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Directions:The other day I saw an ad for the 50th anniversary commemorative edition of the movie Cleopatra. I remember watching this movie--stretched out on the roof top of a red station wagon at the Pawnee Drive-in. Of the many drive-ins in Wichita, the Pawnee was the one nearest our house, just a few miles away. The drive-in sign looked like someone had taken the image from the back of an old penny and blown it up in neon lights (surely not historically accurate - did the Pawnee wear feathered war bonnets?).
Our parents didn't actually take us to see Cleopatra , but the Pawnee had two screens and I found the movie playing on the other screen much more interesting than whatever it was they were watching. Elizabeth Taylor was beautiful, I barely remember Richard Burton. I didn't really care about hearing the dialogue (probably a good thing) because the movie was a visual feast: vivid colors, fantastic costumes, huge intricate sets, and a "cast of thousands".
The only drawback to the drive-in that I remember was if we needed to go to the restroom. They had restrooms, but they were located by the concession stand and that was a problem. Sometimes Mom and Dad would put us in our pajamas before leaving home and I know that afterwards it must have been easier to just haul in the sleeping kids from the car and roll them into bed, but it was embarrassing to walk by all those strangers in your jammies. You either held it too long and had to wiggle walk your way there and hope there wasn't a line or try to time it so that you could get there and back before intermission.
Some of the movies I remember watching at the drive-in were The Night They Raided Minsky's, M*A*S*H*, Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? I know there were a couple of cartoons before the feature, but I'm pretty sure none of those were rated PG. Maybe that's why I remember them?
Once Mom and I went to the drive-in by ourselves. Mother had been working on the southwest side of Wichita so we went to the drive-in on Hwy K-42, the Forty Two Sky Vue Drive-in (I had to look-up the name, we just called it the K-42 drive-in). The feature was Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein and it was hilarious. That was that night that I realized (as most teenagers do) that my mother was culturally deficient in certain areas. She wasn't laughing at the jokes, she would look at me and ask "Why is that funny?" That's when I found out that mother didn't know the story of Frankenstein (Hey, married at 16, three kids by the age of 20 - whose got the time or inclination to read Mary Shelley). So, I spent much of the movie explaining Frankenstein to Mom so she could get the joke. We still had a good time, it was classic Mel Brooks.
My last visit to the drive-in was with Charlie in the summer of 1977. It was a triple feature and I don't remember any of the movies. I do remember crawling into the back seat and zonking out before the third feature. I'm sure my brother found me culturally deficient in certain areas.
The Pawnee Drive-in was torn down in the '70s. A 24 hr Wal-Mart now occupies that corner. Wichita has one remaining drive-in still in operation. The Starlite has two screens and shows movies every night all summer-long with a triple feature on Friday and Saturday nights. Maybe, I'll take Mom to the Starlite this summer: we'll see who crawls in the back seat and zonks out first. |
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Personal
Notes: Addendum: I'm sure I didn't attend Cleopatra's Anniversary Celebration. But I did have the pleasure of going to many, many drive in movies with Aunt Carol and Uncle Dwayne. I often spent several weeks in Derby over the summers and there were always plenty of fun things to do and lots of really cool places to visit. And, yes, even when I had the pleasure of going to the drive in...I was always in my pajamas. But Patti and I were comparing our stories, we found out that there were some differences. I remember Uncle Dwayne always made what seemed like enough popcorn for everyone at drive in. He would pour the popcorn in a large trash bag and we would put candy in another sack. We'd load up the Scout with the popcorn, candy and off we'd go to the movies...with me in my pjs! ~ Lea Dawn
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This recipe for Cleopatra's Anniversary is from