Of course, any compendium of mid-century car humor can’t ignore the phenomenon of the drive-in movie theater. Most are gone now, but enough remain that you can still take your kids to experience what was once an American rite of passage. MAD takes aim here in about 1964, when drive-ins were at their peak. Our literary hat-tip goes to Dick and Jane, those other unavoidable icons of 1950s America.
We were lucky enough to get a low-wattage AM transmitter at our local drive-in, so that viewers could tune in to the movie via their car radios, eliminating the speaker problem. And what a problem they were! Drivers would run over the posts in the dark, punks would cut the wires and steal the speakers, side-window glass would break. Worse, the posts later became obstacles when drive-ins began turning into swap meets.
I clearly remember at least two tow trucks that would park at the rear of our local drive-in, ready to provide jump-starts, flat fixes, lockout rescues, and help with all manner of myriad motor maladies as soon as everyone got ready to leave.
MAD had its car characterizations down!
The staid, presumably married couple are in a Rambler, with all the baggage that entails (ignoring the reclining seatbacks). And SHE is the “driver.”
THe madly kissing one, in a 1964 Pontiac Grand Prix, a known chick-magnet (though in 1964 there was no GP convertible).
That is not a GP. The GP had the Turn signals mounted in the grilles. So it is either a Bonneville or Catalina as both series offered convertibles.
Actually it has the Grand Prix’s fine-textured grilles minus the turn signals.
Catalina and Bonneville grilles had three bold chrome strips in them.
But they were chick magnets, too!
Went for the third or fourth (fifth?) time this year this past Saturday. I can’t get over the people who go to these and sit on carpets or lawn chairs. The captains chairs in my SUV are far more comfortable, and the sound quality much better.
The theatre we go to has several jump boxes for a portable start. We did discover a weak battery courtesy of a a drive in trip last fall.
We left before the third feature. The missus and I are mature enough to take care of third feature activities out of site of the viewing public.
Haven’t been to our local surviving drive-in for years – that’s an interesting idea having a tow truck around to help stranded cars. Admission fees have gone up tremendously and you tune into a radio frequency to get the sound, the old speaker boxes disappeared many years ago. I remember seeing this MAD excerpt in one of their paperbacks when I was in my late teens and read MAD more frequently. It still rings true for anyone who has had a drive in experience. I love the end about the pile-up at the end of the show, forcing the owner to close it and open a junkyard!
Family Drive In in Stephens City, VA claims to be the only drive in that has a full complement of speaker boxes. As well as an FM broadcast.
The egress is just as awful as ever.
Sacramento still has a drive-in. For years since I moved to the area every summer was supposedly the last year the drive-in would be in business, as they were rumored to have sold the land to a developer who was going to build a shopping center on the site. Yet the following year the drive-in was always somehow still open. I almost wonder if that was a rumor started by the owners to drum up business — “Come experience a drive-in movie before it’s gone!” The one time I went there the snack bar and restrooms were like a time capsule back to when they were built; I don’t think they’d been updated at all since the place opened (which was relatively recent by drive-in standards; this one opened in the early 1970s)
Now it appears the theater has been bought by a company that owns several drive-ins in the western US, and has actually upgraded the projectors to modern digital ones and renovated the snack bar. I take that as a sign that it will be there for years to come.
Digital projectors are pretty much mandatory. The distributors hate distributing reels of film. Downloads and hard drive shipments are much kinder to their bottom lines. The switch did force some drive-ins to close, unfortunately.
The last time I was at a drive-in movie was in late 1972 as a college freshman. Four of us piled into one guy’s ’68 Mustang to go see Slaughterhouse Five. Being at the drive-in allowed us to roll joints and smoke liberal amounts of dope.
This brings back memories…I think the last time I went to a drive-in was about 1972 when in was in the military. I grew up in the Kansas City area and there used to be drive-ins all over; today there may be a couple left in the area-all the others are long
closed.
Lesson 1 : 1960 Ford pick-up
Lesson 2: 1964 Pontiac
The last time I was at a drive in was in the early 70’s. And yes we took lawn chairs and sat out of the car when it was 5 guys in a VW. I also remember going to drive ins in the 50’s in pajamas in the station wagon. My folks being thrifty brought our own popcorn in reused paper shopping bags and soda in a small cooler.
Mad’s characterization of drive in movies is generally true.
I miss the drive ins .
-Nate