The "What Ever Happened to the Drive-In Theater?" Story

It was an ordinary day. I was looking at the Sunday News and saw an ad for Movie Night at "DJ's - Taste of the 50's" on the Old Phila. Pike. An outdoor movie. Rain or shine. September 26th from 6:45 to 9:00 PM. Now how were they going to do this? There haven't been any drive-in theaters in Lancaster County since the Columbia Drive-in closed in 2005. There are only 62 drive-in theaters left in the state of PA. Used to be three in the area, and I went to all three of them, many times. Mom and dad used to take my brother and I along with my Aunt Lillian and cousins Judy and George to see movies "outdoors." The Skyview was located on Lincoln Hwy. East and could hold 800 cars. The back of the screen faced the highway and you would park on an incline in front of the screen. Used to put the speaker on your window so you could hear the movie. That theater was made into outlet stores many years ago. Then there was the Comet Drive-In on the Rt. 230 Bypass heading to Mt. Joy. That one only held 600 cars. Same deal there with the screen facing away from the highway so no one could see the movie unless you paid to get in. When I started dating Carol, we would go to the Columbia Drive-In on the Columbia Pike. This theater opened in 1956 and also had the speakers that you hooked to your car window. Used to run movies that had already beenin the downtown theaters for half a year. Uaually had a double-feature. Sometimes they were the horror type and then later they switched to the R-rated. That was when R-rated was really risque. But, who watched the movies anyway? On one date we placed the audio box on the window and by the end of the evening it was cold outside and we had rolled the windows up. Went to leave and forgot to take the box off. Ripped it right out of the pole next to us. I'm sure we weren't the first ones to do that. They eventually provided AM & FM radio broadcasts for the movie audio. Pretty neat! Now the Columbia Drive-In had its' screen facing away from the Columbia Pike, but it could be seen from the new Route 30 Bypass which ran parallel to Columbia Ave. The screen was huge, so you had no trouble seeing it from the bypass and cars would line the edge of the bypass to watch the movie. Didn't have sound, but didn't seem to matter to them. They eventually put up "No Parking" signs along that stretch to keep the traffic flowing better. Now all the drive-in theaters are closed in the area. Either made into shopping malls or used for farm land. I'm interested to see how the restaurant DJ's is going to show their movie outdoors. Guess I'll find out soon. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - pixs from the top are: Ad for DJ's Taste of the 50's, highway sign from The Comet Drive-In, highway sign from the Columbia Drive-In, and the Google map of the Columbia Drive-In. The Columbia Pike is on the bottom while the parallel Route 30 is not seen in the top of the photo.