Drive-in Movies are coming back in style!
Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2004 9:33 am
Come to the movie, stay for the stars
Ellis County drive-in to buck U.S. trend by offering family fare in traditional setting
By DAVID FLICK / The Dallas Morning News
A member of a badly endangered species may soon return to 10 acres of prairie in Ellis County.
The Galaxy Drive-In, the first outdoor movie theater to be constructed in the Dallas area in decades, stands nearly complete near the Ellis County town of Garrett.
Its three white screens are up, and a test screening was run in May; the concession stand is in an advanced stage of construction, and the marquee – complete with a lighted star – is in place along Interstate 45.
Although the Galaxy's Web site (bobworley.com/galaxy) proclaims "Opening Summer 2004," co-owner Marsha Murray said the first public screening will probably be in October. An exact date has not been set.
Designing a septic system acceptable to county authorities has been the main issue delaying the opening, she said.
In the meantime, she has been fielding questions about what the theater will not be.
"We've heard all these rumors. They say we're going to show X-rated films, or it was going to be an all-Spanish theater, or we're just showing serial shorts. I wasn't even sure I knew what a serial short was," she said.
(Serial shorts, which date back to the earliest days of film, are brief episodes of a continuing story shown in separate sequences.)
In fact, the Galaxy will focus on family-oriented, mainstream films, she said.
Mrs. Murray and her husband, Martin, own Metro Outdoor Entertainment, a small independent company that has reopened three outdoor theaters in the Carolinas and built new ones for other people.
"We've got kids," she said. "If we don't agree with the content of the film, we've left it on the floor and went ahead and paid the distributor for it, but we won't show it."
A trip to a local theater with her kids inspired the couple to open their own drive-in, she said.
"We wanted to see Home Alone, and by the time we got the popcorn and paid for the kids' tickets, we were shocked by how much it cost," she said.
In 1994, the couple reopened the darkened Badin Road Drive-In in Albermarle, N.C. Under the Murrays' ownership, the theater specialized in family-oriented movies and – according to a 1997 story in the Charlotte Observer – was also used for Sunday morning worship services by a local minister.
The drive-in, which is still operating, was sold to new owners in 1999. The Murrays reopened two other theaters in the area, but both are now closed. Mrs. Murray blamed a bad local economy.
Mrs. Murray said an associate in the theater business advised them to move to Ennis, which has no movie theaters, either indoor or outdoor.
The Dallas area has not had an operating drive-in theater since a 1998 electrical fire closed the Astro Drive-In in Oak Cliff. Local enthusiasts must now drive to the Brazos Drive-In in Hood County, southwest of Fort Worth.
Jennifer Sherer, co-creator of Drive-ins.com, called the new theater "exciting news" and part of a surprising trend.
Drive-ins, believed in the 1970s and 1980s to be headed for extinction, have recently shown some signs of returning to life, she said.
Although the 417 drive-ins currently open in the United States represent only a 10th of the number operating during the 1950s, about 40 drive-ins have been built or reopened since 1990.
After more than 20 years in which no new drive-ins were built in Texas, at least two have been built in recent years – the Crossroads Drive-In in Shiner in 2001 and the Stars & Stripes Drive-In north of Lubbock in 2003, according to Drive-ins.com.
"A drive-in is a good representation of what people think of as an earlier time, and it's clean fun," Ms. Sherer said.
Belying its earlier passion-pit image, she said, the newer drive-in tends to attract families, drawn by the lower prices and more informal atmosphere.
"Drive-ins are a piece of the past that we long for, took for granted and now strive to re-create," Ms. Sherer said in an essay on her Web site. "Parents, especially, want to give their kids something from the carefree childhood that they had."
Mrs. Murray said that if the Galaxy is successful, her company might build an indoor movie complex on an adjacent site because "not everybody likes drive-ins."
She prefers the outdoors.
"Personally, I don't like watching movies indoors," she said. "Most of the places play the sound too loud, and I leave with a headache."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
BY THE NUMBERS:
388 Texas drive-ins at their peak (1954)
16 Drive-ins operating in Texas
4,063 Drive-ins in the United States at their peak (1958)
417 Drive-ins open in the United States
22 Drive-ins built in the United States in the 1990s
18 Drive-ins built in the United States in the 2000s
37 Drive-ins in Ohio
3 States with no drive-ins (Alaska, Hawaii and Louisiana)
SOURCES: United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association; Drive-Ins.com
Ellis County drive-in to buck U.S. trend by offering family fare in traditional setting
By DAVID FLICK / The Dallas Morning News
A member of a badly endangered species may soon return to 10 acres of prairie in Ellis County.
The Galaxy Drive-In, the first outdoor movie theater to be constructed in the Dallas area in decades, stands nearly complete near the Ellis County town of Garrett.
Its three white screens are up, and a test screening was run in May; the concession stand is in an advanced stage of construction, and the marquee – complete with a lighted star – is in place along Interstate 45.
Although the Galaxy's Web site (bobworley.com/galaxy) proclaims "Opening Summer 2004," co-owner Marsha Murray said the first public screening will probably be in October. An exact date has not been set.
Designing a septic system acceptable to county authorities has been the main issue delaying the opening, she said.
In the meantime, she has been fielding questions about what the theater will not be.
"We've heard all these rumors. They say we're going to show X-rated films, or it was going to be an all-Spanish theater, or we're just showing serial shorts. I wasn't even sure I knew what a serial short was," she said.
(Serial shorts, which date back to the earliest days of film, are brief episodes of a continuing story shown in separate sequences.)
In fact, the Galaxy will focus on family-oriented, mainstream films, she said.
Mrs. Murray and her husband, Martin, own Metro Outdoor Entertainment, a small independent company that has reopened three outdoor theaters in the Carolinas and built new ones for other people.
"We've got kids," she said. "If we don't agree with the content of the film, we've left it on the floor and went ahead and paid the distributor for it, but we won't show it."
A trip to a local theater with her kids inspired the couple to open their own drive-in, she said.
"We wanted to see Home Alone, and by the time we got the popcorn and paid for the kids' tickets, we were shocked by how much it cost," she said.
In 1994, the couple reopened the darkened Badin Road Drive-In in Albermarle, N.C. Under the Murrays' ownership, the theater specialized in family-oriented movies and – according to a 1997 story in the Charlotte Observer – was also used for Sunday morning worship services by a local minister.
The drive-in, which is still operating, was sold to new owners in 1999. The Murrays reopened two other theaters in the area, but both are now closed. Mrs. Murray blamed a bad local economy.
Mrs. Murray said an associate in the theater business advised them to move to Ennis, which has no movie theaters, either indoor or outdoor.
The Dallas area has not had an operating drive-in theater since a 1998 electrical fire closed the Astro Drive-In in Oak Cliff. Local enthusiasts must now drive to the Brazos Drive-In in Hood County, southwest of Fort Worth.
Jennifer Sherer, co-creator of Drive-ins.com, called the new theater "exciting news" and part of a surprising trend.
Drive-ins, believed in the 1970s and 1980s to be headed for extinction, have recently shown some signs of returning to life, she said.
Although the 417 drive-ins currently open in the United States represent only a 10th of the number operating during the 1950s, about 40 drive-ins have been built or reopened since 1990.
After more than 20 years in which no new drive-ins were built in Texas, at least two have been built in recent years – the Crossroads Drive-In in Shiner in 2001 and the Stars & Stripes Drive-In north of Lubbock in 2003, according to Drive-ins.com.
"A drive-in is a good representation of what people think of as an earlier time, and it's clean fun," Ms. Sherer said.
Belying its earlier passion-pit image, she said, the newer drive-in tends to attract families, drawn by the lower prices and more informal atmosphere.
"Drive-ins are a piece of the past that we long for, took for granted and now strive to re-create," Ms. Sherer said in an essay on her Web site. "Parents, especially, want to give their kids something from the carefree childhood that they had."
Mrs. Murray said that if the Galaxy is successful, her company might build an indoor movie complex on an adjacent site because "not everybody likes drive-ins."
She prefers the outdoors.
"Personally, I don't like watching movies indoors," she said. "Most of the places play the sound too loud, and I leave with a headache."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
BY THE NUMBERS:
388 Texas drive-ins at their peak (1954)
16 Drive-ins operating in Texas
4,063 Drive-ins in the United States at their peak (1958)
417 Drive-ins open in the United States
22 Drive-ins built in the United States in the 1990s
18 Drive-ins built in the United States in the 2000s
37 Drive-ins in Ohio
3 States with no drive-ins (Alaska, Hawaii and Louisiana)
SOURCES: United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association; Drive-Ins.com