I had a Rock Band get-together at my place tonight, and due to it running quite late, the regularly scheduled Battlestar Galactica observations will have to wait until tomorrow, when I've actually had a chance to see the episode. Instead, a sad story (but short, since I'm soon bound for bed).
Because of my move, I've started driving to work in a different way than I'd been used to. It takes me past a site where a drive-in movie theater stands.
Used to stand.
Now it's just a dirt waste being leveled by heavy machinery. Strangely though, the sign is still there.
At one point, I remember being told in a completely anecdotal, unconfirmed way that this was one of less than 200 drive-in theaters left in the United States. I'd also heard (with a similar level of reliability) that it had been threatened for years. Apparently, even though it was actually making money (or at least, not losing money), the owners of the land had wanted to demolish the place for years to sell out to theoretically more high-ticket businesses. Small organizations of people had fought them on it for a while on the basis of it being an historical landmark, and had successfully forestalled the demolition for a few years.
But no more, obviously. I hadn't heard the battle had finally been lost. And it's disappointing too, because going there had always been on my list of "things I'd like to do." (As I said, the place was profitable, so you can't say that by my NOT going there, I caused it to go away.) Now the opportunity is lost.
Sigh.
3 comments:
You know, we still have a few drive-in theaters over here in Québec, but their numbers are dwindling very fast.
And although I agree about the nostalgia factor of a drive-in theater (I have so many gold-plated memories of being taken there with my younger sister by my father when I was a teen), ultimately it's a very crappy way to see a movie.
Now that crappy movie experience was built all over North America back in the days when the automobile was king - so it made sense to see a movie with barely decent viewing angles and awful sound, because you did it in your CAR (and nothing was cooler!).
Nowadays, this is no longer true, so I suppose the demise of the last few drive-in theaters is unavoidable.
And frankly, as long as I get to hold on to those memories of yesteryear, I don't mind.
FKL
There IS one up here by us, actually. We've been thinking about going once it opens for the season (they already have the first movies listed on the marquee and they're ones actually coming out soon, so I'm pretty sure the sign is accurate about it opening soon) because we could go with the B in our car and she wouldn't disturb anyone else and we could actually see a movie together without spending a bunch of scratch on a babysitter.
I used to go to drive-ins with my parents all the time when we were kids and now I realize why! It was so my noisy butt didn't annoy other people but my parents could still see some movies.
Yeah, that's what made the Cinderella's closing sad. Last year, you couldn't get in to save your life. The show would be starting on both screens, the place would be packed full already, and there would be a line of cars the full 10 blocks all the way back out to Hampden waiting to get in. But apparently, we needed to build more shitty condos that nobody can afford. Sigh.
The folks over at www.drive-ins.com are showing 317 still open in the US. There have actually been a few new ones built recently which is kinda cool.
There's only one hiding in Denver now though...otherwise it's Fort Collins or Pueblo for the next closest one.
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