Any drive-ins running film?

[Phil Ranucci]

So I was watching 'Will Trent', and the episode centered on a drive-in theatre that was dealing drugs.
They show the booth and the place is still running film.
One scene had a character carrying in cans to the booth.
Is anyone running film at a drive-in today?

[Steve Guttag]

The Mahoning Drive-In in PA still runs film.

https://www.mahoningdit.com

[Marcel Birgelen]

Looks like a great place, love the vibes and their road show program... a pity we don't have anything like that around here.

Sourcing 35mm film or film in general is an increasingly difficult endeavor, studios around here just claim they don't have any 35mm copies left and if they do, it usually looks like someone dragged it through Mordor and back... Most archives don't want to hand over their precious 35mm copies and neither do film collectors, unless they have an interest in the show themselves...

[Jim Cassedy]

In the mid 1970s BP (Before Platters) and before I got a permanent theater assignment,
"The Union" would occasionally send me to fill in at one of several large, single screen,
drive-ins out on Long Island, NY. At that time, most of the drive-ins I worked were still
relics of the late 1950's, using huge Ashcraft SuperCinex carbon arc lamphouses, which
burned carbons almost as thick as my middle finger at 135~150amps (each) that were
powered by big motor-generator sets which hummed happily (most nights) in the
adjoining power room. The sound systems, most often from Simplex or Motiograph,
consisted of several big racks-full of vacuum tube amps that emitted a rosy-red glow
on the wall behind them when the booth lights were down.
Drive in booths, were usually not that well air-conditioned, if at all, and all this
equipment often made them uncomfortably warm. You could leave the booth door
open, but then you had to deal with all sorts of flying insects and an occasional
rodent running around the room. But, those old drive-in booths really 'separated
the men from the boys', to use an outdated, misogynistic term. You really did
have to be a bit more alert and 'know your stuff' since partial electrocution and 3rd
degree burns were a constant hazard to avoid - - and, it also took quite a bit of self
confidence and nerve to keep your cool if the arc or the sound system went out
or the film broke, and several hundred people started leaning on their car horns.
Fortunately, this only happened to me once or twice, but my ears are still ringing. . .

[Ryan Gallagher]

It's worth mentioning again, there is a great little documentary about the Mahoning Drive-In

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7116000/

Also stream-able, although that seems a bit sacrilegious considering the content subject matter.

https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/at-the-drive-in

[Ryan Gallagher]

and, it also took quite a bit of self
confidence and nerve to keep your cool if the arc or the sound system went out
or the film broke, and several hundred people started leaning on their car horns.
Fortunately, this only happened to me once or twice, but my ears are still ringing. . .

Jesus, I never even considered that. But of course they would!

[Steve Guttag]

Oh...it could get worse than that. Not only did they have car horns...often the projection booth was on the ground level (behind the concession area)...everyone knew where you were and, depending on the climate, the booth doors/ports might be open to get fresh air as well as to not have flies or condensation land on the "ports."

[Jim Cassedy]

< edited> Oh...it could get worse than that. Not only did they have
car horns...often the projection booth was on the ground level
(behind the concession area)...everyone knew where you were

I had some kid toss a cup of soda (well, actually, it was mosty ice) at me through
the open booth door while my back was turned one night. I was only a minute or
two from a changeover, so there was no way I could chase after him.
Luckily, I only had two occasions where the show got momentarily interrupted.
Once by a film break, and once by an arc-issue. which took a couple of
minutes to resolve. during which there was a constant cacophony of car horns.
Fortunately, I never had anything happen where a show had to be completely
cancelled mid-movie, because the logistics of refunding money and clearing
the venue of customers are a lot more difficult at a drive-in than in a hard-top
theater. I've heard it's a nightmare for everyone involved, both staff and patrons.

[Martin McCaffery]

Fog. I covered a DI in MD one night and one of the thickest fogs I've ever seen rolled in. I could not see more than five feet in front of the booth. But the show was on the screen. I've got no idea what it looked like. They did call from the concession stand and tell me it needed to be focused a little. I think we may have ultimately gotten it there. I was on 20 min changeovers, so I had to try to read the cues from the reflection off the portal glass.

There was another DI in MD I used to cover sporadically. It was a hardcore porn theatre. They used to use bikers as lot boys. The managers office was attached to the projection room (or vice-versa) and I've heard multiple stories of the bikers dragging people in and beating the crap out of them. Another projectionist got clocked with a film reel when the lot boys left some kid in the office to go out and get the manager. While Ed was waiting for a changeover cue, the left behind kid hit him on the back of the head with a reel and escaped.

Good times.

[Mike Blakesley]

it also took quite a bit of self
confidence and nerve to keep your cool if the arc or the sound system went out
or the film broke, and several hundred people started leaning on their car horns.
Fortunately, this only happened to me once or twice, but my ears are still ringing.

I "cut my projectionist teeth" in a drive-in booth. The theater was owned by my friend George's dad, so George and I would run the booth together. Once, George got interested in watching the movie and forgot to thread his projector. About halfway through the reel I said, "Hey, don't forget to thread." He said "Oh, yeah..." and took out his old reel, put it in the rewind, got his new reel out, and put it on the spindle. Then sat down and started watching the movie again. Next thing you know, the reel-end alarm went off. He had about three minutes left. I said, "Hey man, you haven't threaded." He said "Yeah, yeah" and pulled down his leader...and then sat down again. After about a minute, still watching the movie and still not having threaded, he reached back and started his carbons. At this point I thought, well I reminded him twice...time to just sit back and watch the fun.

So the first cue came, he hit his motor switch, then the changeover cue...and there was the white screen. Many horns immediately blaring. He turned around, saw his "non-threaded" machine, yelled "HOLY SHIT!" and started threading as fast as he could. Within two seconds, his dad, who was a retired Air Force Major, came busting into the booth cussing a blue streak just like the drill sergeant in "Full Metal Jacket." "YA DUMB SONOFABITCH, IF YOU WERE DOING YOUR GODDAMN JOB INSTEAD OF WATCHING THE FUCKIN' MOVIE....." and so on and so on.

It was a bad bit of showmanship, but it was funny as hell.

[Ryan Gallagher]

How about new release festivals running film. lol. I've got a print coming up in a festival context. Thankfully just one, not like the old days.

[Tj Hopland]

Film in a film fest? Crazy. When it was just film it wasn't all that bad, it was just film so as long as they didn't try to schedule a 35mm print into a room with just 16mm it wasn't that bad. Where I thought the nightmares started was when half the content was video. So many formats and players being shuffled around and not many venues had a permanent video projector so those may have been getting shuffled around and or were installed in the way of the film or kinda precariously in the auditoriums which cords running on the floor.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Back in the good-old film days, you had plenty of mixed purpose festivals with tents running actual 35mm film in tents... When you were lucky, the booth was located in some kind of container. Just like in your average drive-in, the temperature in there was hard to handle, so doing an actual changeover in those conditions felt more like working in a coal mine than doing an actual projection job.

[Tj Hopland]

The fog shows could be fun. If it was real thick you may not know if anything is reaching the screen or if there are even still any customers on the lot. You could run a test and close the dowser and see if there were any honks. One time manager came in part way through a reel and asked. Closed it and no honks so he called it and I shut the lamp off letting the reel run out with the sound still playing. When the reel ran out and the sound quit there was one honk and they said they had been watching the movie the whole time.