June 7, 2019 (Friday)
June 6, 1933 was the date of the first drive-in theater (near Camden, New Jersey). It was the brainchild of Richard M. Hollingshead, Jr., who advertised, “The whole family is welcome, regardless of how noisy the children are.”
I used to drive to the outdoor theaters in Houston with my younger siblings, and, as I recall, we had some good times together. Before the in-car speakers were introduced, the movie sound was made by loud speakers mounted on or near the screen. Sometimes it was difficult to hear. Then there were those nights in Houston when the fog rolled in, and you had difficulty seeing as well as hearing. Also in Houston, there were the ever-present mosquitoes, and sometimes there were swarms of them that drove the patrons back to their homes. There were no special anti-mosquito products in those days, only oil of citronella, the odor of which sometimes filled the entire area as car after car made use of it. Gulfspray was not very successful, because the car windows were usually open (going to drive-ins was mostly a summertime activity).
When Wanda and I first married, we enjoyed movies in the regular theaters, but after our children were born, it was always the drive-in theater that got our business. There were play areas there for the children and concession stands filled with goodies. Before moving to Rockport, we visited drive-in movie theaters in Austin, Fort Worth, Waco and Dallas.
Nearly every town, including Rockport, had a drive-in theater. I remember in the Seventies, while I was on a trip to Dallas for some kind of church-related meeting, Wanda took the kids to the drive-in in Rockport to see “Fiddler On the Roof.” Wesley Morgan was the projectionist at the theater, a part-time job for him because his main job was delivering mail door to door in the daytime.
Ah, those were the days.
And don’t forget the snack bar!