paul_v
Second Unit
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2000
- Messages
- 320
Hope the movies section is the right spot for this article. I thought the subject is appropriate. Here is part of the article:
From http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/local/6529931.htm
LUBBOCK - What time and twisters didn't do to tumble Texas' drive-in theaters, developers and big-box retailers did.
"There used to be 450 drive-ins in Texas," said Jennifer Miller, co-owner of Granbury's Brazos Drive-In. "Now, that's all there is in the United States."
The first drive-in opened 70 years ago in New Jersey; by the 1950s, the theaters had won the hearts of American families seeking affordable entertainment and the affection of postwar teen-agers craving privacy.
Suburban sprawl doomed many of the theaters in the '80s, and several closed when business was still good, according to Jennifer Sherer, co-creator of the Web site drive-ins.com.
But the count will rise by two screens when a new twin drive-in lights the night outside Lubbock. The Stars & Stripes Drive-In is slated to open Tuesday on 24 acres along U.S. 84 northwest of town.
There's room for 1,000 vehicles and space for a third screen if business warrants.
The owner is Ryan Smith, a laconic 25-year-old Southern Methodist University law school dropout. He is staking $750,000 to $1.5 million -- he won't say exactly how much -- in loans and family savings to convert a patch of dusty West Texas cropland into what he hopes will be a field of greenbacks.
"I grew up always hearing about the drive-in," Smith said. "It was just a proud part of our family's history."
Smith will shoot for the family crowd with double features such as PG-rated Freaky Friday and G-rated Finding Nemo. He'll also screen PG-13 fare such as S.W.A.T.
"If this guy is building one from scratch," said drive-in movie columnist Joe Bob Briggs, "that's an amazing story."
Smith isn't the only entrepreneur trying to draw moviegoers out of the air conditioning.
Sherer knows of at least 426 operational American drive-ins. Thirty-seven have been built since 1990; 14 of those have gone up since 2000.
New drive-ins have also been built in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin.
New technology has replaced the heavy, metal speakers that patrons once hung from their windows -- and sometimes drove off with. Sound systems now allow customers to listen to the movie soundtrack on their FM radios. That's what Smith will use.
From http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/local/6529931.htm
LUBBOCK - What time and twisters didn't do to tumble Texas' drive-in theaters, developers and big-box retailers did.
"There used to be 450 drive-ins in Texas," said Jennifer Miller, co-owner of Granbury's Brazos Drive-In. "Now, that's all there is in the United States."
The first drive-in opened 70 years ago in New Jersey; by the 1950s, the theaters had won the hearts of American families seeking affordable entertainment and the affection of postwar teen-agers craving privacy.
Suburban sprawl doomed many of the theaters in the '80s, and several closed when business was still good, according to Jennifer Sherer, co-creator of the Web site drive-ins.com.
But the count will rise by two screens when a new twin drive-in lights the night outside Lubbock. The Stars & Stripes Drive-In is slated to open Tuesday on 24 acres along U.S. 84 northwest of town.
There's room for 1,000 vehicles and space for a third screen if business warrants.
The owner is Ryan Smith, a laconic 25-year-old Southern Methodist University law school dropout. He is staking $750,000 to $1.5 million -- he won't say exactly how much -- in loans and family savings to convert a patch of dusty West Texas cropland into what he hopes will be a field of greenbacks.
"I grew up always hearing about the drive-in," Smith said. "It was just a proud part of our family's history."
Smith will shoot for the family crowd with double features such as PG-rated Freaky Friday and G-rated Finding Nemo. He'll also screen PG-13 fare such as S.W.A.T.
"If this guy is building one from scratch," said drive-in movie columnist Joe Bob Briggs, "that's an amazing story."
Smith isn't the only entrepreneur trying to draw moviegoers out of the air conditioning.
Sherer knows of at least 426 operational American drive-ins. Thirty-seven have been built since 1990; 14 of those have gone up since 2000.
New drive-ins have also been built in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin.
New technology has replaced the heavy, metal speakers that patrons once hung from their windows -- and sometimes drove off with. Sound systems now allow customers to listen to the movie soundtrack on their FM radios. That's what Smith will use.
