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The
following is an excerpt of an article by Alice
Hoffman that
was originally published in 1988 in
....The last remaining drive-in on Cape Cod, the
South Wellfleet Drive-In, no longer stands alone.
Beside it is a four-screen air-conditioned complex,
which local residents allowed to be built only when
the owner agreed to keep the theaters open year
round. But once you have maneuvered past the
multiplex and .... the miniature golf course, the
drive-in is exactly as you remembered it, no matter
where you grew up.
The drive-in is a unique piece of Americana in which
real life and movies collide. The playground and the
snack bar, the lover whose hand you hold and the
baby you rock to sleep in the back seat, all deepen
the movie going experience with impact and
immediacy. And, in spite of any distractions,
nowhere do movie stars look larger than when they
appear on a drive-in screen, surrounded by the
night.
Moviegoers at the South Wellfleet get to the
drive-in early, because they've come for more than
the show. The blank screen looms above the asphalt,
but no one looks up until dark. While the sky is
light there is much to do. In the center of the lot
is the playground, perfect for older children and
toddlers already dressed in pajamas, soon to be
ready for the blankets and pillows set out in the
back of their parents' station wagon. Not far from
the metal swings and wooden seesaws is the snack
bar, and one wonders if it is simply nostalgia that
makes for the long lines and the craving for pepper
steak and popcorn and Raisinets.
The South Wellfleet Drive-In, built in 1957,
continues to be a place sacred to disjointed
universes: young love and family togetherness;
upscale couples and fishermen's children. It is here
beneath the white screen that people who would
ordinarily have little to do with each other share a
night, whether they are assembling a picnic ... on
the hood of their BMW or setting out plastic lawn
chairs in the back of the pickup truck.
Eleanor
Hazen, manager of the South Wellfleet Drive-In,
insists that a major reason for building the
cineplex was the fact that distributors continually
refused the drive-in first-run features.
The prejudice remains: the South Wellfleet had
trouble getting its biggest grossing film of the
summer, ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit,'' until
distributors were advised of the drive-in's success
with ''Three Men and a Baby.'' Even for those who do
not believe that drive-ins somehow demean cinema,
there are distractions not found at any cineplex:
the sky turning a luminous blue, laughter from a
parked jeep, the moon hanging above you.
As with watching a VCR, at a drive-in you can do all
the things you do at home while watching a movie.
You can eat your supper, yell at the kids, sit on
your boyfriend's lap. But while the VCR isolates,
the drive-in forms a community. You are in this
together. Children make fast friends at the
playground, you can gauge your neighbor's reaction
to any scene in the movie through an open car window
and, when the movie is late, headlights flash
simultaneously in a show of unity and expectation.
Now, when it may be too late, many of us are
rediscovering the sheer joy of the drive-in. Those
of us who spent our childhoods in summer places, or
who grew up in the suburbs, are nostalgic for
earlier summers, for Julys when medical waste did
not appear on the beaches, for Augusts which were
not as fitful and hot. The drive-in has come to
symbolize not only those past summers, but all that
was good about suburbia. It retains a purity
untarnished by 50's angst, 60's upheaval, 70's
ennui, and, we may as well admit it, 80's dread.
Within the confines of the drive-in parking lot it
is easy to imagine yourself in the back seat of your
old Chevy, when your greatest responsibility was a
midnight curfew. Those who arrive in the drive-in in
a BMW or a Mercedes escape from the burdens of their
success; teen-agers find a moment of freedom;
parents and children lie in the back of station
wagons, so close together it's difficult to judge
who is the child and who is the adult.
And that is the magic of the drive-in: it can,
for a brief time, make you forget who you are. Even
those of us who did not experience the drive-in in
our youth may find ourselves longing for a past we
never had..... After all, when you pay your money
and enter the gates of a drive-in theater, you are
arriving not just at a space, but a time. You are
driving back into summers lost, to barrels of
popcorn and root beer with ice, to mosquitoes and
real movie stars, back to the child you once were.
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Drive-in Movie tips
When Drive-In Movie theaters began
to lose popularity, they would try different
promotions to increase business. One of these
would be "one price per carload." Well,
you won't find that in Wellfleet. No, here
they count every person in the car at the entrance
and charge accordingly.
Still, as Alice Hoffman explains
in the article on the left, it is worth the price to
experience a piece of Americana that is otherwise
difficult to find.
Parking
When the theater was built in the
1950's there were no such things as SUV's and
monster trucks. Today, drivers of 'over-sized
vehicles" are made to park at the ends of the rows
or in the back row of the drive-in so as to not
obstruct the view of the other patrons.
Tip:
If you want to park in the best spots for movie
viewing, leave the Hummer and Lincoln Navigator at
home.
Snacks
While the snack bar in the
Drive-In offers a great variety of treats, it must
be said that the convenience store at Maurice's
Campground (located just down the street from the
theater's entrance) does a brisk business selling
candy and other snacks to moviegoers before they
enter the drive-in property. Known for the
least expensive lobster rolls in town, Maurice's
Store also sells beer and wine.
Sound
The drive-in does broadcast the
movie's sound on a frequency that can be picked up
on your car's radio. If you feel uneasy about
having your car key turned to "on" and using your
car's battery for two movies, you can bring a
battery powered boom box to tune in the sound.
The staff at the theater will, however, give your
car a free jump start if you do, in fact, drain your
battery and cannot start your car at the end of the
second feature. They typically have to jump start
one or two cars per night.
Your other option, of
course, is to use the old fashioned drive-in movie
window speakers which are still available. While
nostalgic, their sound quality is sadly lacking by
today's standards. (Dolby, THX, surround-sound,
etc.)
Comfort
If your vehicle's seats aren't the
most comfortable for 3 or 4 hours of sitting, you
might want to bring along a pillow or two.
Keep in mind that not only in the springtime but
also beginning in late August, Cape Cod nights can
get quite chilly. A jacket, sweatshirt or
sweater just might come in handy around 9:30 or
10:00PM.
Another comfort issue was
mentioned in passing in the article on the left:
mosquitoes. Since there are salt marshes
nearby, the Wellfleet Drive-In can be buggy on some
nights. It's usually the hot, muggy nights,
when you want all the car windows open, that the
mosquitoes and "no-see-'ems" can become quite a
distraction. Other nights, there won't be a
bug for miles. Recommendation:
Bring insect repellant but don't put it on unless
you need it. |
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