DRIVE IN MOVIES

[W2PFY]

I found this link for closed drive in movie places. Maybe there's one near you. You should go over and see if there is any old amplifiers hanging around. Some are worth big bucks. Others too far gone may be worth parts. Watch out for snakes & owners

http://www.pinballrebel.com/drive/ghost/ghost.htm

[KC2IFR]

Thanks for the post Terry,
Having worked in the drive-in movie business for a few years its fun to see these old theaters.

Bill

[flintstone mop]

I kinda figgered BILL would be in here for movie theaters and the big Arc Lamp projection equipment.........hi Bill.........We never met or talked about the past with those big machines.

Any way, we have a drive-in theater close to our town in Western Pa. and they use an FM transmitting system for the sound.

Better than the battered speakers that used to hang on the windows. Drive off and yank them out of the pole.
They probably had banks of 100 watt amps and the familiar 70volt distribution system.


Fred

Nice web site. Some of those drive-ins were huge operations. What do you think Bill....5kw of light to get the screen?? Or larger??
Did you use a product called Bonami(?) to clean the mirror in the lamp house?
Arc Lamps .....yea......DC AMPS........Huge rectumfinders

[Jeff W9GY]

Fred, here is my restored 35mm machine in the hamshack.  It has stereo photo sound pick up (no Dolby or digital --- too many bucks). I can project standard spherical lens (flat) or Cinemascope onto a 4 X 8 foot screen.  No carbon arc, though, don't much like the ventilation required and fooling around with carbon rods, etc.  I have a 450 W xenon projection lamp that does the job (not in photo below).

[k4kyv]

I had a friend who worked in one back in the 60's.  The audio amplifier used a pair of 805's and the output transformer was about the size of 300 watt modulation transformer.

I don't know why they didn't run Part 15 transmitters on the broadcast band (AM back when drive-ins were in vogue).  The audio quality would have been much better and the cost a lot lower than those dinky little speakers on a pole for every car.  They usually sounded so awful that slopbucket audio would have been a big improvement.  Maybe they were concerned that a lot of cars didn't have radios back then.  But how many people paid any attention to the show when they went to the drive-in?

[Opcom]

I remember the Arapaho Theater in Richardson TX. I was 14 when it was torn down and I was given the 15KV 60mA neon sign transformer.

The Circle Drive In in Waco, the image of the Bear (Baylor!) looked much better in the day.

All that I know of around here +100 miles, basically everything was stripped long before I was able to investigate.

[Jeff W9GY]

The advent of solid state car radios, I think, made made drive-in sound over low power transmitters practical.

[Bill, KD0HG]

The advent of solid state car radios, I think, made made drive-in sound over low power transmitters practical.

Bingo!

I wonder how long a 6 volt car battery could keep a vibrator-equipped hollow-state car radio operating...A 2-hour movie might be pushing it.

[WA3VJB]

Plus there was the problem of gassing the people behind you when you'd leave the engine running on that full size Belchfire 8.

[Rob K2CU]

Even in 1970 a car radio was optional, and to many, a frivilous and dangerous driving distraction.

[W2PFY]

Even in 1970 a car radio was optional, and to many, a frivolous and dangerous driving distraction.

What does this mean?

[KC2IFR]

Fred,
I was always fascinated with the whole process of presenting a motion picture. The equipment that is used to arrive at the finished product (movie the public sees on the screen) is quite complicated. The movie "projector" is actually 3 separate pieces of equipment as u know. They are:
The lamp house that provides the light...
The machine head or the actual part that handles the film and includes the lense...
And the sound head that picks up the sound from the film and also drives the rest the projector.....
The lamp house that was used in the old days used carbon rods to generate the light.....it was powered from various sources depending on the technology of the time. It started in the early days using motor generators.....then went to transformer power supply's using tungor rectifier toobs (the power supply has to by DC) and finally solid state power supply's. These carbon lamps needed something between about 50 amps and 500 amps or more at about 32 volts depending on the size of the screen. The lamps had to have drive mechanisms that would feed the carbons together and maintain the correct gap as the carbons were used. The positive carbon burned faster than the negative and the drive had to maintain the proper ratio.
Any way.....more to come on how these fantastic machines work if anyone is interested!


Bill     

[k4kyv]

I wonder how long a 6 volt car battery could keep a vibrator-equipped hollow-state car radio operating...A 2-hour movie might be pushing it.

I had forgot about that.  I remember when I was a kid and we got our first car that had a radio, my father would scold me for listening to the radio for more than a couple of minutes while the car was parked and the engine not running.  The first 6-volt tubes in the 30's were designed for automotive use, and their "low-drain" filaments were touted in the ads by RCA and other manufacturers.  Most a.c. sets back then used 2.5 volt filament tubes.  Those things have a long enough warm-up period that it takes the radio about as much time to start playing after you turn on the switch as it does for a computer to boot up from a cold start.

[W2PFY]

Most a.c. sets back then used 2.5 volt filament tubes.

When I was in the army we had a lot of mobile radios that used 1.5 volt tubes and 2.5 volt tubes. When someone would forget to turn off the radios before starting the jeep, the kickback from the starter took out about 1/2 dozen tubes. Did that happen in those old car radios? Most of the old car radios that I've seen use 6SK7-6V6-6H6 and the like. The vibrators would go bad quite often. The rectifiers in them were a full metal jacket type. you could pull the cover off and then you would see a tripey blue glow come from the rectifier.  I don't think they were MV's.

[KC2IFR]

Don,
They first came out with radio sound for drive-ins in about 1975 or so. I think the system was from Radio System. It was a solid state transmitter crystal controlled and had a built in antenna matching network that would try and match the transmitter to the existing underground wiring used for the speakers. I had one of the first ones made that I used for my drive-in in Champlain NY.
We still had some speakers for people that either did not have radios in there car or they did not want to use their radio fearing the radio would run down the battery.
Bill

[KC2IFR]

Terry,
Looks like we posted our reply's the same time!
One more thing.......the first radio systems were AM........then they came out with stereo FM transmitters. If the drive-in wanted to spend the money for stereo sound heads and dolby stereo decoders then they would have stereo in the cars if so equipped. 

Bill

[WA9UDW]

This reminds me...during the Apollo 11 Moon Mission, I was projecting Romeo and Juliet at the local drive in. It was a fun but short-lived experience, as I was filling in for the vacationing regular projectionist. Some of the clientele were quite rowdy. The projection building also housed the restrooms, where the urinals and toilets would mysteriously become plugged up and overflow. One night I smelled smoke...went out into the lobby to find a movie poster burning off the wall. I remember splicing in the trailers, concession, and "3 minutes 'til showtime" ads; unpacking, loading, and rewinding the reels; turning on the power supplies and striking the carbon arcs and having to be mindful of having sufficient carbon length to finish a reel; and using either a standard or CinemaScope lens. One of the projectors had a mechanical quirk of occasionally stalling and melting a frame of the film...which would promptly initiate a cacophony of honking horns. I once had a problem with people siting on a wooden rail in front of the building and putting their hands into the projector light to cast shadows onto the screen. There was an oil can in the projection room which I used to oil the rail...problem solved.

This drive in movie site has been replaced by parking lots, a grocery store, a variety store, a hardware store, restaurants and an eye clinic. 

Terry

[W3SLK]

The nearest drive-in movie place here used to show X-rated flicks. New owners came in and added 2 more additional screens and did weekend carload deals. The place has been very successful.

[WA3VJB]

The nearest drive-in movie place here used to show X-rated flicks.

I can hear it now --

Q: So what's showing ?

A:  EVERYTHING  !!

[W2PFY]

One of the projectors had a mechanical quirk of occasionally stalling and melting a frame of the film...which would promptly initiate a cacophony of honking horns

I remember that well. Speaking of guys being rowdy, some of the young bucks would end up in a fight usually over a girlfriend spotted with someone else in another car

The nearest drive-in movie place here used to show X-rated flicks.

I think we should keep comments about the X part on the down low. No point having a fine old nostalgia era posts being pulled.

I think those were the best good old days never to be seen again in this country.
Yes, drive in movies had to make way for cable TV. I'd rather have 2000 drives in theaters to one cable channel if it would bring back what was to me. the good old days

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

This one in the Baltimore area is still alive and well. It's like stepping back in time. It was fun going to it when we lived in that area.


http://www.bengies.com/

[W3SLK]

Terry said:

I think we should keep comments about the X part on the down low. No point having a fine old nostalgia era posts being pulled.

LOL     

[W2PFY]

LOL  Grin  Grin  Grin

Speaking of Danville area drive ins. There was a guy by the name of David Bell who lived in Danville who was a part owner of that one. He was also a ham an somewhat a mentor to me. Did you ever hear of him Mike? He must be an Sk for decades by now.

[Ed/KB1HYS]

there's one drive in still working in Milford NH too!  We've been and taken the kids.  Quite an experience... (why do we have to wait for the move to start Dad???  Just go play on the swings until it does!)

[flintstone mop]

yea it looks like movie theaters have given way to the zenon lamp and are fully automated. The entire movie is on a huge turntable and it's only one projector per theater for the multi-cinema places.
We gots to go to Pittsburgh and look at an IMAX movie in 3D. And listen to about 1000 watts of audio.

I always liked to tweek the optical sound head alignment in the "old days" for the clearest sound possible. The exciter bulb was lit by an RF type voltage (I never replaced one of those) to eliminate hum.I think optical sound was good to about 7500 hz???

Fred