Today’s online edition of the LA Times includes a relatively brief story about drive-in movies and their legacy in Southern California. The article features a wonderful photograph of the state’s first drive-in theatre, a circa 1930s outpost impossible to conceive in today’s Los Angeles. These largely vanished venues, a part of 20th Century American popular culture, are worth remembering.
For many Americans, going to a drive-in movie was an appealing, ritualistic activity. Drive-ins offered a unique mix of families looking for inexpensive entertainment, teenagers trying to beat the system by hiding in car trunks, and attempted or consummated sex conducted in the confines of an automobile. The movie often seemed secondary to the drive-ins’ somewhat carny atmosphere.
Some cineastes have generally regarded the drive-in movie phenomenon with distaste. In their opinion, the dreadful rendering of images did movies a disservice. By all accounts, sound quality at drive-ins ranged from bad to hopeless. Meanwhile, the nature of the venues hardly lent themselves to a studied appreciation of a film.
Consequently, there is something of a tug-of-war between advocates of popular culture and spokespeople for film with a capital “F.” Personally, I enjoy drive-ins. There’s one about an hour from where my wife and I live. It shows mostly bad movies, but that’s okay; lousy movies stink just as much indoors as they do outdoors. However, the night sky is ours, and nothing can dim the poetry and power of that show.
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