Drive-in theaters: A dying form of entertainment

The other day I saw something on how few movie drive-ins there are these days and it got me thinking about my memories of drive-ins.

I can’t say I’ve been an avid drive-in goer over the years. The first one I went to was, “The Way We Were,” with Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford. I saw it with my parents when I was just a little kid when we lived in Arizona.

The next one I recall was a double feature of “Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown” and “Bugsy Malone,” which had an all-kids cast playing gangsters. It starred Jodie Foster and Scott Baio. Chances are it did not win the Oscar that year. That, too, was with the family but this time was at the El Rancho Drive-in in Las Vegas. Turns out, it’s one of only two remaining drive-ins throughout Nevada. The other is also in Las Vegas, the Westwind Las Vegas 6.

High school was the last time I went to the drive-in, which was twice, at El Rancho. Once on a date and another with friends. In the mid-1980s, that was nearly a two-day trip (or at least felt like it) from Boulder City before all the freeways were built.

There’s something about finding a spot, hooking the metal speaker to your window and hitting the snack bar before it starts.

In doing some research, it’s estimated that there are around 300 drive-ins left across the country with the majority being in New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The largest of which can accommodate 3,000 cars and the smallest, just 75. By comparison, at one time, the United States boasted nearly 4,000 drive-in theaters.

So why the decline? In reading, there are many reasons. Some include the cost of land. It hasn’t been feasible to build new ones and those that did exist often fetched a pretty penny and were sold and turned into housing developments or strip malls. Technology also played a part in many different ways. As technology improved and more theaters started going digital, the cost to keep up proved to be too much for some owners. Multiplexes began popping up more and more frequently. They could play eight to 10 different movies throughout the day as opposed to one or two at the dive-ins and only at night.

Another thing the walk-ins had going for them was that regardless if it was 110 degrees out or 32 degrees, people were able to enjoy a movie in comfort indoors.

I did read where, during the pandemic, those drive-ins that still exist did good business when walk-in theaters were closed or had limited seating.

In my career, I’ve done a trio of articles in towns that once had drive-ins. The reasoning for them no longer existing came down to cost and some of the reasons I listed above. In one town, the owner of the drive-in also owned the walk-in. He told me in the mid-90s that the cost of the drive-in, which had closed a few years prior, was just too expensive to maintain. In another community, the drive-in did well in the 1980s but that quickly changed when a walk-in theater with two screens opened in town.

In Big Bear, Calif., I did a story on their defunct drive-in and talked with residents who remembered going. The story I remember best was a prominent businessman who said that while in high school, he and his then-girlfriend went to a movie and fell asleep. Notice how I didn’t put that in air quotes because I believe they did, and here’s why. Well, when they awoke, the movie was over, the other patrons had left and he had 15 minutes before his girlfriend’s 10 p.m. curfew. They sped out of there but there was a bit of a problem. He forgot to detach the speaker from the window, which shattered into a thousand pieces. The good news is, he got her home with a few minutes to spare and he would eventually marry that woman.

Like many, I appreciate nostalgia of days gone by. And while I’d love to see a resurgence of drive-ins, sadly I don’t see it happening. So, I guess all I can do is relive in my mind Scott Baio as Bugsy Malone and Jodie Foster as Tallulah. Well, maybe not.