Tuesday, September 19, 2006
America’s Other d-Day.
Almost everyone in the United States knows that D-Day occurred on June 6, 1944. It marked the Allied landing on the beaches of Normandy to liberate Europe from the Nazis. But how many of you know about America’s other d-Day? It happened eleven years earlier on June 6, 1933.
That date marked a milestone in the history of the United State. Hordes of automobiles descended on Camden, New Jersey to see what Richard Hollingshead had wrought in his back yard. Richard had borrowed a few parts from his father’s Whiz Auto Parts Store and had found a Kodak projector to put together a backyard movie theatre. Once he got the hang of things, he moved it to his driveway. And presto! There was born the drive-in movie theatre. To be certain he had a few problems with people being able to see and some neighbors complained about the loud noise that seemed to suddenly envelop their neighborhood. But he finally got all the quirks ironed out. The movie on that first night was Wives Beware, a British comedy. Thus was born d-Day or drive-in-movie day. Admission was 25 cents per car and 25 cents per person. For a country trying to escape the worst of the Depression that was a real bargain. Of course, it was an even better bargain if one could sneak in undetected.
Hollingshead retained his original drive-in for only two years before he sold it. Maybe there were too many complaints from the neighbors. But more likely, he wanted to build a bigger and better facility, which he did. Over the next four decades more than 5,000 drive-ins sprang up around the country. Snack bars and playgrounds were added and eventually someone determined that an effective mosquito repellant would be helpful as well. The owners had long since learned that the back row in the drive-in was a favorite place for teenagers who were not much interested in the movie at all. A loud sounding “whack” could mean that there was a large mosquito present or that somebody was trying to go where no man had gone before.
Summer bug season could be a real nuisance as well. During the heyday of the drive-in many communities were still spraying DDT to get rid of the pests. It was not uncommon to hear, if one listened quite intensely, the telltale sign of an approaching fog-truck (but if a person was really concentrating on the movie he probably could not hear it approaching). And if that person were not concentrating on the movie, the noise of the approaching fog-truck might well be drowned out by the loud chorus of “whacks” that continually resonated throughout the combat arena—uh theatre. And then there were those individuals who could not hear anything because the whole sides of their faces including the auditory components were still throbbing from a well-placed whack or two. Some people today still naively believe that the primary cause of hearing loss is loud music.
Another major pastime associated with drive-ins was sneaking in. Owners quickly learned that the exit should be well lighted to keep the non-paying audience out. Eventually many of them realized that one could make a lot more money selling cokes and popcorn than from admission prices. To accommodate the cheap of heart, buck-night was initiated--one buck per car but many, many bucks per car for snacks. But what was one to do on non-buck nights? Raise the trunk and fill it up with people and then drive in. As one approached the ticket window it was always necessary to caution the trunk crowd to be quite—no more moaning and groaning about how hot it was and to stop kicking each other and to quit banging on the trunk and above all to stop yelling “are we there yet?” It always helped if there were a boy and a girl sitting together on the front seat—no suspicions there. Once inside there was always the problem of getting out of the trunk undetected. The best way to accomplish this was to park on the back row where the “whacks” were always the loudest and to discreetly open the trunk. Sometimes this could be a real challenge, as there seemed to always be someone patrolling the back row to determine the source of all those “whacks.” People in the trunk could occasionally find themselves imprisoned for fifteen or 30 minutes at a time—this normally occurred whenever a single person tried to park on the back row and was spotted by the back-row patrol force. The idea seemed to be to engage the driver in a prolonged conversation until the trunk crowd grew weary and decided to ante up the admission price.
Then there was the problem of the boring chick-flick. Guys only have so much patience. And if one has paid an admission fee, one expects to have a little fun. My friend Larry and his buddy fell into this category. For lack of anything better to do they started running and whooping though the parking area. They were admonished three or four times to quiet down or else. When they kept it up they soon found themselves handcuffed to the front bumper of a deputy sheriff’s car. Gals who were bored generally went to the concession stand for a looong time. Any female who unsuspectingly found herself parked on the back row could generally find refuge at the concession stand as well. The concession area was generally well populated by members of the weaker sex while the guys were still waiting for a “get out of jail free” card.
Almost everyone in the United States knows that D-Day occurred on June 6, 1944. It marked the Allied landing on the beaches of Normandy to liberate Europe from the Nazis. But how many of you know about America’s other d-Day? It happened eleven years earlier on June 6, 1933.
That date marked a milestone in the history of the United State. Hordes of automobiles descended on Camden, New Jersey to see what Richard Hollingshead had wrought in his back yard. Richard had borrowed a few parts from his father’s Whiz Auto Parts Store and had found a Kodak projector to put together a backyard movie theatre. Once he got the hang of things, he moved it to his driveway. And presto! There was born the drive-in movie theatre. To be certain he had a few problems with people being able to see and some neighbors complained about the loud noise that seemed to suddenly envelop their neighborhood. But he finally got all the quirks ironed out. The movie on that first night was Wives Beware, a British comedy. Thus was born d-Day or drive-in-movie day. Admission was 25 cents per car and 25 cents per person. For a country trying to escape the worst of the Depression that was a real bargain. Of course, it was an even better bargain if one could sneak in undetected.
Hollingshead retained his original drive-in for only two years before he sold it. Maybe there were too many complaints from the neighbors. But more likely, he wanted to build a bigger and better facility, which he did. Over the next four decades more than 5,000 drive-ins sprang up around the country. Snack bars and playgrounds were added and eventually someone determined that an effective mosquito repellant would be helpful as well. The owners had long since learned that the back row in the drive-in was a favorite place for teenagers who were not much interested in the movie at all. A loud sounding “whack” could mean that there was a large mosquito present or that somebody was trying to go where no man had gone before.
Summer bug season could be a real nuisance as well. During the heyday of the drive-in many communities were still spraying DDT to get rid of the pests. It was not uncommon to hear, if one listened quite intensely, the telltale sign of an approaching fog-truck (but if a person was really concentrating on the movie he probably could not hear it approaching). And if that person were not concentrating on the movie, the noise of the approaching fog-truck might well be drowned out by the loud chorus of “whacks” that continually resonated throughout the combat arena—uh theatre. And then there were those individuals who could not hear anything because the whole sides of their faces including the auditory components were still throbbing from a well-placed whack or two. Some people today still naively believe that the primary cause of hearing loss is loud music.
Another major pastime associated with drive-ins was sneaking in. Owners quickly learned that the exit should be well lighted to keep the non-paying audience out. Eventually many of them realized that one could make a lot more money selling cokes and popcorn than from admission prices. To accommodate the cheap of heart, buck-night was initiated--one buck per car but many, many bucks per car for snacks. But what was one to do on non-buck nights? Raise the trunk and fill it up with people and then drive in. As one approached the ticket window it was always necessary to caution the trunk crowd to be quite—no more moaning and groaning about how hot it was and to stop kicking each other and to quit banging on the trunk and above all to stop yelling “are we there yet?” It always helped if there were a boy and a girl sitting together on the front seat—no suspicions there. Once inside there was always the problem of getting out of the trunk undetected. The best way to accomplish this was to park on the back row where the “whacks” were always the loudest and to discreetly open the trunk. Sometimes this could be a real challenge, as there seemed to always be someone patrolling the back row to determine the source of all those “whacks.” People in the trunk could occasionally find themselves imprisoned for fifteen or 30 minutes at a time—this normally occurred whenever a single person tried to park on the back row and was spotted by the back-row patrol force. The idea seemed to be to engage the driver in a prolonged conversation until the trunk crowd grew weary and decided to ante up the admission price.
Then there was the problem of the boring chick-flick. Guys only have so much patience. And if one has paid an admission fee, one expects to have a little fun. My friend Larry and his buddy fell into this category. For lack of anything better to do they started running and whooping though the parking area. They were admonished three or four times to quiet down or else. When they kept it up they soon found themselves handcuffed to the front bumper of a deputy sheriff’s car. Gals who were bored generally went to the concession stand for a looong time. Any female who unsuspectingly found herself parked on the back row could generally find refuge at the concession stand as well. The concession area was generally well populated by members of the weaker sex while the guys were still waiting for a “get out of jail free” card.
