on the second floor. They are very they are
still at least last time I was there. They're real
church views. It's weird.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Yeah, No, it was an incredible experience. It was a
wonderful place to see the show. Beautiful stained glass. But
just be mindful because if it hadn't been a band
that like was using all of that space, it wouldn't
have been a big deal. But like you know, Wayne Coyn,
He's like got this magical mechanical flying bird and it's
all zooming around. I'm like, I want to see the
flying bird, but I couldn't see it. But anyway, I digress.
So the logistics are a big part of this dude's thinking.
(22:47):
He's doing this test run in his backyard and he's
basically laying out how to best make sure that every
single seat in the house is the best seat in
the house.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
And he's doing some real mcgui stuff. He says, Okay,
what if I park the cars in this layout? No,
because you know, twenty percent of the people can't see.
How do I ensure that people who are parked behind
the first row of cars can also see instead of
just trying to like look through the rear view and
(23:18):
the windshield or the car in front of him. And
so he says, all right, I need a series of
terraced rows. I need raised ramps so that everybody has
a good chance of seeing each other. Now, granted this
is before the days of very tall, lifted trucks, you
know what I mean, they can ruin the views. Still
(23:38):
at a drive in, so collings Head places blocks under
the front wheels of cars and this adjust their height
until the driver who is further back can see over
the car in front. And if you go to a
drive in theater today, you'll notice that same kind of
pattern in the pavement. Right, And if you're driving slow,
(24:02):
you might not notice it, but if you pick up
any speed, then you noticed you're going over a series
of tiny hills.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
I mean if even at the Starlight drive in here
in Atlanta, I believe the whole thing is paved kind
of on an incline, you know, And like I think
the most successful venues typically that follow the whole The
classic tale is oldest time design of like an amphitheater
in Greek times would be that raked perspective because you know,
at the farther back you get, you got a little
bit of a rise, so therefore you can kind of
(24:30):
see over the heads or tail lights of the person
in front of you.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Mm hmm. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
And he also he also tried to envision what it
would be like in inclement weather, so he hit sprinklers
and he said, Okay, this is what it looks like
if you're really like this guy. Yeah, that's fun. I
love that you pointed out the importance of sound. He
was trying to figure out the best place to locate
a radio. He ultimately decided that he will put it
(24:56):
behind the screen, and this becase These became the key
tenants of what we call a drive in theater. There
was a personal note that comes to us per Jim
Copp of the United Drive in Theaters Owners Association, and
he says that at least part of Hauling Hollingshead's motivation
(25:19):
was to make a theater that his mom could enjoy.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Yeah, I can relate to this. My mother was a
larger lady, let's say, and this is something that he
was thinking about. He wanted to make sure that his
mother and folks of her, you know, ilk would enjoy
themselves as well. So a typical indoor theater. I mean, gosh, man,
have you been to like an old theater, like in
(25:51):
like La, like a like a real old movie theater.
Even here in Atlanta, the Plaza Theater, the seats are tight,
They're very uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
I'm a big enough and I could certainly still fit
in them.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
But someone much larger than me, I mean, that would
be prohibitive and would really make you feel not welcome,
especially if he can't move the arm rest You can't
move the arm rests, you know. I mean, it's it's
definitely no fun because of that sense of just this
is not a place for me, and he having you know,
this person who he loved, his mother, fall into that set.
(26:23):
He was very concerned with people that were a little
bit larger being able to enjoy a movie with the
rest of them without being judged or being uncomfortable. So
he stuck her in a car before any of this stuff.
This is almost like the germ of the idea, right,
and he stuck her in a car and put a
nineteen twenty eight projector on the hood of the car
and tied two sheets to trees in his yard. I'm sorry,
(26:45):
I'm gonna say it again. I like this guy. It's
very sweet.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
He's taking care of his mom. I think that's cool. Man.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
So this is again, you know, like kind of like
just the very first spark of the idea. Now he's
tested things and he's kind of all to the races.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
He sure is.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
And this would also this would be a neat movie, right,
the creation of the drive in film.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
I think it would.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Hollywood loves films about film. So anyway, he has made
these breakthroughs. His intentions are noble, his aspirations are pure,
and he says, look at all these things, I've figured out,
maybe this concept is specialized enough to be patented, because
(27:32):
something like this, with all these bells and conceptual whistles,
had not existed before he did successfully get a patent.
So every for like the next almost twenty years, for
the next seventeen years, all the other people who built
drive in theaters ended up paying him royalties. If you
look at his patent application from August sixth, nineteen thirty two.
(27:56):
He says, my invention relates to a new and useful
out to a theater, where by the transportation facilities to
and from the THEATO on me to constitute an element
of the CD facilities. Super sexy writing. He does get
the patent number one million, nine hundred and nine thousand,
five hundred and thirty seven. The day the patent paperwork
comes through, they start building the thing.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Well, you know, and earlier I was kind of poo
pooing the idea of like granting a patent for something
like this, because it really is even when you look
at there is a design, you know. And then I
certainly got to give the guy credit. He did some testing,
he figured out the best arrangement for cars. But if
you really look at it, it really is just kind
of like I guess the novel thing must have been
the series of ramps, right, because that's the only kind
(28:40):
of inventioning part of this, because when you look at it,
you know, and the graphic we have here is kind
of small, but it really does look like a sketch
of like you should Greek theater, like an outdoor amphitheater,
And the only difference is that it's cars, but he's
not providing the cars. It's just an open space, you know,
where a car can go. And I believe there'll become
later down the line. This patent gets called into question.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Yeah, nice foreshadowing there, man, Because of course it will.
That's how these things work. So him and his buddy
Willie Warren Smith have formed their theater, or that formed
their company, park In Theaters Incorporated. And they bring another
guy on, a contractor named Edward Ellis, and he is
(29:26):
our It's like if they're putting together a highst crew.
He's the pavement man. He's the paveman, and he's the
guy who grades up the lot for the first theater
to make it conform to Holling's head's designs. And he
does this work not for cash but for stock shares
(29:46):
in the company. And then there's another guy who, in
my opinion, comes out of left field. His name's Oliver Willitts.
He's a big mukety muckett Campbell's soup. He's a soupman.
I can only picture the conversation where he's like, there
are two things I like soup and the movies.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
The pictures he what have called them?
Speaker 1 (30:08):
So we've We've got a varied crew of specialists. We've
got the parking lot operator, Willie Warden Smith, he's kind
of the money. Hollins Head is the brains, Edward Ellis
is the pavement, and then the soup guy you know,
is also there.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Yeah, well, yeah, I've been.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
I want to take a quick pause here just to
point something out that I noticed and really cool graphic
that Andrew included in the research document. It's an advertisement
on the side of a building, or maybe this is
actually the backside of the screen. I know, for example,
at the Starlight in Atlanta, the screen is this massive
thing and on the back of it they have like
(30:49):
text and advertising. But this is drive in theater, World's
first sit in your car, see and hear movies. It's
not only is it twenty five cents per person, it's
twenty five cents per car.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Right, yeah, so you pay as well a quarter for
the car, and then if you have let's say three
people in the car, then you're out a dollar.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
I know that seems high, and we're gonna get to that.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
It does seem high, and it actually causes a little
bit of a stir. And this monopoly that Hollingsworth has
over the industry, starts to kind of ease up a.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Little bit, and here will pause for a brief intermission,
just like a long film, because this is a two
part episode. The first time I saw a film that
had a long intermission, it was a Civil War film
called Gettysburg that my dad dragged me to, and I
(31:43):
was probably too young to watch an in depth four
hour film about the American Civil War?
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Was that the one with Matthew Broderick in it? Or
what am I thinking of?
Speaker 3 (31:54):
There was another one that was like with Matthew Broderick
and Denzel Washington that I thought day off.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Was it was it called matt X. Is that Glory? Yeah?
It was. It was Glory exactly. That was a big
one as well, you know.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
I actually it's funny a lot of times when they
show old movies on TV, they little have an intermission
built in. They just like leave the little card on
there for a while. But I thought it was pretty cool.
When quin Tarantino released The Hateful Eight, they did a
road show of the like seventy millimeter print of it,
and it had a proper intermission, which I thought was
(32:29):
really nostalgic and fun.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
So did Gettysburg.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
I just realized as we're wrapping up this episode, Gettysburg
is four hours and fourteen minutes long, and to this day,
that makes it the longest film ever theatrically released by
a big time studio at the United States.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
So, Dad, if you're hearing this, I'm.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Still sore about that man, because I thought that was
I thought that was the end of the movie. I
escaped to the bathroom and I got pulled back. I
know too much about Gettysburg.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Do you remember back in those days where when you
would rent movies like that from Blockbusters, they'd be like
six VHS tapes and they'd all be kind of rubber
banded together in this weird little hinged clamshell array.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Dude, did I tell you the first time I watched
the Godfather series dating myself here, I rented it from
Blockbuster and the tapes were out of order, so is
the set of The Godfather and Godfather Too. And because
the tapes were out of no I watched the first one,
the first tape of Godfather one, and I actually put in,
(33:33):
you know, like the first or second tape of Godfather too,
and I thought this is crazy.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
The way they're jumping around in.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Time, but there already is some jumping around anyway, so
you could even be made to believe that you were
barking up the right tree.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
But that's fascinating. But we'll tell you what else is fascinating.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
The history of drive in movie theaters and old Hollywood
and the technological revolution that came along with the boom times.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Of drive in.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
So don't we end this episode we're today part one
of you Auto go to the drive in the history
of drive in movie here, as named by our crack
research associate extraordinaire Andrea. Thanks again for this inaugural contribution
to ridiculous history.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Big big thanks to our super producer, mister Max Williams.
Big thanks to Alex Williams who composed this cinematic masterpiece
that is our theme song. Thanks also to ag Bahama's
Jacobs do check out his show The Puzzler, And thanks
to Jonathan Strickland aka the quizt.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
Huge thanks to Christophrasiotis and he was Jeff Coats here
in spirit to Max Williams. If you've already thanked Max,
I'm thanking you again.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
He's so nice, you got it.
Speaker 3 (34:43):
Thank him twice and of course Ben, thanks to you
for taking this ride with us.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
It's been a good one and they're looking forward to
part two. Oh yeah, Well, see you next time, folks.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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