“I’d ask, ‘Why?’ and complain that he needed to do something with the mess.” “He was bringing projectors home and setting them on my kitchen table,” his wife, Marsha, laments. In 1986, he began collecting theater equipment. Martin Murray of Albemarle, North Carolina, had a similar dream. Morrow hopes to someday register the Sandell, which is restored almost to its original condition, on the roster of historic places. Today the venue retains the popular pink-and-black color combination from the 1950s. On Labor Day in 2002 he reopened the Sandell-unaware at the time that the original owner had opened on the same holiday in 1955. The owner and operator of Morrow Drilling in the Texas Panhandle used to indulge his childhood memories of movies shared with his family at Clarendon’s long-deserted Sandell Drive-In. John Earl Morrow is one of the new drive-in entrepreneurs. Teenagers can pile into the back of a pickup.
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Small, pajama-clad children are often admitted for free and can be tucked in back seats and covered with a blanket when sleepy-eliminating the expense of a baby-sitter. With its two-for-the-price-of-one, double-feature entertainment and reasonably priced food, a night at the drive-in is much less expensive than at the mall cinema. And many Texas drive-ins operate year-round-at least on the weekends. Digital stereo sound broadcasts from little local drive-in stations and is played over car radios. Unlike in the past, today’s selection of movies is often first-run. Classic cars often congregate around nostalgic movies such as “Grease” or “American Graffiti.” RVs, SUVs, 18-wheelers, motorcycles, boats-even buses filled with tourists-all are welcome. Smokers can smoke, and at many venues, animal lovers can bring their pets.
Cell phone users can converse without fear of reprisal. People are once again enjoying the freedoms they cannot exercise in the mall cineplex. These revitalized or newly constructed drive-ins are finding an appreciative audience.
Some too young to remember drive-ins during their heyday are reconditioning their hometown monoliths. Happily, there is a minor resurgence of drive-in operators. Suburbs encroached, and land once relegated to the outer edges of towns increased in value and was sold to developers. And Texas, of course, had the most, nearly 400. In the 1950s, more than 4,000 drive-ins dotted the American landscape.
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