f you read the rules for the Showboat movie theater you’d undoubtedly be confused. For example:
-Please do not sit on top of your vehicle
-No outside cooking
-Speed limit is 5mph
-Do not spin your tires
-No barefeet
And, my personal favorite:
-Please do not throw rocks
Clearly we are at the drive-in.
A few years ago if you’d said “At the Drive-in” I would respond with “The Mars Volta”, the two being bands featuring both Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López. It would be unlikely that you’d be suggesting we go to an actual drive-in movie theater, since their heyday had been and gone. In the 70s, the advent of VHS video, high property taxes and greedy developers saw to it that a tradition as American as Prom Night, 4th July fireworks and fake IDs was no more.
Thankfully the Drive-in movie theater has seen a small revival in some parts of the country. Even better, one relatively new Drive-in theater is located in Hockley, just to our west. Opened in 2006, the Showboat Theater is named after a 50s drive-in from Houston.
Like all drive-ins, you find a spot (the challenge being to turn up early enough to get close to the front but then have something to do whilst waiting for it to get dark so the movies can start), choose your screen (most have more than one - Showboat has two, each showing two movies) and tune in your radio to pick up the sound.
Having been before, the lesson we learned is to take your own chairs. Sitting in the car is not an ideal way to watch a movie, despite the raised areas designed to raise up your front wheels to get a better view. These bumps were conceived, amongst many other details, by Richard Hollingshead of New Jersey. The inventor of the drive-in concept, Hollingshead opened the first drive-in movie theater in 1933.
Anyway, as we have learned, this is a much more agreeable seating (or as per your preference - lying) position:
One of the things you can do whilst waiting for it to go dark is have something to eat. All drive-ins have a restaurant or concession stand of some sort.
This is the restaurant from the 50s Showboat Theater.
It’s unlikely that today’s menu is any different to that served back in the 50s: hot dogs, hamburgers, cheeseburgers and corndogs - all with a side of fries, with or without chili and cheese.
Drive-in movies are incredibly good value for money - at Showboat you get two current movies for $5 (cash only!). The only problem is that the first movie starts after dark, which is not until almost 9pm. So in order to sit through the second one and get your full value for money you have to stay until around 1am. Being a native of one of the most frugal areas of the UK, leaving before the end just feels like being cheated but it was Pirates of the Caribbean Part 29, so I didn’t feel too bad.