It's been about 40 years since I've been to a drive-in theatre. A bunch of friends and I piled into my family's 1968 Volvo and headed to the Britannia Drive-In, on Carling Avenue, where the Cineplex Cinemas now lies.
Drive-ins were a great novelty and the Ottawa area had at least six: the Airport, Aladdin, Auto Sky, Britannia, Queensway, and Star-Top are the ones I remember. But what I also remember is that the screen was dark and it was sometimes hard to see what was going on if a scene in the movie was also dark. The speaker, which was a big box that you hung from the driver-side window, was often of poor quality sound.
But it was always fun to fill your car with friends to watch the latest blockbuster, and I loved the drive-in hot dogs. I always bought a hot dog at the drive-in.
In the 1980s, many of the drive-in theatres closed their gates and were torn down. The last of the drive-ins were gone by the late 1990s. For myself, I went to my last drive-in movie in my late teens.
Until this past weekend.
For this Labour Day weekend, DW wanted to see the latest Marvel movie, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, starring Simu Liu, from one of our favourite sit-coms, Kim's Convenience. But because of the pandemic, neither she nor I have any interest in going to a movie theatre. As much as I wanted to see this film, I had surrendered to waiting until it was available for streaming.
But DW is seldom deterred, and after an online search, she discovered that the movie was playing as a double-bill at a drive-in theatre. The only drive-in theatre in Eastern Ontario.
The Port Elmsley Drive-In Theatre, situated between Smiths Falls and Perth, first opened in 1953, and apart from a three-year closure, from 1997 to 2000, it remains a popular venue to watch first-run movies under the stars. While the posts for the speaker system still stands, the speakers themselves are gone and viewers tune into an FM radio frequency and use the car's sound system to take it all in.
Not much can be done about dark scenes, as we still struggled to see what was going on in certain parts of the movie. But DW and I enjoyed the movie experience, anyway. The sound was good and the seats were comfortable.
We stayed for the second movie, Free Guy, with Ryan Reynolds. (It was a Canadian lead double-bill.) But if I remembered anything from drive-ins of old, you have to start heading out before the credits roll, to avoid long lines in departing the lot. We left about two minutes before the closing music, and because we were tuned into a radio frequency, we could still hear the movie after we moved out of sight of the screen and were heading out on the roadway.
Would I do this again? Probably.
Even though Port Elmsley is nearly an hour away from home, it was worth the drive: both movies were enjoyable and because we spent more than five hours at the venue (you need to arrive about an hour before the box office opens to ensure you get a good spot and there was about a 10-minute intermission, plus previews and the main attractions), it was a proper outing.
But I doubt I would pack the car full of friends. We met up with one of our friends and her daughter, and we parked side-by-side. We brought folding chairs and socialized from the front of our respective vehicles until the previews came on, and again during the intermission.
What about you? When was the last time you were at a drive-in? Do you remember what you saw, and with whom you saw it? Would you drive out of the way to see a movie from the comfort of your vehicle? What are your thoughts about drive-in theatres?
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