Pauline House remembers drive-in movie dates. “Oh, yes,” she does.
The joke was, you never knew what the movie was about. Sorry, Dad, there was some truth to that old joke.
I couldn’t tell you a thing about Alfred Hitchcock’s “Frenzy,” the last movie I saw at a drive-in with a guy on a date. That was 1972. I could tell you exactly what that nice young man wore. But “Frenzy”? Um, I think it starts out in London.
House, 43, of Everett, has similar memories of a time when summer meant drive-ins, and outdoor theaters were more than a novelty. Before we became a nation of couch potatoes, the drive-in meant freedom, family outings and being under the stars.
Wednesday night, House was on another sort of date. She and her 7-year-old, Jonathan, were at Everett’s Puget Park Drive-In to see “DodgeBall” and “Shrek 2.” I was luckier with two dates, my 5-year-old and 17-year-old sons.
“We love the drive-in,” House said. “We like to sit in the car and see two movies for the price of one. We bring pillows and blankets. This drive-in is the last one in the north end.”
In their heyday, the 1950s and ’60s, drive-in theaters numbered about 5,000. Today there are fewer than 1,000. The drive-in was invented in 1933 by Richard Hollingshead Jr. in New Jersey, a state that no longer boasts even one.
Around here, all that remain are the Puget Park in Everett, the six-screen Valley 6 Outdoor Theaters in Auburn and Oak Harbor’s Blue Fox Drive-In.
Puget Park is owned by Sterling Realty Organization. Formerly Sterling Recreation Organization, the company was started by West Coast theater entrepreneur John Danz. Built in 1971, the Puget Park also hosts a swap meet on weekend days April through October.
Enjoy this slice of Americana while you can. David Schooler, SRO president, said the Puget Park will stay open “for the foreseeable future,” but there have been other ideas for the property. The company, he said, sold the bulk of its theater business in 1986.
“We had a drive-in in Longview for a long time, and it got to the point it wasn’t making money. When we sold and closed it, there were more people in Longview complaining than the number who ever appeared on a Friday or Saturday night,” Schooler said.
We seem to like the idea of a drive-in movie as much as going to one itself. But on a cloudy Wednesday, there were lines of cars and pickups inching into spaces between the poles, which no longer hold those clunky in-car speakers.
Movie sound is broadcast over FM radio, 107.3. It was great with my car speakers, but a tip if you’re worried about a dead battery: Bring a battery-powered boom box.
Teenagers Randy Anderson, Jana Minaker and Steven Landry weren’t home popping in a DVD. Joined by a gang of friends, they piled blankets into the beds of side-by-side pickups, parked backwards, for movies under an open sky.
“I have a big family, and we’ve been coming to the drive-in for years,” said Landry, 16, of Edmonds. “It’s a great place to hang out with friends.”
Anderson, 16, of Edmonds, got an extension on his curfew so he could stay out past 1 a.m.
Cars are now SUVs, and you might not want the leather seats smelling of popcorn. But some things stay the same. Before those dating years, I’d go to the now-closed West End Drive-In outside Spokane with a gang of girls. Five of us would pile into Linda Jovanovich’s mom’s red Camaro.
Funny, I don’t remember those movies, either. I do remember laughing so hard Coke came out my nose. Is it any wonder we didn’t have dates?
Before dusk Wednesday, Kris Lee was in “the booth” at the Puget Park, stringing the first reel of “DodgeBall” into a massive projector. Lee, 23, has worked at the theater six years.
“I’ve done every job,” she said. “I hope this place never closes.”
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com.
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