The De Anza Drive-in will not

[darph nader]

Be down for Breakfast. The last drive-in theater in southern Ariz closed down tonight after approx 60yrs in operation. Located at the corner of 22nd and Alvernon,it was previously the Cactus Drive-in. The De Anza Co. bought it quite a few years/beers ago and turned it from a 1 screen format to a 4 screen setup. A company in Phoenix bought the theater and plan to make 'another' local shopping place. A lot of good memories happened there and the other long-lost drive-ins here in town.
Good-bye to the $4.00 a carload Monday nights and the "No Alcohol" policy and the 'double feature' movies for the price of one. :(

[Main Streeter]

Interesting post darph. Thanks. At first I thought abt old De Anza Trail history. Didn't think you'd post abt that. I remember passing the drive-in & wondering how they could still be open. Heard Fri. on news an old drive-in near San Berdo is reopening soon. Footage showed work in progress. No $4.00 per car I'm sure.

[lady ulrike]

Probably not $4.00 per car. There's a drive-in by me, it's $7 per person with kids being a little cheaper but I don't think they pay until like 5 years or something. It's still two movies though so it's still a deal. Plus if my daughter gets fussy, I don't have to worry about her disturbing anyone else. :)

[ktulu]

We have a drive-in that is about an hour or so drive away, so we don't go :)

Oh, to those on the left coast who are thinking, oh that's like 5 miles away from you, no, it is 58 miles away :)

[Sarah Magdalene]

I've always wanted to go to a drive in theater. Too bad they are nearly extinct now days. Seems it would be fun.

[hobie16]

When I was a kid there was a drive-in across a big field in our neighborhood. All the kids would get popcorn and drinks and sit in the field to watch the movies. We could hear the sound as all the unused speakers were left on.

One year someone cut down the grass, bailed it, and stacked the bails in a huge stack. We rearranged the bails into bench seats and upholstered them with blankets. What a life!

[felinefan]

When I was a little kid we lived in Ventura, and we would go to the 101 Drive-In. I just recently saw a site that detailed the history of the 101 Drive-In, and of course now it's a shopping center. Last time I was with family and we drove through our old neighborhood I was shocked to see it was showing X-rated pictures. I mean, a drive-in, showing porn?

I also found out the place near the ocean where we lived after we moved out here from Massachusetts is gone, now it's all condos down there. I was on Zillow.com, looking for the old place, and was shocked to find that apparently it was built several years after we'd lived there! The whole block is now multimillion dollar condos!

I also looked at the next place we lived in after that; it's still there, though sometime in history an enclosed porch was added. The place we lived in after we returned from Australia is also still there, though I could see from the aerial photos that the fruit trees, and I'll bet the rose bushes, etc. were taken out, as was the brick patio we installed by ourselves and replaced with grass. Funny thing is, we originally tried to grow dichondra in our back yard, but it kept washing into clumps, so we tore it out and put in bricks. I think they also took out the olive tree in the front yard. Oh, well. I just hope they didn't dig up the mortal remains of my pet rabbit that was buried in the side yard.

[DisneyMom]

When I was a kid there was a drive-in across a big field in our neighborhood. All the kids would get popcorn and drinks and sit in the field to watch the movies. We could hear the sound as all the unused speakers were left on.

One year someone cut down the grass, bailed it, and stacked the bails in a huge stack. We rearranged the bails into bench seats and upholstered them with blankets. What a life!

Sounds fun, Hobie :)

Drive In-
Best Make-out place EVER!!!!!!!!! :D:
We had one in our town,saw all the great movies of the 70's and early 80's there. Think it's a bunch of houses now. :(

[felinefan]

Know how drive-ins started? Somebody had some movies he wanted to show to guests, but his guest list exceeded the capacity of his living room. So he stretched a white bedsheet across his backyard fence, set up his movie projector, added chairs, and he and his guests enjoyed the movies --they were much shorter then--outdoors. This gave him an idea: Put up a screen and projector room in an open field, let people drive their cars onto the field, and show the movies on the screen, charging for admission. After sound came along, speakers were added.

I've seen articles where this trend is returning to its roots--home drive-in theaters, only your guests come to your place, and you show movies outdoors on a screen. Full circle....

[hobie16]

My neighbors have a downhill sloping driveway. They put a sheet on the garage door and show movies with a computer projector. Throw in a few couch cushions and some popcorn and it's the real deal.

The funniest part is people driving by will stop and watch from their cars. Drive-in indeed!