Category Archives: Carload-related

Please Buy My New Book

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About a year ago, I had an idea that clicked so hard in my head that I couldn’t shake it out. It was for a book I wanted to read, an intersection between two nostalgic niches – Route 66 and drive-in theaters. Since nobody else had published the book I wanted, I was stuck with the task of writing it.

For the past six months, I’ve been working on gathering all the details and images I can legally plop into my book, and now it’s ready for you to read. Drive-Ins of Route 66 is available on Amazon as a Kindle book, a full-color paperback, and a less expensive black and white paperback. The Kindle version is also included for Kindle Unlimited members. (And of course, if you click through the links in this post, I get a small affiliate percentage in addition to any royalties I’d earn.)

This book is chock full of quirky turns of phrase, old and new illustrations, and the stories behind each of the 105 drive-in theaters that ever existed within about two miles of Route 66, or one of its alternates, while it was active. Some tell of fights with the censors, some tell of fights with each other, and at least one drive-in is described for the first time in print in over half a century. I’ll be adding some excerpts (such as the chapter called A Short History of Drive-Ins) here on Carload in the weeks to come so you can get a taste.

This book is meant to be periodically updated with new information. So if you spot a mistake or know something interesting to add, let me know so I can include it in the next edition. With ebooks, that next edition could be out next week.

If you’re okay with reading books on a device or your computer (however you’re reading this now), I’d recommend the Kindle version, which lets you see some very nice color photos at a fraction of the cost of the full-color paperback. (It turns out that printing dozens of book pages with all of those inks gets expensive.) You know you want to read this, so go buy it!

Remco Movieland – a surprisingly good toy?

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Front view of the Remco Movieland toy drive-in theaterA few years ago, I wrote about the Remco Movieland, a 1959 drive-in toy that didn’t look that much like the opening sequence of its TV advertisement. What I didn’t notice then was that Scott Santoro at the Retro Rockets blog had one of them to show off. According to the Santoro, the Movieland is not so bad. “I loved it anyway,” he wrote. “To me, it wasn’t just a toy, it was an experience.”

Santoro included a reference from my youth, the Give-A-Show Projector (profiled at Retroland), which had cardboard strips of six slides per story. He didn’t say how many images were in each Movieland feature, but “there were enough panels to convey the bare essentials of a story including a beginning, a middle and an end.” There’s a lot more information about exactly how the Movieland worked, with many helpful photos, so you really should go read it!

Screen shot from Remco Movieland TV ad

Looking at that ad again, I took a screen shot from the beginning and noticed more than I had when it flashed by in less than four seconds. For example, it really is the Remco toy at the top of the hill, and there’s a diagonal ramp up to the entrance and exit. But what’s that in front at the bottom of the hill, where the cars are parked? Is it a small strip mall with really shallow stores? Is it a farmer’s market with colorful posters? But I digress.

It turns out that there were enough Movieland toys sold that there’s usually one available on eBay. At this writing, pristine editions can run several hundred dollars, but the beat-up, pieces-missing result of a normal childhood is typically under a hundred, depending on condition. So if you really want one of your own, now you know where to buy it.

Would you pay for this drive-in upgrade?

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Jay and Bella Emanuel

For all the times I’ve written about Jay Emanuel Publications, I’d never seen a photo of the man till I found this one. His wife Bella’s got a great smile, don’t you think? (Courtesy of PhotoboothJournal.com. Used by permission.)

I’ve been reading through a few old issues of Motion Picture Exhibitor. That’s a weekly magazine put out by Jay Emanuel Publications, which also published the annual Theatre Catalog. The Jan. 18, 1967 issue includes an article about an interesting new product. Allow me to transcribe:

ST. PAUL, MINN. – Drive-in movie theatres are being invited to “net increased profits” by reserving premium-priced seats with a new control console that also plays a role in concession sales.

Hollywood Loge, Inc., distributor of the “Reserva-Seat” console, which replaces a conventional speaker stand, says the console justifies higher admission charges – a 25 cent premium is suggested – and should boost concession sales during the movie. The console includes back-to-back hi-fi speakers, an integral two-way intercom to the concession stand for carhop service, and a softly lit menu display board.

Reserva-Seat consoles are limited to the best 10 per cent locations in a drive-in, generally those near the concession stand. The locations should be chosen to give patrons privacy and prestige, the company said.

“The key to increased profits,” the company explained, “is a special Reserva-Seat key that is rented to the patron at the boxoffice and entitles him to a reserved drive-in parking space. Each key is coded to a specific console. At the console the patron uses the key to turn on the hi-fi speaker. Once the key is turned it cannot be removed except by a master key; this prevents pilferage, duplication or unauthorized use.”

Touching a special Honeywell pushbutton signals the concession stand; then the order is phoned in over the speaker. Other Honeywell switches tie in the movie sound track when the key is turned, as well as turning on an “in use” light. The console also has a non-reset counter showing how many times the reserved seat has been rented. (End of article)

I’m sad to say that the article had no illustrations, but that console sounds a lot like what you’d find at a Sonic drive-in restaurant, plus keys. According to NATO (the Theatre Owners, not the Treaty Organization), the average movie ticket in 1967 was $1.22, which would make that recommended surcharge about 20 percent. Would you pay an extra $2 today for a primo reserved parking slot with carhop service? I might have tried it, but I never got the chance.

Suffice it to say, you don’t see Reserva-Seat keys anywhere, and I doubt that the idea caught on. A quick search of the trademark office turned up nothing on Reserva-Seat, alive or dead. The Minnesota Secretary of State says that Hollywood Loge, incorporated six months before this article, dissolved in 1991. Rest in peace.