[Leica] Van-Del Drive-In Theatre

[Christopher Crawford]

Thanks, Gerry.

Funnel ball is a playground game. A metal or plastic basket is mounted high on a pole. It has three or four holes in the sides at the bottom of the basket. Players throw a ball (a basketball is usually used) into the top of the funnel. The ball will come out one of the holes, which are usually numbered. The number on the hole the ball emerges from is the number of points the player gets. There is an element of skill (throwing the ball into the high basket) and luck (which hole the ball comes out of is basically all chance) in it.

Drive-Ins were once very popular in the US, especially in the 1950s and 1960s. They were still relatively common even in the early 1980s, when I was very young (I was born in 1975). I remember going to drive-in theatres in Fort Wayne with my parents, who owned a 1971 Chevrolet Malibu Convertible. Drive-ins don't really work well with hardtop cars, a convertible makes seeing the screen much easier! Convertibles are no longer common, and I think that’s one of the reasons drive-ins have declined.

There used to be two drive-in theatres in the part of Fort Wayne where I grew up. There may have been others in the city, I'm not sure. Fort Wayne is a large city and the two drive-ins that I knew both closed and were demolished when I was around 10 years old. They seem to have completely disappeared from big cities, but many of them are still open in small towns. The Van-Del is one of four that I know of that are still open within an hour drive of Fort Wayne. The other three are in Indiana. They're only open in the summer, since we have very harsh winters in the American Midwest. A couple weeks ago, we had several days of below-zero temperatures!


-- 
Chris Crawford
Fine Art Photography
Fort Wayne, Indiana
260-437-8990

http://www.chriscrawfordphoto.com  My portfolio

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On 2/15/19, 5:31 AM, "LUG on behalf of Gerry Walden via LUG" <lug-bounces+chris=chriscrawfordphoto.com at leica-users.org on behalf of lug at leica-users.org> wrote:

    Chris
    
    There is something about this image which lifts it to a new level. Drive-In movie theatres have never really arrive in this country (probably because of the weather, so this image shows something of which I know very little, and I have even less idea what a ‘funnel ball goal’ is. I think that the starkness of the white against the background is great, and the work of William Eccleston comes to mind. Well seen!
    
    Gerry
    
    Gerry Walden
    023 8046 3076
    0797 287 7932
    
    > On 14 Feb 2019, at 21:04, Christopher Crawford <chris at chriscrawfordphoto.com> wrote:
    > 
    > There are still a lot of old drive-in movie theatres operating in the midwest's small towns.
    > 
    > 
    > 
    > This is the Van-Del Drive-In, located just outside the small town of Middle Point, Ohio. The name comes from the fact that it is located about halfway between the towns of Van Wert and Delphos.
    > 
    > 
    > 
    > 
    > http://chriscrawfordphoto.com/chris-details.php?product=3076
    > 
    > 
    > 
    > 
    > 
    > -- 
    > 
    > Chris Crawford
    > 
    > Fine Art Photography
    > 
    > Fort Wayne, Indiana
    > 
    > 260-437-8990
    > 
    > 
    > 
    > http://www.chriscrawfordphoto.com  My portfolio
    > 
    > 
    > 
    > http://www.facebook.com/pages/Christopher-Crawford/48229272798
    > 
    > Like My Work on Facebook
    > 
    > 
    > 
    > 
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