August 29, 2024 • 45 mins
What made drive-in theatres so iconic? What led to their demise? In the second part of this week's two-part episode, Ben, Noel and Max investigate the rise and fall of the old-school drive-in.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome back to the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as
always so much for tuning in. Quick housekeeping note, this
is part two of the history of drive in theaters.
Please listen to part one so you're not lost like
I was when I mixed up the VHS tapes of
The Godfather from Blockbuster. Big shout out to our super producer,
mister Max Williams.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Well, heck, why don't we just jump right into the
episode already in progress.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
So halling's worth.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
You know, we've kind of hinted at some of the
I guess flexibility that going to a drive in movie
would afford you. Hongsworth promoted those the idea that you
could smoke without bothering anybody or violating any fire laws
for indoor theaters. Although this at this point, weren't you
basically allowed to smoke everywhere?
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Irrelevant neither here nor there.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
The point is you could definitely have your own little
bubble where you wouldn't be bothering anybody. I like that idea.
It certainly makes a lot of sense. This is something
I did not even consider. Ben you could talk during
the movie. Of course, you know, your own little group.
You're not bothering your neighbors. But you could also bring
your kids and have them sleep in the back of
(01:41):
the car, you know, while you were watching a movie,
and you wouldn't have to pay a babysitter, because back
in those days, movie night was like date night, and
this was a real easy way if your family and
you don't want to pony up for a babysitter, that
you just bring them along and then have them kind
of snooze it in the back.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Also helps with the pitch for the price point because
you can say, hey, you're saving money on a babysitter, really,
so you're not spending that much money. If you are
a person who has mobility issues maybe or an elderly
person or may have some weight issues, this also gives you.
(02:19):
This also frees you from the narrow aisles we discussed earlier,
and it gives you a little bit of privacy too,
which is great for you.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Know, heavy petting, heavy pet.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Petting, but it's also great for someone who might, for
one reason or another, feel a little uncomfortable in a
large crowd, if they feel like people are staring at
them and stuff, and.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
So no doubt. Yeah, there's a lot, lot to like,
lot to like in the model.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
And hollings hollings Head also points out, you know, if
you are worried that your baby might be crying or something,
you can just kind of roll up the windows. The
whole family is welcome, regardless of how noisy the children are.
This is a bit operation. You can see the picture.
You can see photographs that Andrea pulled of it. This
(03:06):
thing held a little less than four hundred cars, which
is still a lot of cars, just not as considering
there's multiple people per car right right, and the screen
is big. It's thirty feet high, forty feet wide, suspended
twelve feet from the ground. It's housed in this larger structure.
The field is paved, but it's paved with gravel, and
(03:30):
they are the thing with gravels. It generates a lot
of dust, right, so they oil the gravel to keep
the dust down and reduce the population of mosquitoes. They've
got three like six foot square speakers RCA speakers, and
it's very loud, so this also helps solve the crying
(03:51):
baby situation because it's so loud, the baby'll just be
part of the soundtrack. At that point, it does for sure,
but again I'm planned this out earlier. Like if you've
ever been to a concert where they have like a
lawn you know, lawn seats, you will notice they have
a second set of speakers that is just for that.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
It's like extension because if you didn't, there.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Is a a audible and the visible disconnect between the
sink of like the mouths moving on the screen or
by the performers. Because sound literally is vibration carried over air,
and there is a delay, there is a lag. So
I mentioned that. So that is a problem that they
eventually had to address. Another brilliant part of this in
(04:32):
terms of like a money making scheme, I guess is
you're you're responsible for your own air conditioning, Like I
don't know did they did cars have actual like free
on powered air conditioning at this point, No, so they
would have maybe had just had their own fans. And
even at this point, you know, we always hear about
(04:53):
movie theaters were a great source of air conditioning, you know,
when people would go buy a ticket to the movie
theaters just to sit in the air condition in New York.
But at this point we're in the thirties and do
we have that type of modern air conditioning or refrigeration.
I think it was probably around the thirties that that
started cars, not quite like indoor in general, just in
(05:16):
general indoor.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
AC I know for cars was in the forties and
then the fifties. It started in the forties, I want
to say, so I would assume that they had indoor
AC unit.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
They had to.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
They had indoor AC units for structures before they had
the mobile and automobiles. Right, That just mean it was.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
There was early thirties.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
The Packard, which I know you talked about on car stuff,
was a luxury, mega luxury automobile that had the first
semblance of indoor air conditioning.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Yeah, but these were, like.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
The packer crowd was at best a very small portion
of one percent, And it wouldn't be until the mid
fifties that that, you know, it became more mainstream.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
So point being, the proprietors.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Of the drive ins were able to save quite a
bit on their energy bill.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yes, and they also discovered something that was common in
theaters then and now, which is the idea of a
captive market. Now, the drive in would let you take
your own food in. At this point they were more
than happy if you had, you know, a picnic basket.
It was just like, yeah, they're just like a bucket
of chestnuts. They really didn't care.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
It's very specific.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
What they did discover, though, is even if they didn't
have a law banning or a policy banning outside food
and drink, if they started a concession stand, people would
spend money there because it's part.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Of the experience.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
And I do wonder, we don't really have anything about
this ben but I imagined it was probably also okay
to bring your own boothe ooh.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
That that might be a sticky subject. I guess drunk
driving laws well well established at this point, not because
everybody was drunk, but because fewer people were driving. Let's see,
prohibition ended in nineteen thirty three, so this would be
(07:22):
so alcohol itself was still very verboten. I think by
June sixth, nineteen thirty three when the drive in theater opened.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
So probably a conversation that wouldn't start for a little bit.
But you know what, I'm sure people were bringing their
little flasks.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
You know, what's that old line.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
People will vote for prohibitions so long as they can stagger.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
To the polls. That's funny.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
No, Yeah, Unfortunately it's true too because a lot of
the members of it's a joke that refers to politicians
and members of Congress who would always vote for prohibition
but then have their secret stash at their home for
their fancy parties. It was somewhat hypocritical, kind of like
how the leader of North Korea uh loves Western chocolates.
(08:10):
I walked down the street for that one.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
But I'm yeah, for sure, what like dove, Like, what
do you mean Western chocolate? It's just like crappy chocolate
like her bars. He looks, yeah, yeah, he loves all
the Western treats.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Max what she got?
Speaker 5 (08:22):
So what I got is, actually no, I'm going to
reference Boardwalk Empire. I believe in the first episode, Steve
Shimmy is like at a prohibition speech talking about like
how great prohibition is. He walks out immediately and starts
strinking from his flask.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Yeah, oh a million percent. Steve Bushimmy from the cinematic
masterpiece Vibes.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
He's done Vibes. He's in a.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Minor character though, right, he's not a He's not like
a major play. Steve Shimmy does not do minor characters.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Steve shut into a wood Shipper. Yeah, wow, spoiler. No,
don't know, twenty plus year old movie.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
I think it's okay. So what we didn't say? Witch movie?
Speaker 4 (08:59):
No, that's true. Not the math, though you can do
the mathough. Who is the co star of Vibes.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
It's Jeff Goldbloom and Cindy Lauper.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Cindy Lauper, Jeff Goldblum.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
I actually I think I've made this hot take on
something I want you to know. The other day I
would argue Vibes superior to Ghostbusters.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
I really appreciate that. I still just being kind to
one of my many obsessions.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
But I am being what they call Koi Koi, like
one of this big Asian fish.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Dude, I have to send you a picture I saw
the most massive I saw Kaiju Koi. Oh jeez, I'll
send it to you. But but there's excitement here. People
are gassed throughout New Jersey about this, and more and
more newspapers are reporting on this, first as an oddity,
but then as a possible future of cinema. Sad news,
(09:53):
though a bit of a womp womp. The very first
park in theater did not last long, we said June sixth,
nineteen thirty three was the opening night. By this point
they called it. The public called it the drive in Theater,
but the actual name was Automobile Movie Theater, and so
(10:14):
the public crowd sourced the name they preferred. That's usually
how it goes, right, And yeah, it kind of just
gets adopted. What And this first theater soldiered on for
three years and it closed in nineteen thirty six. A
guy bought the concept from Halling's head and moved the
(10:35):
location to Union, New Jersey. Halling said loved the idea,
the public loved the idea too, but he had really
difficult financial challenges with it. He said, look, I can't
make money off this. It's a beautiful idea. Everybody loves it,
but I just can't turn a profit with it because
(10:57):
I have to pay the studios the film rental cost,
which I still think is the one of the number
one cost of theaters today.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Right. I do believe that's right. And Ben will get
to this as well.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
But you remember in stuff they I want you to know,
not terribly long ago, we did an episode about them,
the Golden Age of Hollywood and how the studios owned
all the theaters and they would like trying to squeeze
out any competition by charging these exorbitant rental fees. So
this was not conducive to, you know, starting a mom
(11:30):
and pop kind of business where you were playing the
movies because you're paying so much. You know to the
studios that it is hard to turn a profit. That's
exactly right, and we're going to see how this tide
kind of turns in a bit because of some happenstance.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yes, yeah, Also to your earlier point, the sound was
horrible because of the location of the screen oiling. The
gravel did not eliminate insects as well as they had hoped.
Ticket prices were higher still than your average orthodox theater,
and this all, all these factors together made it really
(12:08):
difficult to turn a profit. So it made sense for
Hollingshead to sell this, to sell this concept to someone else.
But the idea is still caught on by now. It
was ensconced within the zeitgeist of America. And if we
fast forward to the post World War two economic boom,
(12:29):
we see drive ins are proliferating across the United States.
And this is where we get to that kind of
golden age of drive ins. And Hollywood culture because by
far and away one of the most popular locations for
drive ins was the state of California, and.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
It caught on.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
So it became so popular that hollings Head patent got
overturned in nineteen forty nine, so now anybody could open
a drive in theaters wildwide.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Curious about that, I mentioned that that was kind of
coming but overturned. Why because, I mean, wasn't the someone
bought the concept from him when he was having a
hard time turning a profit. I would assume that would
come with the patent as well. If you bought the concepts,
you know, then you would sign that over. But was
it because of that lack of novelty that they rethought this?
Speaker 2 (13:21):
I think maybe there's a way to renew the patent again,
another reason we should do an episode on this. But
at the time, when you got a patent in the
nineteen thirties, you would have a period of seventeen years
of exclusivity, after which time your patent would.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Expire, unless you're Mickey Mouse, in which case you can
just bend the laws of man and nature, you know,
to your whims. And that's what allowed Mickey to stay
out of the public domain until very very very very recently,
literally like I think last year.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
Yeah, it's only one version of me too.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
It's like the steamboat Willie Oldest oldest og version of
Mickey Mouse.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
And so there is this this massive exponential growth of
drive in theaters. One of the most famous was the
All Weather drive in out in New York State. They
have parking spaces for two thy five hundred cars. They
had a kid's playground forget, a concession stand, they had
a restaurant.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
A fun night out. You know, the movie's just a
part of it at this there really is. And we'll
get into some extra little add on features that I
had no idea about that Andrea Fountain that are super fascinating.
But you know, it makes sense too, by the way, Ben,
that California would be kind of ground zero for this
stuff because the weather is just always kind of the same,
you know, it very rarely rains. It's usually a nice
(14:48):
cool seventy two degrees or whatever, you know, ocean breezes
and stuff. Similar reason that there is such a issue
with unhoused folks, you know, in California, because it's just
a great place to be able to sleep outdoors.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Not a great place.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
I mean, it's still a tough life, but much more
so than in say New Jersey, you know, or New York,
where you never really know what the weather's gonna do.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Mm hmm, yeah, similar argument with Hawaii. Right, So, California
is the most well known destination for drive ins, but
about forty percent of drive ins are located in the Midwest.
And that's because there are all these small suburban towns
that are popping up as suburbs or exurbs of large cities.
(15:31):
And when you have those places pop up on the
the outskirts of a metropolis, you're also going to find
a lot of cheap land, and that's what you need
for a profitable drive in theater.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
It makes me think of like the parking lot king
of you know, insert city here, where it's like, yeah,
it's the barrier to entry is just you got to
have like kind of like a uniformly shaped plot of
land and then you can just it's really to PLoP
all this stuff down. You just got to invest in
the screen. And then as we also find that the
(16:06):
screens ended up being billboards in and of themselves, like
they would like to attract people to come to the
to the to the drive ins. They would make these
elaborate murals on the back ends, the backsides of the screens.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Oh yeah, this was great.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
This is the age of the This is a great
time to be a muralist in America. There was a
Compton drive in that had a huge Viking ship painted
on it. There was in Loma Linda there was this
iconic depiction of skiers going down the slopes, and then
there's so many other examples and they've become kind of
(16:44):
iconic indicators of the time in which they were created.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Well, and it's also like there's a really cool Instagram
account that I follow. I think it's called like the
Neon Signs of Old Hollywood or something like that, and
it's just got fabulous vintage photographs, a lot of these
incorre raided neon you know, into until where you start
they start to almost resemble like the outside of a
Vegas casino. But this is just a really cool period
(17:08):
in history in Hollywood and Southern California, just really iconic,
just feels really classic, And you know, I'm a big fan.
The al Monty drive in, you know, featured like sort
of like a like a Spanish dancer. I want to say, like,
you know, with like a kind of a leg out,
you know, were a Flamenco dancer, as Adam Durantz of
(17:28):
The Counting Crows with says, show me some of that
Spanish dancing and pass me a bottle, mister Jones at
the drive in. But yeah, I love this stuff man,
and I'm a big I'm a sucker for this period
in Hollywood history.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
We love this nostalogy. Yeah, agreed. Also, I got radicalized
and I didn't get Flamenco until I saw a live
Flamenco show.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
It is the way you sounded just for me. It
sound like it was a disease. I never got Flamenco until.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
I thought it was vaccinated. I thought it was safe.
And then they brought out the little clackety clacketty things.
It was amazing.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
They're called castanets.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Cast nets. That's right, that's so cool. So drive ins
become incredibly popular to see and.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
Be seen spots. Yeah, twenty years on from.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
The original kind of concept, you know, there's a real
boom for several reasons. The prices have gone down, they've
sorted out some of those issues that we were talking
about like with the disconnect from the screen. It's the
fifties that's really the golden age of drive ins.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Yeah, by this point in the fifties and sixties, there
are more than four thousand drive ins throughout the US.
Most of them are in rural areas due to land costs,
and they're a space that you know, they're kind of
what we will call the third space, which is very
important for communities the third the third space argument is
(18:56):
that your first space is your home, and then you
have a second space, which is where you go to work.
And if you don't have a third space, it's really
difficult to build a community. So this is an affordable
date night option. The escapism that you mentioned is there
you're on a roller coaster the mind, depending what film
you see. By nineteen fifty eight, the number of drive
(19:19):
in theaters has reached its peak. During this halcyon age,
there were four thousand and sixty three recorded drive in
theaters in the US alone. They became, you know, the
hot date spot, the date night for parents, the family
night for children. And there's a great quote from a
(19:40):
guy who mentioned earlier our pal cop. He says drive
ins started to really take off in the fifties, they
offered family entertainment. People could sit in their cars, they
could bring their babies, they could smoke the parents, not
the babies, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
But anyway everywhere back in those days, it may cigure
it's just for babies.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
If I'm not mistaken, Yeah, I camel can exactly.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
It is really comical though, But then we start to
see some of these other innovations right where they had
these special speakers that you could mount inside your car
that would give you your own personal feed of the
audio from the movie, and that cut down on the
issues with the lag and the delay, and it was
just a lot more self contained, right, mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah it was. And also there is a this is
almost like a grassroots movement because the powers that be
in Hollywood, the studio executives right who have an iron
grip on most of the industry, they think drive ins
are a dumb idea, because the c suite folks at
(20:45):
Warner and Paramount are saying, why would you go out
in a field to watch a movie? What a bunch
of hicks. Everybody knows the proper way to experience cinema
is in our own, super classy, exclusive thing they kind
of mimic European theaters like.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
The China's Own though, right that we own.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Yeah, that's the quiet part.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
So at first they're not playing ball with these smaller
family owned operations. But it gets to a place though
where drive ins have kind of, I guess, really captured
the zeitgeist of the time, and they're starting to be
written about in like, you know, popular music. The Everly
Brothers wake Up Little Susie in nineteen fifty seven, Yeah, yeah,
(21:28):
tells the story of Susie and her boyfriend waking up
late at a drive in. Beach boys, you know, obviously
wrote about drive ins. It was just part of that
car culture thing in southern California. Elvis Presley loved the
drive ins. You started to see all of these like
kind of beach movies like Beach Blanket Bingo and Muscle
Beach Party, and you know, talking about your Woody, which
(21:50):
was a type of station wagon just get our minds
out of the gutters folks with those woodpaneled sides kind of.
But yeah, this it was so inescapably part of the
culture that Hollywood eventually kind of had to acquiesce, but
they didn't do it until it was just kind of
like undeniable right right.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Until the as you would say, as our Powell, Malcolm
Gladwell would say, until the tipping point had passed. And
so when studio executives were forced to play ball with
drive ins, they took advantage of one thing that they
knew would work. They would have their stars make personal
(22:32):
appearances at drive in venues during the screening of one
of their films. So this is where we see things
like September thirteenth, nineteen thirty four, when a Columbia Pictures
actress named Billy Seward went to LA's first drive in
to promote films by Columbia. And also at this point,
(22:54):
you know, as we mentioned in our stuff they don't
want you in know episode, these studios basically owned the
actors and the actresses, and they didn't have the best lives.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
When you when you talk about the idea of actors
being under contract to studios, it was almost like they
were in like you said, Ben like indentured servants, where
they had certain number of pictures they had to complete.
They were contractually obligated to do these press tours and
these press appearances. And you know, I would I would
argue that maybe today actors have a little bit more
(23:25):
power or they recognize their power versus these Golden era
type deals where the studio really wielded almost all of
the power because they had such an iron fisted grasp
over you know, everything from the theaters to to the
the scripts, to the intellectual property and all of it.
So actors were really beholden and they would usually be
(23:45):
under contract to a single studio for like their entire
career or off exactly.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Yeah, and it could be a really tough life.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
There was sure you'd get public attention and fame, but
you also aren't really your own person in many respects.
It's probably the closest analogue to that situation today is
to look at jpop and K pop stars, you know
what I mean, who are not even allowed to publicize
romantic relationships in some cases.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Or the romantic relationships would be like arranged practically, you
know what I mean, Yeah, like you gotta we need
this union of our houses almost right, Like it's pretty
pretty sketchy, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
And so a lot of stars follow Columbia's earlier example
and they say, these outdoor appearances are a way for
us to press, the flesh, appeal to new audiences, get
people excited, and eventually all theater companies started to include
drive ins in their screen counts. Right, so it became
(24:50):
an expected and normalized aspect of a studio's business. If
you go to Pacific Theaters out in La you see
they started as a exclusively as a drive in theater company,
and they eventually owned more than one hundred and ten locations.
There was a great interview with Michael Foreman, who was
(25:10):
president of Pacific, and he started talking about the grassroots
thing we mentioned, right, like, now these new up and comers,
these upstarts can actually swing above their weight glass and
buck with the studios.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
So Michael Foreman, who is the president of the once
again family owned Pacific Drive In, had this to say
about when the whole situation kind of became undeniable because
of the geography of it all. He said, since we
were actually located in Hollywood, the studios could not ignore us.
We were able to get first run product, and we
utilized movie stars to promote the outdoor venue. We hosted
(25:49):
huge premiere parties for drive in showings. One evening, I
will never forget a very young raquel welch hubba hubbah,
that's me. Appeared for the grand opening of our Fountain
Valley location Edwards Theaters, which is another chain, a smaller chain. Again,
all of these were like kind of mom and pop,
but the boom happened and it allowed them to really spread.
They jumped on this bandwagon as well, and the company
(26:12):
selected the nineteen fifties absolute smash comedy duo Lewis and Martin.
Some of that stuff really holds up, by the way,
Jerry Lewis being the kooky guy, Dean Martin kind of
being the suave straight man. They appeared alongside a noted
Southern California architect named Jay Arthur Drillsma in order to
(26:34):
introduce the press to some of their new outdoor locations.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Yes, branded advertising, and so with this marriage of entertainment
and high fin ads we see we see a quick
evolution not just in the location of films or where
these films are viewed, but in the kind of films
(26:59):
that are created. Because in a indoor theater, the film
itself is entirely the focus of the experience. In an
outdoor theater and a drive in people are finding the
film sometimes becomes just a piece of the Stultz. Right,
it even becomes a background. Right, you're there to make
(27:19):
out Netflix and Chill was way before Netflix.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
Well, it's funny.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
I think I briefly mentioned that Elvis was a big
fan of of the drive ins and he started started
starring in these let's just call him kind of puff
piece type films.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
Dumb dude, that's right.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Because it didn't matter if you if you missed a
little bit of it going to grab you know, some
some popcorn and a soda pop from the concessions. It
didn't matter because there really wasn't a much plot to
speak of in movies like Blue Hawaii and Fun in Acapulco.
If the names aren't enough of a giveaway, there Mami
van Doren, another big Hollywood actor name of the time.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
I have this to say.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
I often attended drive ins around Hollywood, many times with
my mother in the front seat. We were there to
critique one of my films. At the drive in. No
one would know I was watching my own work.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Right, y, you could be anonymous, and that anonymity is
a huge deal, as we in the world of podcasting
can tell you. Kidding, but the idea is really appealing.
You're a Gary Cooper, you're a Clark Gable. You will
get mobbed by fans if you go to the deli
or you go anywhere in public. You can't move like
(28:34):
a civilian at this point unless you are in the
drive in theater. And that's where we see people going
to a lot of drive ins in Hollywood. They were
one of the best places to encounter a celebrity. Though
you might not know that that was who was in
the car next to you. We also know that there
(28:54):
were people like Roy Rogers who leaned into it and
made their own drive in movie clubs. The Roy Rogers
Writers Club grew to two million members at its peak.
A lot of people launched their careers in these sort
of as we would say, lightweight drive in movies where
(29:14):
the plot wasn't as important as spectacle. Jack Nicholson, Clint Eastwood,
Michael Landon. They came from this age of drive in theaters,
and drive in theaters were mostly known for B movies,
but some of them had had the more intellectual fair right,
I would say.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
I suppose so, but it did kind of evolve or
devolve into even being like more on the racy side,
you know, like adult entertainment type vibes. Because you started
to stop seeing as many first run drive ins, it
became much more of a you.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
Know, specialty kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Let's just say, slasher films, for example, exploit Haitian films
even you know, and that's sort of where it is today.
In a lot of ways, it does feel like this
nostalgia play where while the you know, the theater here
in Atlanta does show first run films, they'll do these
kind of events that are more like geared towards nostalgia
(30:18):
of it all.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
And that's you know, everybody loves the.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
Idea of going to see Maybe not everybody, but if
you're into horror, going to see like a good double
feature slasher movie.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
You know, double features are still a big thing. And we're,
as we'll see, we in Atlanta are immensely fortunate to
have a drive in theater. Because you might be saying, hey, Ben, hey,
Nol and Max, I get that drive in theaters were
such a big deal. But if what you're telling me
is true, why isn't there a drive in theater in
(30:50):
my town? This is where we see that some of
this same things that made drive ins appealing to audiences
and as a business ultimately led to the downfall of
the industry. Because we talked about how drive in theaters
(31:12):
in post World War two were very successful because the
land was cheap. What happens when the land is no
longer cheap, Well.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
It's harder to get, it's more sought after, and it's
definitely the bottom line starts to become a little bit
less tenable for these types of businesses.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Yeah, let's go to d Vogel, owner of Benji's drive In,
which is located near Baltimore, Maryland, and said, look, Vogel said,
a lot of drive ins folded because the price of
land started going up. People were incentivized to move to
these suburbs and these exurbs. And as more people moved
(31:55):
in and more stuff got developed, the land became expensive.
What used to be the outskirts of town next to
a farm was suddenly not as cheap to your point there,
Nol and people would build on the outskirts. The town
would grow, and then a lot of these drive ins,
like said earlier, mom and pop businesses, and sometimes the
kids just wouldn't want to continue the family business. So
(32:18):
drive ins began to decline. Across the country. You needed
like fifteen acres of land to have an effective drive in,
So it became more profitable for these drive in owners
to sell their land to real estate developers who wanted
to make a mall or one of those sort of
(32:39):
you know, live, laugh, love mixed use complexes. That's the
right phrase, mixed.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
Use complex Oh yeah, no, it certainly is.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
And then we haven't really mentioned it yet, but there
is another big disadvantage for drive in movie theaters.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
They only work at night, for sure, And you know
that obviously. We mentioned that.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
One of the reasons southern California was such a hotbed
of drive in is because of the pretty predictable and
continuously quite nice weather. But during the seventies oil crisis,
people started to have to downsize their car in order
to save money on the increasingly expensive cost of gas.
So watching a movie in the drive in with your
(33:25):
you know, ac blasting started to seem a little more luxurious,
kind of, you know, And and then you also, it's
like a video killed the radio star video also kind
of killed the drive in. VCRs made it a lot
more appealing to stay at home and watch the movies
with your family without having to pay you know, that
(33:46):
inflated cost of going to the drive in. Not to mention,
you're burning gas if you're sitting there right in the
ac So it made sense to make up for that
lost revenue. Drive in started losing that family friendly atmosphere
and began to head more towards what we were talking
about a moment ago, even involving X rated content. So
(34:07):
that's when the drive in became a little more of
a niche thing. I just don't know how I would
feel man about watching an X rated film in a
car in a field with a bunch of other cars.
What's the walk to concessions?
Speaker 4 (34:25):
Like there?
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Not to be crass, but it seems preferable to watching
it in a brick and mortar, sit down theater. True,
I think some of the same options, some of the
same rules of privacy would apply in this situation as
well or the benefits. Right, So, yeah, you do start
to see the drive in becoming a little more on
(34:47):
the trashy side, a little CD.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Yeah, and again, you know, the indoor theaters have this
huge profit advantage because they can show a film five
or six times a day, right, And people started trying
these alternative solutions right to keep the theaters afloat. Like
you said, they change the content that we're showing, that
(35:10):
they're showing. In many cases, they start opening extra screens
like our drive in theater has what uh starlight has
what to four screens?
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Do?
Speaker 4 (35:24):
I think more than they have two?
Speaker 2 (35:26):
But they do double features. That's that's right. Yeah, Max
jumped in and then jumped off.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
Jumped in for a nod.
Speaker 5 (35:34):
I was jumping into confirm that, and then guess confirmed
it yourself.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
So I'm like, goodbye, okay, Max with the facts though
it's been Hey, Max was always with the facts.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
That seeking in the phone and peaceful in knowledge. It's
just for you right now.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
The So that leaves us, you know, in today's world
obviously in the movie theaters in general, because the pandemic
have seen some real struggles and it seems only just
now are kind of coming back to a degree, you know,
where people are you know, getting their butts back in
the seats. We have some kind of interesting gimmicks, even
(36:15):
like in you know, we've got IMAX obviously the big
three D spectacles are My preference is the IMAX when
it's not three D and it's just a big, massive screen.
Speaker 4 (36:24):
Yeah, you have these four D movie things.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Have you seen this ben where the seats move around
like a crappy roller coaster and sprints you with like
air and.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
Water.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
It's I think it's important to experience that because it
comes back from the days. It harkens back to the
days of shock cinema, you know, where like ooh, the
vibratraud and things like that, And it also reminds us
a little bit of you know, universal studio rides, right,
which are always kind of cool. I don't know if
I need it for a film.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
I've only been to one screening of a film that
you used this, and I did not realize that's what
I was buying. And it was an anime. It was
this Demon Slayer film, you know, like a like a feature,
and it didn't make any sense. The chairs were moving
around for no good reason. But I heard that like
they've gotten a little bit better and that most recent
(37:17):
Twisters reboot apparently the forty experience was a lot of
fun for something like that, which I could see.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
It has to jibe with the content of the film,
Like three D film makes sense for blockbuster science fiction
more so than French art house cinema, right, although now
that we're describing this, I'm wondering what the romance or
the sex scenes would be like you know what I mean,
how do the seats move in that case?
Speaker 4 (37:45):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Story, yeah, right.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
No, it's true.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
But I guess the reason I bring that up is
it largely feels like, you know, I went and saw
a thirty five millimeter projection of long Legs the other day.
And yes, thirty five millimeter is objectively less pristine than
the digital you know, high super super high four K projectors.
Speaker 4 (38:07):
But there's something cool and nostalgic about it.
Speaker 3 (38:09):
And like, now, if you go to you know, cities
like New York or LA, you'll have like places in
New York like the Nighthawk, which is a just a classic,
you know, old school type theater that will show regularly.
They'll program things in thirty five millimeters. So to me,
the drive in sort of is filling that same role
where it has this like vintage kind of nostalgic quality
(38:30):
to it, and you're going there to see interestingly programmed material,
you know, and usually in an analog format.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
And now we see the proliferation of indoor multiplex and
megaplex outfits, you know, your huge regals, AMCs and whatnot.
And the reason that they have so many screens now
is because it's not unusual to be loved by anyone. Kidding.
It's not unusual for big studios and distributors to tell
(39:04):
the you know, the regal or the landmarks of the
of the area that hey, you have to show a
film for an entire month. And that's tricky for them
because most people who are going to see a film
in the theater are going to see it in the
first week or so, right, and now they have a
sunk cost, they've lost a screen for a month. The
(39:25):
solution is to have multiple screens. They're always showing something new.
And this is this is where we're at now because
of the different you know, well, the story of streaming
and video on demand at home, that's a story for
another day, right, but we can't. Yeah, we can say
to your point, nostalgia is a heck of a drug.
(39:48):
And even though drive ins are not as popular as
they used to be, even though there are folks who
are going to tell you that they'll be long gone
within the next ten years or so, they're still drive
ins everywhere, and a lot of times like I I
love going to a drive in when the weather is nice,
you know, summer is turning into fall, or a good
(40:10):
time to watch a Halloween film. You can cook out
at some of them. That's so, that's right.
Speaker 3 (40:15):
And also they'll use them as sites for like I
was saying, the one here in Atlanta, they'll have like
you know, festivals even sometimes or like flea markets or
even vintage car shows. They really do kind of cater
to that vintage, kind of classic nostalgia vibe. And I
think that's great and I love seeing, you know, communities
rally around these types of places. And if you go
(40:36):
out to southern California, that's probably still where you're gonna
see the most of these, like per Capita that still
have that quality, you know, that that old school look
because they've restored them and a lot of people like
really cherish that part of California's history and they put
a lot of time and effort into keeping them alive.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
And you can be the change yourself, folks, if you
have a nice backyard and the weather's feeling, then why
not have some friends over and have a little movie
night of your own. Here in Japan, they do something
like that because there is such a paucity of space.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
Ben, you really kind of inspired me or this episode two.
Thanks to Andrea for inspired me. I recently got a
really cool little projector. It's like a little cube and
it has really good built in sound, like a little soundbar.
And I have a projector screen for my studio in
my basement. But when the weather gets nice this fall,
I really want to start doing some backyard like screenings.
Speaker 4 (41:31):
It's on the side of the house.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
My house is totally white on the side, and I
think it would totally work.
Speaker 4 (41:35):
This thing.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
It's it's four K and you pull it back far
and off, you can make a massively huge image. So
I'm really excited for the hellscape of summer to subside
and make way for you know, some cool spooky fall vibe.
Maybe we'll watch some like Friday the thirteenth or night
Mare on Elm Street or you know, Evil.
Speaker 4 (41:53):
Dead or something. I'd love it if you and Max
could come.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
Yeah, yeah, and let's check that out. Yeah, because really
the power is yours. It's a very easy thing to do,
especially if you have people sitting and not everybody is
driving their car through the backyard.
Speaker 4 (42:09):
Ala all and.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Said here in Japan, there is a Japanese solution to this.
They have large portable screens that they roll out at
night in empty parking lots. So during the day this
is like business parking or parking for the mall, and
it turns into a movie theater at night and that
(42:32):
multi use thing, just like we see in Starlight Theater.
That's one of the reasons a lot of these places
are able to get by because you have the land already.
It reminds me of another thing. It's a problem with
urban planning in Atlanta. One of the most profitable pieces
of real estate in downtown Atlanta parking lots. Like the
(42:55):
people who own the parking lots, they don't want to
sell them to have a use full building because they
make so much money.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
Nickel and Die mean you really really annoying. And there's
also a lot of illegal kind of seizure of property
involving those where yeah, you know, boot your car, but
it's not the police that's booting your car. It's some
kind of third party company that goes around and does that,
and then they literally hold your car hostage until they
come around to you with like a iPad that they
(43:24):
scan your card and make you pay to get.
Speaker 4 (43:26):
Your Justica back, which is.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Just because a guy is an Orange vest and is
asking you for money doesn't mean they work at the
parking lot. This is We're getting real Atlanta at the
end here.
Speaker 4 (43:37):
Sorry pro tip, y'all.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
A lot of stuff is coming up that we have
talked about.
Speaker 4 (43:41):
But man, huge things.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
Once again to research associate Extraordinary for this very first
inaugural Ridiculous History episode on Drive Ins.
Speaker 4 (43:50):
Andrea was it TBD?
Speaker 2 (43:53):
Yeah, we're getting a we're gonna hear back from from
Andrea for a cool nickname suggestion, asked her for her
code name. She will she will update us in the interim.
We can't wait to introduce you to her further. Folks,
please check out her work on our sister show, Ridiculous Crime.
(44:13):
Big big thanks to super producer mister Max Williams. Big
thanks to our own B movie star Jonathan Strickland aka
the Quist. Oh that's a weird one because it feels nice,
but also it somehow feels really mean.
Speaker 3 (44:28):
You know, that's us, if anything, that's us in a
nutshell you nice but and also simultaneously, no, that's not sure.
Speaker 4 (44:33):
We're sweethearts and.
Speaker 3 (44:34):
We love Jonathan Strickland, the Quiztor, despite maintaining this facade
of nemesis.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
Oh no, Max hates him, dude.
Speaker 4 (44:42):
Yeah that's true. Max is also a monster.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
A big big thanks of course, Alex Williams who composed
our track, big big thanks to Christopher hasiotis Ve's Jeff
Coat of on.
Speaker 4 (44:53):
Theme, and of course Ben how about you. Thanks to you,
my guy, for podcasting from.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
God Knows where I'm cross the wild world of sports,
and thanks to you know, see you.
Speaker 4 (45:08):
Next time, folks.
Speaker 3 (45:16):
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.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome back to the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as
always so much for tuning in. Quick housekeeping note, this
is part two of the history of drive in theaters.
Please listen to part one so you're not lost like
I was when I mixed up the VHS tapes of
The Godfather from Blockbuster. Big shout out to our super producer,
mister Max Williams.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Well, heck, why don't we just jump right into the
episode already in progress.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
So halling's worth.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
You know, we've kind of hinted at some of the
I guess flexibility that going to a drive in movie
would afford you. Hongsworth promoted those the idea that you
could smoke without bothering anybody or violating any fire laws
for indoor theaters. Although this at this point, weren't you
basically allowed to smoke everywhere?
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Irrelevant neither here nor there.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
The point is you could definitely have your own little
bubble where you wouldn't be bothering anybody. I like that idea.
It certainly makes a lot of sense. This is something
I did not even consider. Ben you could talk during
the movie. Of course, you know, your own little group.
You're not bothering your neighbors. But you could also bring
your kids and have them sleep in the back of
(01:41):
the car, you know, while you were watching a movie,
and you wouldn't have to pay a babysitter, because back
in those days, movie night was like date night, and
this was a real easy way if your family and
you don't want to pony up for a babysitter, that
you just bring them along and then have them kind
of snooze it in the back.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Also helps with the pitch for the price point because
you can say, hey, you're saving money on a babysitter, really,
so you're not spending that much money. If you are
a person who has mobility issues maybe or an elderly
person or may have some weight issues, this also gives you.
(02:19):
This also frees you from the narrow aisles we discussed earlier,
and it gives you a little bit of privacy too,
which is great for you.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Know, heavy petting, heavy pet.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Petting, but it's also great for someone who might, for
one reason or another, feel a little uncomfortable in a
large crowd, if they feel like people are staring at
them and stuff, and.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
So no doubt. Yeah, there's a lot, lot to like,
lot to like in the model.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
And hollings hollings Head also points out, you know, if
you are worried that your baby might be crying or something,
you can just kind of roll up the windows. The
whole family is welcome, regardless of how noisy the children are.
This is a bit operation. You can see the picture.
You can see photographs that Andrea pulled of it. This
(03:06):
thing held a little less than four hundred cars, which
is still a lot of cars, just not as considering
there's multiple people per car right right, and the screen
is big. It's thirty feet high, forty feet wide, suspended
twelve feet from the ground. It's housed in this larger structure.
The field is paved, but it's paved with gravel, and
(03:30):
they are the thing with gravels. It generates a lot
of dust, right, so they oil the gravel to keep
the dust down and reduce the population of mosquitoes. They've
got three like six foot square speakers RCA speakers, and
it's very loud, so this also helps solve the crying
(03:51):
baby situation because it's so loud, the baby'll just be
part of the soundtrack. At that point, it does for sure,
but again I'm planned this out earlier. Like if you've
ever been to a concert where they have like a
lawn you know, lawn seats, you will notice they have
a second set of speakers that is just for that.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
It's like extension because if you didn't, there.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Is a a audible and the visible disconnect between the
sink of like the mouths moving on the screen or
by the performers. Because sound literally is vibration carried over air,
and there is a delay, there is a lag. So
I mentioned that. So that is a problem that they
eventually had to address. Another brilliant part of this in
(04:32):
terms of like a money making scheme, I guess is
you're you're responsible for your own air conditioning, Like I
don't know did they did cars have actual like free
on powered air conditioning at this point, No, so they
would have maybe had just had their own fans. And
even at this point, you know, we always hear about
(04:53):
movie theaters were a great source of air conditioning, you know,
when people would go buy a ticket to the movie
theaters just to sit in the air condition in New York.
But at this point we're in the thirties and do
we have that type of modern air conditioning or refrigeration.
I think it was probably around the thirties that that
started cars, not quite like indoor in general, just in
(05:16):
general indoor.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
AC I know for cars was in the forties and
then the fifties. It started in the forties, I want
to say, so I would assume that they had indoor
AC unit.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
They had to.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
They had indoor AC units for structures before they had
the mobile and automobiles. Right, That just mean it was.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
There was early thirties.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
The Packard, which I know you talked about on car stuff,
was a luxury, mega luxury automobile that had the first
semblance of indoor air conditioning.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Yeah, but these were, like.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
The packer crowd was at best a very small portion
of one percent, And it wouldn't be until the mid
fifties that that, you know, it became more mainstream.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
So point being, the proprietors.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Of the drive ins were able to save quite a
bit on their energy bill.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yes, and they also discovered something that was common in
theaters then and now, which is the idea of a
captive market. Now, the drive in would let you take
your own food in. At this point they were more
than happy if you had, you know, a picnic basket.
It was just like, yeah, they're just like a bucket
of chestnuts. They really didn't care.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
It's very specific.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
What they did discover, though, is even if they didn't
have a law banning or a policy banning outside food
and drink, if they started a concession stand, people would
spend money there because it's part.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Of the experience.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
And I do wonder, we don't really have anything about
this ben but I imagined it was probably also okay
to bring your own boothe ooh.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
That that might be a sticky subject. I guess drunk
driving laws well well established at this point, not because
everybody was drunk, but because fewer people were driving. Let's see,
prohibition ended in nineteen thirty three, so this would be
(07:22):
so alcohol itself was still very verboten. I think by
June sixth, nineteen thirty three when the drive in theater opened.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
So probably a conversation that wouldn't start for a little bit.
But you know what, I'm sure people were bringing their
little flasks.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
You know, what's that old line.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
People will vote for prohibitions so long as they can stagger.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
To the polls. That's funny.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
No, Yeah, Unfortunately it's true too because a lot of
the members of it's a joke that refers to politicians
and members of Congress who would always vote for prohibition
but then have their secret stash at their home for
their fancy parties. It was somewhat hypocritical, kind of like
how the leader of North Korea uh loves Western chocolates.
(08:10):
I walked down the street for that one.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
But I'm yeah, for sure, what like dove, Like, what
do you mean Western chocolate? It's just like crappy chocolate
like her bars. He looks, yeah, yeah, he loves all
the Western treats.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Max what she got?
Speaker 5 (08:22):
So what I got is, actually no, I'm going to
reference Boardwalk Empire. I believe in the first episode, Steve
Shimmy is like at a prohibition speech talking about like
how great prohibition is. He walks out immediately and starts
strinking from his flask.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Yeah, oh a million percent. Steve Bushimmy from the cinematic
masterpiece Vibes.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
He's done Vibes. He's in a.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Minor character though, right, he's not a He's not like
a major play. Steve Shimmy does not do minor characters.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Steve shut into a wood Shipper. Yeah, wow, spoiler. No,
don't know, twenty plus year old movie.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
I think it's okay. So what we didn't say? Witch movie?
Speaker 4 (08:59):
No, that's true. Not the math, though you can do
the mathough. Who is the co star of Vibes.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
It's Jeff Goldbloom and Cindy Lauper.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Cindy Lauper, Jeff Goldblum.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
I actually I think I've made this hot take on
something I want you to know. The other day I
would argue Vibes superior to Ghostbusters.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
I really appreciate that. I still just being kind to
one of my many obsessions.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
But I am being what they call Koi Koi, like
one of this big Asian fish.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Dude, I have to send you a picture I saw
the most massive I saw Kaiju Koi. Oh jeez, I'll
send it to you. But but there's excitement here. People
are gassed throughout New Jersey about this, and more and
more newspapers are reporting on this, first as an oddity,
but then as a possible future of cinema. Sad news,
(09:53):
though a bit of a womp womp. The very first
park in theater did not last long, we said June sixth,
nineteen thirty three was the opening night. By this point
they called it. The public called it the drive in Theater,
but the actual name was Automobile Movie Theater, and so
(10:14):
the public crowd sourced the name they preferred. That's usually
how it goes, right, And yeah, it kind of just
gets adopted. What And this first theater soldiered on for
three years and it closed in nineteen thirty six. A
guy bought the concept from Halling's head and moved the
(10:35):
location to Union, New Jersey. Halling said loved the idea,
the public loved the idea too, but he had really
difficult financial challenges with it. He said, look, I can't
make money off this. It's a beautiful idea. Everybody loves it,
but I just can't turn a profit with it because
(10:57):
I have to pay the studios the film rental cost,
which I still think is the one of the number
one cost of theaters today.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Right. I do believe that's right. And Ben will get
to this as well.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
But you remember in stuff they I want you to know,
not terribly long ago, we did an episode about them,
the Golden Age of Hollywood and how the studios owned
all the theaters and they would like trying to squeeze
out any competition by charging these exorbitant rental fees. So
this was not conducive to, you know, starting a mom
(11:30):
and pop kind of business where you were playing the
movies because you're paying so much. You know to the
studios that it is hard to turn a profit. That's
exactly right, and we're going to see how this tide
kind of turns in a bit because of some happenstance.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yes, yeah, Also to your earlier point, the sound was
horrible because of the location of the screen oiling. The
gravel did not eliminate insects as well as they had hoped.
Ticket prices were higher still than your average orthodox theater,
and this all, all these factors together made it really
(12:08):
difficult to turn a profit. So it made sense for
Hollingshead to sell this, to sell this concept to someone else.
But the idea is still caught on by now. It
was ensconced within the zeitgeist of America. And if we
fast forward to the post World War two economic boom,
(12:29):
we see drive ins are proliferating across the United States.
And this is where we get to that kind of
golden age of drive ins. And Hollywood culture because by
far and away one of the most popular locations for
drive ins was the state of California, and.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
It caught on.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
So it became so popular that hollings Head patent got
overturned in nineteen forty nine, so now anybody could open
a drive in theaters wildwide.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Curious about that, I mentioned that that was kind of
coming but overturned. Why because, I mean, wasn't the someone
bought the concept from him when he was having a
hard time turning a profit. I would assume that would
come with the patent as well. If you bought the concepts,
you know, then you would sign that over. But was
it because of that lack of novelty that they rethought this?
Speaker 2 (13:21):
I think maybe there's a way to renew the patent again,
another reason we should do an episode on this. But
at the time, when you got a patent in the
nineteen thirties, you would have a period of seventeen years
of exclusivity, after which time your patent would.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Expire, unless you're Mickey Mouse, in which case you can
just bend the laws of man and nature, you know,
to your whims. And that's what allowed Mickey to stay
out of the public domain until very very very very recently,
literally like I think last year.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
Yeah, it's only one version of me too.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
It's like the steamboat Willie Oldest oldest og version of
Mickey Mouse.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
And so there is this this massive exponential growth of
drive in theaters. One of the most famous was the
All Weather drive in out in New York State. They
have parking spaces for two thy five hundred cars. They
had a kid's playground forget, a concession stand, they had
a restaurant.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
A fun night out. You know, the movie's just a
part of it at this there really is. And we'll
get into some extra little add on features that I
had no idea about that Andrea Fountain that are super fascinating.
But you know, it makes sense too, by the way, Ben,
that California would be kind of ground zero for this
stuff because the weather is just always kind of the same,
you know, it very rarely rains. It's usually a nice
(14:48):
cool seventy two degrees or whatever, you know, ocean breezes
and stuff. Similar reason that there is such a issue
with unhoused folks, you know, in California, because it's just
a great place to be able to sleep outdoors.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Not a great place.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
I mean, it's still a tough life, but much more
so than in say New Jersey, you know, or New York,
where you never really know what the weather's gonna do.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Mm hmm, yeah, similar argument with Hawaii. Right, So, California
is the most well known destination for drive ins, but
about forty percent of drive ins are located in the Midwest.
And that's because there are all these small suburban towns
that are popping up as suburbs or exurbs of large cities.
(15:31):
And when you have those places pop up on the
the outskirts of a metropolis, you're also going to find
a lot of cheap land, and that's what you need
for a profitable drive in theater.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
It makes me think of like the parking lot king
of you know, insert city here, where it's like, yeah,
it's the barrier to entry is just you got to
have like kind of like a uniformly shaped plot of
land and then you can just it's really to PLoP
all this stuff down. You just got to invest in
the screen. And then as we also find that the
(16:06):
screens ended up being billboards in and of themselves, like
they would like to attract people to come to the
to the to the drive ins. They would make these
elaborate murals on the back ends, the backsides of the screens.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Oh yeah, this was great.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
This is the age of the This is a great
time to be a muralist in America. There was a
Compton drive in that had a huge Viking ship painted
on it. There was in Loma Linda there was this
iconic depiction of skiers going down the slopes, and then
there's so many other examples and they've become kind of
(16:44):
iconic indicators of the time in which they were created.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Well, and it's also like there's a really cool Instagram
account that I follow. I think it's called like the
Neon Signs of Old Hollywood or something like that, and
it's just got fabulous vintage photographs, a lot of these
incorre raided neon you know, into until where you start
they start to almost resemble like the outside of a
Vegas casino. But this is just a really cool period
(17:08):
in history in Hollywood and Southern California, just really iconic,
just feels really classic, And you know, I'm a big fan.
The al Monty drive in, you know, featured like sort
of like a like a Spanish dancer. I want to say, like,
you know, with like a kind of a leg out,
you know, were a Flamenco dancer, as Adam Durantz of
(17:28):
The Counting Crows with says, show me some of that
Spanish dancing and pass me a bottle, mister Jones at
the drive in. But yeah, I love this stuff man,
and I'm a big I'm a sucker for this period
in Hollywood history.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
We love this nostalogy. Yeah, agreed. Also, I got radicalized
and I didn't get Flamenco until I saw a live
Flamenco show.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
It is the way you sounded just for me. It
sound like it was a disease. I never got Flamenco until.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
I thought it was vaccinated. I thought it was safe.
And then they brought out the little clackety clacketty things.
It was amazing.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
They're called castanets.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Cast nets. That's right, that's so cool. So drive ins
become incredibly popular to see and.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
Be seen spots. Yeah, twenty years on from.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
The original kind of concept, you know, there's a real
boom for several reasons. The prices have gone down, they've
sorted out some of those issues that we were talking
about like with the disconnect from the screen. It's the
fifties that's really the golden age of drive ins.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Yeah, by this point in the fifties and sixties, there
are more than four thousand drive ins throughout the US.
Most of them are in rural areas due to land costs,
and they're a space that you know, they're kind of
what we will call the third space, which is very
important for communities the third the third space argument is
(18:56):
that your first space is your home, and then you
have a second space, which is where you go to work.
And if you don't have a third space, it's really
difficult to build a community. So this is an affordable
date night option. The escapism that you mentioned is there
you're on a roller coaster the mind, depending what film
you see. By nineteen fifty eight, the number of drive
(19:19):
in theaters has reached its peak. During this halcyon age,
there were four thousand and sixty three recorded drive in
theaters in the US alone. They became, you know, the
hot date spot, the date night for parents, the family
night for children. And there's a great quote from a
(19:40):
guy who mentioned earlier our pal cop. He says drive
ins started to really take off in the fifties, they
offered family entertainment. People could sit in their cars, they
could bring their babies, they could smoke the parents, not
the babies, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
But anyway everywhere back in those days, it may cigure
it's just for babies.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
If I'm not mistaken, Yeah, I camel can exactly.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
It is really comical though, But then we start to
see some of these other innovations right where they had
these special speakers that you could mount inside your car
that would give you your own personal feed of the
audio from the movie, and that cut down on the
issues with the lag and the delay, and it was
just a lot more self contained, right, mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah it was. And also there is a this is
almost like a grassroots movement because the powers that be
in Hollywood, the studio executives right who have an iron
grip on most of the industry, they think drive ins
are a dumb idea, because the c suite folks at
(20:45):
Warner and Paramount are saying, why would you go out
in a field to watch a movie? What a bunch
of hicks. Everybody knows the proper way to experience cinema
is in our own, super classy, exclusive thing they kind
of mimic European theaters like.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
The China's Own though, right that we own.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Yeah, that's the quiet part.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
So at first they're not playing ball with these smaller
family owned operations. But it gets to a place though
where drive ins have kind of, I guess, really captured
the zeitgeist of the time, and they're starting to be
written about in like, you know, popular music. The Everly
Brothers wake Up Little Susie in nineteen fifty seven, Yeah, yeah,
(21:28):
tells the story of Susie and her boyfriend waking up
late at a drive in. Beach boys, you know, obviously
wrote about drive ins. It was just part of that
car culture thing in southern California. Elvis Presley loved the
drive ins. You started to see all of these like
kind of beach movies like Beach Blanket Bingo and Muscle
Beach Party, and you know, talking about your Woody, which
(21:50):
was a type of station wagon just get our minds
out of the gutters folks with those woodpaneled sides kind of.
But yeah, this it was so inescapably part of the
culture that Hollywood eventually kind of had to acquiesce, but
they didn't do it until it was just kind of
like undeniable right right.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Until the as you would say, as our Powell, Malcolm
Gladwell would say, until the tipping point had passed. And
so when studio executives were forced to play ball with
drive ins, they took advantage of one thing that they
knew would work. They would have their stars make personal
(22:32):
appearances at drive in venues during the screening of one
of their films. So this is where we see things
like September thirteenth, nineteen thirty four, when a Columbia Pictures
actress named Billy Seward went to LA's first drive in
to promote films by Columbia. And also at this point,
(22:54):
you know, as we mentioned in our stuff they don't
want you in know episode, these studios basically owned the
actors and the actresses, and they didn't have the best lives.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
When you when you talk about the idea of actors
being under contract to studios, it was almost like they
were in like you said, Ben like indentured servants, where
they had certain number of pictures they had to complete.
They were contractually obligated to do these press tours and
these press appearances. And you know, I would I would
argue that maybe today actors have a little bit more
(23:25):
power or they recognize their power versus these Golden era
type deals where the studio really wielded almost all of
the power because they had such an iron fisted grasp
over you know, everything from the theaters to to the
the scripts, to the intellectual property and all of it.
So actors were really beholden and they would usually be
(23:45):
under contract to a single studio for like their entire
career or off exactly.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Yeah, and it could be a really tough life.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
There was sure you'd get public attention and fame, but
you also aren't really your own person in many respects.
It's probably the closest analogue to that situation today is
to look at jpop and K pop stars, you know
what I mean, who are not even allowed to publicize
romantic relationships in some cases.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Or the romantic relationships would be like arranged practically, you
know what I mean, Yeah, like you gotta we need
this union of our houses almost right, Like it's pretty
pretty sketchy, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
And so a lot of stars follow Columbia's earlier example
and they say, these outdoor appearances are a way for
us to press, the flesh, appeal to new audiences, get
people excited, and eventually all theater companies started to include
drive ins in their screen counts. Right, so it became
(24:50):
an expected and normalized aspect of a studio's business. If
you go to Pacific Theaters out in La you see
they started as a exclusively as a drive in theater company,
and they eventually owned more than one hundred and ten locations.
There was a great interview with Michael Foreman, who was
(25:10):
president of Pacific, and he started talking about the grassroots
thing we mentioned, right, like, now these new up and comers,
these upstarts can actually swing above their weight glass and
buck with the studios.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
So Michael Foreman, who is the president of the once
again family owned Pacific Drive In, had this to say
about when the whole situation kind of became undeniable because
of the geography of it all. He said, since we
were actually located in Hollywood, the studios could not ignore us.
We were able to get first run product, and we
utilized movie stars to promote the outdoor venue. We hosted
(25:49):
huge premiere parties for drive in showings. One evening, I
will never forget a very young raquel welch hubba hubbah,
that's me. Appeared for the grand opening of our Fountain
Valley location Edwards Theaters, which is another chain, a smaller chain. Again,
all of these were like kind of mom and pop,
but the boom happened and it allowed them to really spread.
They jumped on this bandwagon as well, and the company
(26:12):
selected the nineteen fifties absolute smash comedy duo Lewis and Martin.
Some of that stuff really holds up, by the way,
Jerry Lewis being the kooky guy, Dean Martin kind of
being the suave straight man. They appeared alongside a noted
Southern California architect named Jay Arthur Drillsma in order to
(26:34):
introduce the press to some of their new outdoor locations.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Yes, branded advertising, and so with this marriage of entertainment
and high fin ads we see we see a quick
evolution not just in the location of films or where
these films are viewed, but in the kind of films
(26:59):
that are created. Because in a indoor theater, the film
itself is entirely the focus of the experience. In an
outdoor theater and a drive in people are finding the
film sometimes becomes just a piece of the Stultz. Right,
it even becomes a background. Right, you're there to make
(27:19):
out Netflix and Chill was way before Netflix.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
Well, it's funny.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
I think I briefly mentioned that Elvis was a big
fan of of the drive ins and he started started
starring in these let's just call him kind of puff
piece type films.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
Dumb dude, that's right.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Because it didn't matter if you if you missed a
little bit of it going to grab you know, some
some popcorn and a soda pop from the concessions. It
didn't matter because there really wasn't a much plot to
speak of in movies like Blue Hawaii and Fun in Acapulco.
If the names aren't enough of a giveaway, there Mami
van Doren, another big Hollywood actor name of the time.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
I have this to say.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
I often attended drive ins around Hollywood, many times with
my mother in the front seat. We were there to
critique one of my films. At the drive in. No
one would know I was watching my own work.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Right, y, you could be anonymous, and that anonymity is
a huge deal, as we in the world of podcasting
can tell you. Kidding, but the idea is really appealing.
You're a Gary Cooper, you're a Clark Gable. You will
get mobbed by fans if you go to the deli
or you go anywhere in public. You can't move like
(28:34):
a civilian at this point unless you are in the
drive in theater. And that's where we see people going
to a lot of drive ins in Hollywood. They were
one of the best places to encounter a celebrity. Though
you might not know that that was who was in
the car next to you. We also know that there
(28:54):
were people like Roy Rogers who leaned into it and
made their own drive in movie clubs. The Roy Rogers
Writers Club grew to two million members at its peak.
A lot of people launched their careers in these sort
of as we would say, lightweight drive in movies where
(29:14):
the plot wasn't as important as spectacle. Jack Nicholson, Clint Eastwood,
Michael Landon. They came from this age of drive in theaters,
and drive in theaters were mostly known for B movies,
but some of them had had the more intellectual fair right,
I would say.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
I suppose so, but it did kind of evolve or
devolve into even being like more on the racy side,
you know, like adult entertainment type vibes. Because you started
to stop seeing as many first run drive ins, it
became much more of a you.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
Know, specialty kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Let's just say, slasher films, for example, exploit Haitian films
even you know, and that's sort of where it is today.
In a lot of ways, it does feel like this
nostalgia play where while the you know, the theater here
in Atlanta does show first run films, they'll do these
kind of events that are more like geared towards nostalgia
(30:18):
of it all.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
And that's you know, everybody loves the.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
Idea of going to see Maybe not everybody, but if
you're into horror, going to see like a good double
feature slasher movie.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
You know, double features are still a big thing. And we're,
as we'll see, we in Atlanta are immensely fortunate to
have a drive in theater. Because you might be saying, hey, Ben, hey,
Nol and Max, I get that drive in theaters were
such a big deal. But if what you're telling me
is true, why isn't there a drive in theater in
(30:50):
my town? This is where we see that some of
this same things that made drive ins appealing to audiences
and as a business ultimately led to the downfall of
the industry. Because we talked about how drive in theaters
(31:12):
in post World War two were very successful because the
land was cheap. What happens when the land is no
longer cheap, Well.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
It's harder to get, it's more sought after, and it's
definitely the bottom line starts to become a little bit
less tenable for these types of businesses.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Yeah, let's go to d Vogel, owner of Benji's drive In,
which is located near Baltimore, Maryland, and said, look, Vogel said,
a lot of drive ins folded because the price of
land started going up. People were incentivized to move to
these suburbs and these exurbs. And as more people moved
(31:55):
in and more stuff got developed, the land became expensive.
What used to be the outskirts of town next to
a farm was suddenly not as cheap to your point there,
Nol and people would build on the outskirts. The town
would grow, and then a lot of these drive ins,
like said earlier, mom and pop businesses, and sometimes the
kids just wouldn't want to continue the family business. So
(32:18):
drive ins began to decline. Across the country. You needed
like fifteen acres of land to have an effective drive in,
So it became more profitable for these drive in owners
to sell their land to real estate developers who wanted
to make a mall or one of those sort of
(32:39):
you know, live, laugh, love mixed use complexes. That's the
right phrase, mixed.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
Use complex Oh yeah, no, it certainly is.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
And then we haven't really mentioned it yet, but there
is another big disadvantage for drive in movie theaters.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
They only work at night, for sure, And you know
that obviously. We mentioned that.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
One of the reasons southern California was such a hotbed
of drive in is because of the pretty predictable and
continuously quite nice weather. But during the seventies oil crisis,
people started to have to downsize their car in order
to save money on the increasingly expensive cost of gas.
So watching a movie in the drive in with your
(33:25):
you know, ac blasting started to seem a little more luxurious,
kind of, you know, And and then you also, it's
like a video killed the radio star video also kind
of killed the drive in. VCRs made it a lot
more appealing to stay at home and watch the movies
with your family without having to pay you know, that
(33:46):
inflated cost of going to the drive in. Not to mention,
you're burning gas if you're sitting there right in the
ac So it made sense to make up for that
lost revenue. Drive in started losing that family friendly atmosphere
and began to head more towards what we were talking
about a moment ago, even involving X rated content. So
(34:07):
that's when the drive in became a little more of
a niche thing. I just don't know how I would
feel man about watching an X rated film in a
car in a field with a bunch of other cars.
What's the walk to concessions?
Speaker 4 (34:25):
Like there?
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Not to be crass, but it seems preferable to watching
it in a brick and mortar, sit down theater. True,
I think some of the same options, some of the
same rules of privacy would apply in this situation as
well or the benefits. Right, So, yeah, you do start
to see the drive in becoming a little more on
(34:47):
the trashy side, a little CD.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Yeah, and again, you know, the indoor theaters have this
huge profit advantage because they can show a film five
or six times a day, right, And people started trying
these alternative solutions right to keep the theaters afloat. Like
you said, they change the content that we're showing, that
(35:10):
they're showing. In many cases, they start opening extra screens
like our drive in theater has what uh starlight has
what to four screens?
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Do?
Speaker 4 (35:24):
I think more than they have two?
Speaker 2 (35:26):
But they do double features. That's that's right. Yeah, Max
jumped in and then jumped off.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
Jumped in for a nod.
Speaker 5 (35:34):
I was jumping into confirm that, and then guess confirmed
it yourself.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
So I'm like, goodbye, okay, Max with the facts though
it's been Hey, Max was always with the facts.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
That seeking in the phone and peaceful in knowledge. It's
just for you right now.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
The So that leaves us, you know, in today's world
obviously in the movie theaters in general, because the pandemic
have seen some real struggles and it seems only just
now are kind of coming back to a degree, you know,
where people are you know, getting their butts back in
the seats. We have some kind of interesting gimmicks, even
(36:15):
like in you know, we've got IMAX obviously the big
three D spectacles are My preference is the IMAX when
it's not three D and it's just a big, massive screen.
Speaker 4 (36:24):
Yeah, you have these four D movie things.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Have you seen this ben where the seats move around
like a crappy roller coaster and sprints you with like
air and.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
Water.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
It's I think it's important to experience that because it
comes back from the days. It harkens back to the
days of shock cinema, you know, where like ooh, the
vibratraud and things like that, And it also reminds us
a little bit of you know, universal studio rides, right,
which are always kind of cool. I don't know if
I need it for a film.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
I've only been to one screening of a film that
you used this, and I did not realize that's what
I was buying. And it was an anime. It was
this Demon Slayer film, you know, like a like a feature,
and it didn't make any sense. The chairs were moving
around for no good reason. But I heard that like
they've gotten a little bit better and that most recent
(37:17):
Twisters reboot apparently the forty experience was a lot of
fun for something like that, which I could see.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
It has to jibe with the content of the film,
Like three D film makes sense for blockbuster science fiction
more so than French art house cinema, right, although now
that we're describing this, I'm wondering what the romance or
the sex scenes would be like you know what I mean,
how do the seats move in that case?
Speaker 4 (37:45):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Story, yeah, right.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
No, it's true.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
But I guess the reason I bring that up is
it largely feels like, you know, I went and saw
a thirty five millimeter projection of long Legs the other day.
And yes, thirty five millimeter is objectively less pristine than
the digital you know, high super super high four K projectors.
Speaker 4 (38:07):
But there's something cool and nostalgic about it.
Speaker 3 (38:09):
And like, now, if you go to you know, cities
like New York or LA, you'll have like places in
New York like the Nighthawk, which is a just a classic,
you know, old school type theater that will show regularly.
They'll program things in thirty five millimeters. So to me,
the drive in sort of is filling that same role
where it has this like vintage kind of nostalgic quality
(38:30):
to it, and you're going there to see interestingly programmed material,
you know, and usually in an analog format.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
And now we see the proliferation of indoor multiplex and
megaplex outfits, you know, your huge regals, AMCs and whatnot.
And the reason that they have so many screens now
is because it's not unusual to be loved by anyone. Kidding.
It's not unusual for big studios and distributors to tell
(39:04):
the you know, the regal or the landmarks of the
of the area that hey, you have to show a
film for an entire month. And that's tricky for them
because most people who are going to see a film
in the theater are going to see it in the
first week or so, right, and now they have a
sunk cost, they've lost a screen for a month. The
(39:25):
solution is to have multiple screens. They're always showing something new.
And this is this is where we're at now because
of the different you know, well, the story of streaming
and video on demand at home, that's a story for
another day, right, but we can't. Yeah, we can say
to your point, nostalgia is a heck of a drug.
(39:48):
And even though drive ins are not as popular as
they used to be, even though there are folks who
are going to tell you that they'll be long gone
within the next ten years or so, they're still drive
ins everywhere, and a lot of times like I I
love going to a drive in when the weather is nice,
you know, summer is turning into fall, or a good
(40:10):
time to watch a Halloween film. You can cook out
at some of them. That's so, that's right.
Speaker 3 (40:15):
And also they'll use them as sites for like I
was saying, the one here in Atlanta, they'll have like
you know, festivals even sometimes or like flea markets or
even vintage car shows. They really do kind of cater
to that vintage, kind of classic nostalgia vibe. And I
think that's great and I love seeing, you know, communities
rally around these types of places. And if you go
(40:36):
out to southern California, that's probably still where you're gonna
see the most of these, like per Capita that still
have that quality, you know, that that old school look
because they've restored them and a lot of people like
really cherish that part of California's history and they put
a lot of time and effort into keeping them alive.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
And you can be the change yourself, folks, if you
have a nice backyard and the weather's feeling, then why
not have some friends over and have a little movie
night of your own. Here in Japan, they do something
like that because there is such a paucity of space.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
Ben, you really kind of inspired me or this episode two.
Thanks to Andrea for inspired me. I recently got a
really cool little projector. It's like a little cube and
it has really good built in sound, like a little soundbar.
And I have a projector screen for my studio in
my basement. But when the weather gets nice this fall,
I really want to start doing some backyard like screenings.
Speaker 4 (41:31):
It's on the side of the house.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
My house is totally white on the side, and I
think it would totally work.
Speaker 4 (41:35):
This thing.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
It's it's four K and you pull it back far
and off, you can make a massively huge image. So
I'm really excited for the hellscape of summer to subside
and make way for you know, some cool spooky fall vibe.
Maybe we'll watch some like Friday the thirteenth or night
Mare on Elm Street or you know, Evil.
Speaker 4 (41:53):
Dead or something. I'd love it if you and Max
could come.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
Yeah, yeah, and let's check that out. Yeah, because really
the power is yours. It's a very easy thing to do,
especially if you have people sitting and not everybody is
driving their car through the backyard.
Speaker 4 (42:09):
Ala all and.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Said here in Japan, there is a Japanese solution to this.
They have large portable screens that they roll out at
night in empty parking lots. So during the day this
is like business parking or parking for the mall, and
it turns into a movie theater at night and that
(42:32):
multi use thing, just like we see in Starlight Theater.
That's one of the reasons a lot of these places
are able to get by because you have the land already.
It reminds me of another thing. It's a problem with
urban planning in Atlanta. One of the most profitable pieces
of real estate in downtown Atlanta parking lots. Like the
(42:55):
people who own the parking lots, they don't want to
sell them to have a use full building because they
make so much money.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
Nickel and Die mean you really really annoying. And there's
also a lot of illegal kind of seizure of property
involving those where yeah, you know, boot your car, but
it's not the police that's booting your car. It's some
kind of third party company that goes around and does that,
and then they literally hold your car hostage until they
come around to you with like a iPad that they
(43:24):
scan your card and make you pay to get.
Speaker 4 (43:26):
Your Justica back, which is.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Just because a guy is an Orange vest and is
asking you for money doesn't mean they work at the
parking lot. This is We're getting real Atlanta at the
end here.
Speaker 4 (43:37):
Sorry pro tip, y'all.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
A lot of stuff is coming up that we have
talked about.
Speaker 4 (43:41):
But man, huge things.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
Once again to research associate Extraordinary for this very first
inaugural Ridiculous History episode on Drive Ins.
Speaker 4 (43:50):
Andrea was it TBD?
Speaker 2 (43:53):
Yeah, we're getting a we're gonna hear back from from
Andrea for a cool nickname suggestion, asked her for her
code name. She will she will update us in the interim.
We can't wait to introduce you to her further. Folks,
please check out her work on our sister show, Ridiculous Crime.
(44:13):
Big big thanks to super producer mister Max Williams. Big
thanks to our own B movie star Jonathan Strickland aka
the Quist. Oh that's a weird one because it feels nice,
but also it somehow feels really mean.
Speaker 3 (44:28):
You know, that's us, if anything, that's us in a
nutshell you nice but and also simultaneously, no, that's not sure.
Speaker 4 (44:33):
We're sweethearts and.
Speaker 3 (44:34):
We love Jonathan Strickland, the Quiztor, despite maintaining this facade
of nemesis.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
Oh no, Max hates him, dude.
Speaker 4 (44:42):
Yeah that's true. Max is also a monster.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
A big big thanks of course, Alex Williams who composed
our track, big big thanks to Christopher hasiotis Ve's Jeff
Coat of on.
Speaker 4 (44:53):
Theme, and of course Ben how about you. Thanks to you,
my guy, for podcasting from.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
God Knows where I'm cross the wild world of sports,
and thanks to you know, see you.
Speaker 4 (45:08):
Next time, folks.
Speaker 3 (45:16):
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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