Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Curious Drive-in Cinema Rules

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Posted by Peter Berrett (Member # 672) on 08-05-2006, 06:38 AM:

Hi all

This is a thread for curious rules at Drive-in Theatres. Some theatres list of dos and don'ts on their websites and sometimes there are oddities in them

I shall start the ball rolling with an extract from the FAQ of my local Drive-in Theatre, The Lunar. The owner forbids

quote:

Drifting, wheel spinning, doughnuts and wreckless driving will result in the vehicle and its occupants being ejected without refund.

Notably the Lunar's patronage comes from the suburbs surrounding Dandenong and one nearby source of patrons is an outer suburb called Narre Warran where a few weeks ago Melbourne's first Krispy Kreme store opened. There have long lines of cars at the store for weeks on end.

No doubt these people have been filling their boots full of doughnuts in the hope that they can smuggle them in to the drive-in. Never mind the people who smuggle in friends and relatives! Doughnut smuggling is a heinous crime.

[Smile]

cheers Peter

Posted by Wayne Keyser (Member # 2420) on 08-05-2006, 10:00 AM:

If I answer this seriously, will I be accused of being humorless and missing a joke? Or should I address a possible language or class barrier?

At the risk of seeming obtuse: "spinning doughnuts" does not refer to twirling pastries - it's the kind of thing cultureless yahoos with cars find endlessly amusing - on a loose surface, stomp on the petrol, let the rear tires spin wildly and throw the car into a 360° power-spin, ejecting gravel forcefully in every direction and leaving circular ruts in the ground (reminiscent, to tiny minds, of "doughnuts").

An unpleasant thing to be happening next to you at the drive-in, especially if your girl has finally gotten bored with ATTACK OF THE NAZI ASTRO-ZOMBIES and decided you can finally have your way with her.

Clearly the term hasn't made it to Australia, or maybe you're just too civilized a person to have paid attention to what the extras from ROAD WARRIOR do when they're bored.

I'm more concerned with the rule against "wreckless driving" - is the entire audience compelled to run into bridge abutments before the show?

To add my own (sort of) rule, I last frequented drive-ins in the 1960s, when the between-show reel listed, among the advantages of going to the drive-in: "smoke if you like!" I and my friends took that as an invitation to light up something they didn't sell at the concession stand.

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 08-05-2006, 11:41 AM:

it doesn't say spinning doughnuts it says
Drifting
Wheel Spinning
Doughnuts
and
wreckless driving

So Doughnuts are not allowed [Smile]

Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 08-05-2006, 12:30 PM:

It is when we refuse to realize the obvious and force businesses to post things the way we demand them to is when McDonalds has to have a sign that warns people that their coffee is hot.

As funny as we might like it to be, it is only then that we put ourselves in the situation of making sure that everything has a sign and a warning, from how to flush a toiled to how to open a door, just so we don't all get sued to death.

It is implied that it is spinning donuts, because it is in the middle of a warning on vehicle behavior. I am quite sure that prosecution of the rule would be interpreted that way, and I am really sure that they hear plenty of cracks on the subject as well. As a judge I would be lenient in the case of firing off a pistol at anyone who thought it was funny enough to crack with the staff about it.

Ciao

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-05-2006, 02:20 PM:

They could just post a rule against "exhibition driving," but that might not be understood by some idiots.

Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 08-05-2006, 03:36 PM:

How come thay have not mentioned the infamous "durfee"?

Now that's exhibition driving at its finest!
KEN

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 08-05-2006, 06:42 PM:

The Rules/FAQ I wrote for the 99W Drive-In (or..."How Brian found out people really read the stuff on the website").

Somebody actually pulled up to the ticket booth and said "I don't have an elephant."

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 08-05-2006, 09:41 PM:

quote: Sam's Link
You cannot exit the theatre once you've paid admission.

Kinda like the Hotel California?

Posted by Peter Berrett (Member # 672) on 08-05-2006, 10:26 PM:

From the 99 Drive-in site

quote:

I am a being from another planet and my flying saucer is too large for a designated parking spot. Can I just park on the Twin/snack bar roof?
No, but you can hover above it as long as you can pull that off silently and it does not disturb other patrons.

Clearly this Drive -in theatre does not mind patrons bringing in doughnut shaped objects. Its just really tall elephants that they have a thing about. [Eek!]

Also from the Moonlite Drive in

http://www.lipumatheatres.com/rules.php

quote:
Shoes are required on theatre property.

Another very sensible rule that should be applied at my local drive-in. It keeps out those Ugg-boot wearing riff-raff!

At Yatala

http://www.drive-intheatre.com.au/aboutus.htm

quote:

With no dress code rules, attire varies from shorts and thongs to cocktail wear. And some have been known to arrive resplendent in one-piece pyjamas, finished off with fluffy dog-eared slippers.

The shoes rule neatly eliminates these people too!

Also from the Centre Star light site

http://www.centrestarlite.com/FAQ.htm#pets

quote:

Can I bring my dog/cat/ferret/elephant?
Yes, as long as the animal is harmless to the customers and our operation. Management reserves the right to refuse any animal (including human) admission. Elephants and other larger animals will be charged a single-occupant car admission due to the fact they would take up a car space by themselves. If you are bringing in your pet anaconda please make sure it is properly fed before you enter the park. Our other patron's pets are not there to be your anaconda's dinner. You will be solely responsible for damage caused by your animal to the drive-in, yourself, other drive-in patrons or property. You must keep your animal secured to your vehicle/parking space. NOTE TO ELEPHANTS AND GIRAFFES: Our ticket window height clearance is 8 ft. Oh yeah, you must scoop their poop.

I'd like to see the Lunar add one rule which was derived from a comment I saw elsewhere on the web.

quote:
We reserve the right to mock local patrons as most of you were conceived here

Regards Peter

[ 08-05-2006, 11:45 PM: Message edited by: Peter Berrett ]

Posted by Anslem Rayburn (Member # 1267) on 08-06-2006, 08:47 AM:

quote: Kenneth Wuepper
How come thay have not mentioned the infamous "durfee"?

I have now waited long enough, so I am prepared to look like the idiot. WHAT ... IN ... THE ... HELL ... IS ... A ... "DURFEE"?

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 08-06-2006, 10:05 AM:

Wow. The Starlite stole a couple of items from our FAQ.

Don't you love it when people steal your material outright as if it's their own? [fu]

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 08-06-2006, 02:10 PM:

It's been happening to me for years, Sam. One guy took my whole FAQ, changed the names & just loaded it up. He's tinkered with it a bit since, but it's still pretty clear where it came from. Guess I don't mind much. It makes me feel a little less guilty when I find a jewel on someone else's site! [Big Grin]

Got anything good over there?

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 08-06-2006, 07:24 PM:

quote: Anslem Rayburn
WHAT ... IN ... THE ... HELL ... IS ... A ... "DURFEE"?

Dur! That'll be $1, please.

Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 08-06-2006, 10:03 PM:

"Durfee", while constantly spinning the rear wheels, the vehicle performs a figure 8 on the lot.

Posted by Peter Berrett (Member # 672) on 08-07-2006, 06:09 AM:

Dear Sam

quote: Sam Graham

Wow. The Starlite stole a couple of items from our FAQ.

Don't you love it when people steal your material outright as if it's their own?

Get your lawyers ready

http://www.mustangdriveinguelph.ca/faqs.html#petsr

http://www.lindsaydrivein.com/faqs.html

Dang Canadians! First Celine Dion and now this!

Regards Peter

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 08-09-2006, 09:29 AM:

quote: Jack Ondracek
It's been happening to me for years, Sam. One guy took my whole FAQ, changed the names & just loaded it up. He's tinkered with it a bit since, but it's still pretty clear where it came from.

I'm guilty of that as well. I've looked and looked for drive-in rules and FAQ's and sometimes what's already been said really can't be said any better . It seems that alot of the UDITOA member drive-ins have pretty much the same set of house rules simply "tweaked" as Jack would say to suit the indivdual theatre. The few drive-ins with the evil "Food Permit" policy (including mine) all pretty much have the exact same set of rules. The new Galaxy Drive-in in Ennis, Texas probably has one of the best explanations of "Why you can't swap screens between movies".

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 08-09-2006, 12:04 PM:

quote: Peter Berrett
Get your lawyers ready

I think there's an ownership connection, Peter. The Lindsay was sold recently. The FAQ may be left over from the former owner, or part of what the new company is doing.

Posted by Steve Anderson (Member # 364) on 08-24-2006, 06:31 AM:

Speaking of Drive-In's what has happened to the www.drive-on-in.com website?

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 08-24-2006, 10:01 AM:

Steve,
From my understanding, they are reworking and making some changes to the site. They've been a real pain to work with regarding their "comments" section of the site.

The version of the site they had up lent itself to widespread abuse of annonymous users who could repeatedly post "user comments" about specific theatres under more than one name. If for example you had an incident at your theatre which involved removing a patron for un-ruly or disruptive behavior, that patron could go home, post as many comments as they wanted about how much your theatre sucks, staff was rude, etc. and do it all under as many different names as they wanted. Drive-ins.com, when asked by individual theatre owners to remove posts or comments that were blatantly wrong or just plain made up lies, they (drive-ins.com) would do nothing in favor of the drive-in owner.

Their response (to me personally) was that the drive-in owner could go and post a rebuttal of his/her own about the previous user comments. All that did was create a big pissing match between the owners and the annonymous contributors. The comment section of Drive-Ins.com really became the "low-point" for their site, and became almost a joke of the industry, and took alot of the credibility out of their site.

They had a great site, and it provided a wealth of information about drive-ins, however by leaving it open for abuse by so-called "fans", I think the Sherer's have some work to do before re-launching the site.

Posted by Steve Anderson (Member # 364) on 08-25-2006, 02:24 PM:

I have noticed that too. It was rather amusing reading the "Bengies" comments....that I will surely miss.