Dripping Life June 4

Last weekend, my grandson hosted a gathering of four friends for dinner and a movie on the patio. All wore masks (except when they were eating). They ate take-out on the picnic table and then watched a movie projected on the garage door.

I have to say it brought back fun memories from my teen years, when every town had a drive-in. In our town -- a military base town during the Korean War -- we had “The Jet,” “The Atomic” and “The Rocket” drive-ins.

Outdoor movies debuted shortly before World War II. Sitting in your car, watching a movie was a new and enticing idea.

The first “Automobile Movie Theatre” opened in Camden, New Jersey, June 6, 1933. The first Texas drivein movie opened the next year in Galveston. It was as short-lived as it was shortreeled, showing shorts, news, cartoons and comedies. After 20 days, the screens of this Gulf-side outdoor movie theatre were blown down in a storm.

Some Texans called early permanent drive-ins “cow pasture theaters” and the first in the state opened for business in Corpus Christi in 1939…and while drive-ins were convenient for families who could skip babysitters and bring the kids, in PJ’s, in the back seat, owning and running a drive-in wasn’t easy.

Owners had to drive, usually out of town, to pick-up and return movies. Distributors weren’t keen on allowing drive-ins to show current films. The Texas Drive-in Houston made the plunge anyway. On June 7, 1940, The Texas opened with “The Under Pup,” starring Gloria Jean a popular child actor. The Texas, located on an 18-acre tract on South Main, had places for 475 cars and cost $50,000 to build.

When you bought your ticket to admit your car, one attendant cleaned your windshield for optimum viewing. If you arrived after the movie began, you had to turn off your lights and wander up and down the rows of cars until you found an empty spot. Many parking places were flat but some venues offered tilt-back spaces. Every space had its own speaker box, but before settling on a space, you needed to check to see if all the wires were connected and the speaker actually worked and the one volume knob was functioning. Some patrons simply forgot they had a speaker in their window and drove away, yanking the speaker off its pole.

One Waco drive-in had “sound-in-the ground,” where the speaker was placed in the ground and a grate placed on top of it. The movie-goers simply drove their vehicles over this hightech invention to enjoy the movie. This “innovative” idea lasted until the first bad weather.

The state’s largest drivein was “The Pike” on East Lancaster in Fort Worth with two concession stands and could accommodate 610 cars. The Gulf Drivein in Corpus had a play beach, seesaws, merry-gorounds and slides for the kids. Moms could use bottle warmers in the concession stand and at other driveins, the amenities included swimming pools, miniature train rides, hand-held bug-killers, in-car heaters, piped-in air conditioning, and permanently parked cars for patrons without wheels.

By the 1950s, there were more drive-ins in Texas than any other state. Dallas/Fort Worth, for example, had 43.

Long-time drive-in theatre owner Sam Kirkland told Richard Schroeder, author of “Lone Star Picture Shows,” wrote the following:

“The projection building -- where the projector shoots out of -- every Saturday night we put a piano on top of it and we had live music at intermission. In the 1950s, this is where big entertainment came. This is where Buddy Holly started (in Lamesa). Roy Rogers came here at one time -- early 50s -- my understanding was he had come to Lubbock and they got him to come to Lamesa somehow or another. I think he sang some for them; it was not a charge performance. All of the [live] entertainment was on top of the projection building in the old days.”

Most baby boomers -- some younger -- have great memories of seeing a movie at the drive-in. It also was at a drive-in movie where I received my surprise, first kiss -- and yes, I remember his name, but I’ll never kiss and tell!