Where shenanigans happened

June 6, 2023

A Tuesday Newsday Classic – updated for your reading pleasure

June 6 is an important day in US History. But since we all learned about D-Day in our US History classes (or you can pick up my friend Irene Fernandes wonderful novel ‘Long Time Passing’ for a firsthand account of a war-bride in England during WWII) I have instead chosen another ground breaking event for the subject this week.

Yes, it was 90 years ago on June 6, 1933, when the first commercially successful drive in movie theatre opened in Pennsauken, New Jersey. The father of the drive in movie was one Richard Hollingshead. From the Infallible Wikipedia:

“Hollingshead conducted outdoor theater tests in his driveway at 212 Thomas Avenue in Riverton. After nailing a screen to trees in his backyard, he set a 1928 Kodak projector on the hood of his car and put a radio behind the screen, testing different sound levels with his car windows down and up. Blocks under vehicles in the driveway enabled him to determine the size and spacing of ramps so all automobiles could have a clear view of the screen. Hollingshead applied for a patent of his invention on August 6, 1932, and he was given U.S. Patent 1,909,537 on May 16, 1933.”

The American public, already in love with the automobile, also loved the drive-in movie. They reached their peak of popularity in the 1950’s and early 1960’s when some 4,000 Drive-ins existed throughout the United States.

The phenomenon was not without its detractors, however, and drive in movies – which allowed people to view films from the privacy of their car – were labeled ‘passion pits.’ Teenagers, particularly, adored them as it afforded an opportunity to, well, you know.

Speaking of which, there were several drive-in movie theaters in my hometown of Yakima, Washington. One evening my sister and I and two of our friends decided to go to the Fruitvale Drive-in (sadly, no longer there). The tank, er, car my sister drove was a 1950 yellow Cadillac with a red roof; a hand me down from our grandparents.  When the grandparents bought it new it had all the whistles and bells popular in 1950 including a gauge which told you how good your driving was.

Ok, not really, it had to do with gas mileage. I have a distinct memory as a child of about six who was enamored of my grandfather and fascinated with the device in that car. It was a round gauge with an arrow that pointed to words like ‘poor’, ‘fair’, ‘good’ and ‘excellent.’ My grandfather, in his affable way, told me that the gauge let him know how his driving was. We are driving the roads up near their cabin at Rimrock Lake and I’m watching that gauge and announcing every time it changes. Seems like it was often pointing to poor but that didn’t deter grandpa from driving. A few years later he turned the driving over to my grandmother who, apparently, agreed with the device.

That’s just an aside as, most important of all, the Caddy featured a movable spotlight affixed to the car just outside the driver’s side window. There was a handle inside the car to control the light. I guess it was there to find dead things on the side of the road or assist in deer hunting. The more common reason, and a lot more mundane, is that the spotlight allowed the driver to find house numbers at night. Who knew?

But then there was the infamous incident at the Fruitvale Drive In. On this particular night my sister, and her best friend Wendy, were in the front seat and me and my best friend Pam were in the back. For anyone who has ever been to a Drive In, you know that the movie cannot start until dusk at the earliest. While I don’t recall the exact day it was likely July 1972 and the sunset mid month is just before 9 p.m. The movie starts. No idea what movie we watched. Our options were limited as we were all under the age of 17. It must not have been a great movie because our attentions were soon drawn to the activities taking place in the backseat of the car parked in front of us. We watched with intense teenage curiosity as the silhouetted heads of the couple descended lower and lower until they were no longer visible. Now THIS was getting interesting (unlike the movie whose name I forget. A search of PG movies the summer of 1972 turns up a single one that it probably was: ‘The Candidate’ starring Robert Redford.). We, of course, giggled and speculated on WHAT exactly might be going on in that car and then my sister remembered ‘the light.’

“Do it!” we encouraged. We debated for several minutes as to the advisability of such an action. But eventually peer pressure won out. So she did. A moment later a blaze of floodlight swamped the erstwhile lovers and you never saw feet flail or heads snap up so fast! We descended into paroxysm of laughter. The light was off a moment later but then we worried that we would be in trouble for the illumination during the movie. A few horns honked in objection to the movie being disrupted and we two residents of the back seat ducked down so as not to be seen. Our prank, however, was not exposed and I do believe the lovers in the other car spent the rest of the movie upright. Talk about coyly ‘interrupt-us’.

If you want to know more about the rise and decline of the drive-in movie theater click on this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive-in_theater

And a couple other links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Candidate_(1972_film)