Category Archives: New Jersey

Media outlets celebrate 80 years of drive-ins

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Fiesta Drive-In screen

photo by Neon Michael, from the Carload Flickr pool

Rather than adding separate posts about everybody celebrating the 80th anniversary of the drive-in theater, I’ll put them all together for you here so you can read as many of them as you want.

  • USA Today picked up a Cherry Hills NJ Courier-Post story. The best part is a photo of the first drive-in courtesy of Pauline Hollinghead, the inventor’s nephew’s wife.
  • Philly.com ran an article with a different photo of that first drive-in. The article adds some perspective I hadn’t seen elsewhere. “The theater opened in an era when Admiral Wilson Boulevard and adjacent Crescent Boulevard (Route 130) were lined with flashy attractions and establishments of all sorts, including a dog-racing track, an airport, and an enormous Sears department store (now undergoing demolilition).”
  • Gadling.com used the occasion for an interview with Craig Derman, photographer of The Drive-In Project, a look at abandoned drive-in movie theaters across America. And it shows a picture of the Comanche (Buena Vista CO). Hey, the Comanche isn’t abandoned!
  • The Connecticut Post ran a slide show of classic drive-in photos, leading off with the iconic Life Magazine photo with Charlton Heston that we talked about earlier.
  • ABC News ran a different set of black and white drive-in photos, mostly from Getty Images.
  • Parade had yet another slide show.
  • The press release web site PRWeb.com used the anniversary to promote the Family Drive-In Theatre (Stephens City VA) as part of Go Blue Ridge Travel’s “Kids Bucket List“. Have we already forgotten what “bucket list” means? Do kids around there have a high mortality rate?
  • The Kentuck Art Center (Northport AL) commemorated the occasion in its monthly Art Night with an outdoor screen looping vintage intermission ads and a drive-in themed photo booth for visitors to use, according to the University of Alabama’s The Crimson White.
  • Finally, the Orange County Register posted a great infographic (PDF) about the rise and fade of drive-ins through the years. Check it out!

Two MINI notes equals one post

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Old-time cars at the Warwick-Drive-In

Definitely not MINIs, but it is the Warwick Drive-In. Photo by Craige Moore.

Hope you enjoyed the Memorial Day weekend. Here at Carload world headquarters, we ran into two short drive-in notes with an unusual common thread – the MINI line of cars. Please note that Carload is not sponsored by MINI or any other car company, but if you’re a MINI executive reading this, we’re always open to new advertisers.

First off is a MINI-sponsored slide show on Salon.com. The headline and first sentence of this one had been coming up in my searches for weeks, but Salon had hidden it until Monday. The 10 drive-in photos are worth the visit, and it’s nice to read someone else who recognizes that “the only thing cooler than an air-conditioned auditorium is watching ‘Back to the Future’ from your own time machine on wheels.”

The second note comes from InventorSpot.com, of all places. It’s a puff piece about the Prestige MINI dealership in Ramsey NJ and its annual MINI Movie Night across the border at the Warwick Drive-In in Warwick NY. This year’s event will be Wednesday, June 5. Maybe I should have labeled that as another great idea for drive-in operators – partner with a nearby dealership to take over an underproductive weeknight. Sounds like fun!

Delsea finds a great source for transition cash

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Delsea Drive-In marquee

photo by applesticker, used by permission

New Jersey, the birthplace of the drive-in theater, is down to one active drive-in. But news this past week suggests that it’s going to stay around for a long time.

The Daily Journal of Vineland NJ and nearby towns reported that the Delsea Drive-In was a little slow opening this season because it installed digital projectors. “It was a very intense decision,” owner John DeLeonardis said of the investment of $135,000 for his two screens.

What’s especially nice about this story is the source of the money. It wasn’t Kickstarter or other fundraisers, it was the city of Vineland itself. According the The Daily Journal, “Vineland issued a $130,000 loan of Urban Enterprise Zone funds to finance the purchase. It’s repayable over 15 years at 5.5 percent interest.”

An agreement about virtual print fees (VPFs) appears to be what proved to be a reliable source of income to pay off the loan. Big indoor theaters have been getting VPFs from the movie industry to help pay for their conversion to digital movies, which are a lot cheaper for the movie industry to store and ship. Now a version of that is available for the Delsea, which will receive a $150 fee for each first-run movie it plays. I suspect that’s been true for other drive-ins, but The Daily Journal’s story is unusually thorough in its description of the VPF program. That’s just another reason why you should go read it!