[Leica] Van-Del Drive-In Theatre

Sun Feb 17 14:34:21 PST 2019

We did have a few drive-in banks in Ireland - as in about three :-)
I worked in the AIB branch briefly in Upper Baggot St. in Dublin back in 
the '70s and got to man the drive in teller point which had been opened 
by the eventual Taoiseach Charlie Haughey back in the early '60s: apeing 
US trends was very fashionable. It was never a success and was rapidly 
overtaken by the explosion in car ownership, and the resulting increase 
in traffic congestion which ensured a traffic jam outside the drive-in 
part of the bank. We closed it down in the late '90s and and extended 
and renovated the branch - utilising the drive in part as normal office 
space.
Mind you, I still remember as a callow youth in the teller box being 
plagued by young ladies from the local school who, after classes ended 
on a Thursday (our late opening day), would rush in the in-door and blow 
kisses, jeer, sing into the mike, and generally try to torment me for 
the amusement of their fellows. All my blandishments, threats, and 
entreaties fell upon grinning but deaf ears until I pressed the button 
to seal the electric doors, and with screams they'd try to escape. If 
there was a lot of them, a couple would be trapped. I did it a couple of 
times, and they got the message. When I think of health and safety now!

For the curious, I found a pic of the place 
https://brandnewretro.ie/2011/12/05/office-procedure-business-knowledge-inter-cert-circa-1979/ 
It's the fifth photo down.

Douglas

On 17/02/2019 06:23, Nathan Wajsman wrote:
> I think it is also the British (and European) culture is less car-focused than the US, so the need for drive-in anything is more limited. I have never seen a drive-through bank teller on this side of the Atlantic, for example. Just about the only drive-through type services we have here in Spain are some of the McDonalds and maybe Burger Kings (not sure about the Burger King since I never eat at those places, I just happen to have noticed the McDrives).
>
> Cheers,
> Nathan
>
> Nathan Wajsman
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> On 16 Feb 2019, at 10:46, Gerry Walden via LUG <lug at leica-users.org> wrote:
>
> Interesting information Chris. Last year they tried open-air cinema in one of the parks here (note, not drive-in) and it was moderately successful on summer nights, but the vagaries of the British weather were just too much.
>
> Keep posting your great work.
>
> Gerry
>
> Gerry Walden
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On 15 Feb 2019, at 10:58, Christopher Crawford 
<chris at chriscrawfordphoto.com> wrote:
> 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
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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
>
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