CulturePulp 034: At the Drive-In


Words & pix by M.E. Russell; shades by Chad Essley.
High-rez PDF: CulturePulp034.pdf





Endnotes and Digressions:

1. Would you like to know more? Check out the theater’s official Web site, www.99W.com — and be sure to read the section about the possible ambient-light threat from two proposed strip malls in Newberg. As Brian Francis writes, “These lights hamper our ability to bring you a bright and visible picture on our screen.”

You can also read Rob Finch's story and sidebar in today's Oregonian about "Oregon's few remaining drive ins."

2. You can learn more about that Volkswagen car club at AbsolutelyVolkswagen.org.

3. As usual, but especially in this case, there was a ton of fascinating stuff I couldn’t fit into the comic:

• There was the surprisingly grim pre-show trailer that told us that “America once had 4,063 drive-ins — only about 400 survive today.”

• There was this moment when I asked Francis about how his family had collected all the theater’s vintage trailers and memorabilia — and he replied, more or less, “Collect? We still have this stuff from when we originally got it!”

• And there was the near-psychedelic intermission reel — a compendium of scratchy, animated ads that urged patrons to visit the snack bar and go to church and keep their hands off each other, and which were so old-school they referred to hot dogs as “nutritious.”

Man, this is a great night at the movies.




Lettering too small? You can download a high-rez PDF of CulturePulp 34 right here: CulturePulp034.pdf


Posted: Fri - August 19, 2005 at 12:00 AM        

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