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Drive-in movies make a comeback -- in the backyard [Seattle Times](Seattle Times (WA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Sep. 5--Drive-ins may be a dying breed, but people like Richard Paddon remember them as pretty special places. Last summer, he decided to bring his experiences back to life. As twilight turned to evening on a recent summer's night, an audience of 32 settled in on camp chairs or sat cross-legged on concrete, watching as a projector lit up the night on a 12-foot-by-15-foot drop cloth suspended in front of Paddon's two-story garage in West Seattle. Soon, the strikingly large and vivid images of tonight's feature -- "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie," as chosen by Paddon's son, Mitchell -- were visible from a block away. "We've seen more movies out here than we have in theaters in the past year," says Paddon, a 46-year-old truck driver for Metro Transit. "Sometimes we can even pull off a double-feature if we get our act together." Like others here and across the country, he's fulfilled a longtime dream, turning his carport into an outdoor theater and recalling the drive-in days of sibling-packed station wagons and popcorn under the stars. It's a growing activity nationwide, one aided by BackYardTheater.com, a 9-year-old Web site whose traffic has more than doubled in the last year. On the site, enthusiasts compare equipment, trade nacho recipes and look for deals on copies of classic intermission spots such as "Hey Folks -- It's Intermission Time" -- the dancing hot-dog cartoon featured in the drive-in scene of the movie "Grease" -- to slip between double features. Site founder Randy Fisk said users are mostly unregistered, but those who are number nearly 2,000, up from 1,000 in March of last year. Twenty-three are in Washington state. Paddon is one of six in Seattle. Last spring, his kids were piled into an old Ford in his garage, eating Otter Pops and watching "Cars" on an old 17-inch TV when the excitement in their eyes inspired the indefatigable handyman to upgrade. It took a modest investment -- about $1,000 in all, mostly for the projector -- but he and wife Cathy say avoiding the hassle and expense of downtown blockbusters makes up for it. "If we take the kids, it's like 100 bucks between the popcorn and the soda and the parking," said Cathy, a nurse at Harborview Medical Center. "Here, if someone gets tired, they just go to bed." The family's welcoming approach has helped build a sense of neighborhood community. Friends and neighbors drop in for informally scheduled shows held up to several times a week -- movies such as "Planet of the Apes" and "The Blues Brothers" or television series such as "Gilligan's Island" and "The Munsters." One neighbor was so taken that she left her business card, asking the Paddons to call the next time they showed something to her liking. Another time, two girls passed by en route to a nearby eatery when the larger-than-life images caught their eyes. They asked: "Is that 'Mrs. Doubtfire'?" "We said, 'Grab a chair,' " Cathy Paddon said. "We do it for ourselves, but it's more fun if you have a lot of people." "It's fun because no one tells you to get out if you talk," says Chloe Simmons, 8, a third-grader at Schmitz Park Elementary, where Mitchell, 7, and brother Vincent, 10, attend school. "And you see all your friends. And you don't have to pay." The good old days There's something special about film al fresco -- especially in Seattle, where outdoor-movie series have proliferated in recent years, on summer nights that just beg to be spent outside. Said Jon Hegeman, co-founder of Fremont Outdoor Movies, the oldest such series in the area: "It's all about the nostalgia of our childhood, when you'd pack a bunch of kids in the car and go out to see a movie -- as opposed to being indoors in an environment that's a lot like church, where you can't talk, you can't move around." Stephen Sadis, a filmmaker in West Seattle who started showing backyard movies this summer, said the activity is a mix of both drive-in and watching home movies. So far, they've watched "The Swiss Family Robinson" and "Escape to Witch Mountain" -- "those classic drive-in movies we remembered seeing," he said. "We're re-creating that experience." The basic requirements are a projector, a screen, speakers and a movie player. But as Paddon said: "It's like boat ownership. Once you get into it, you want something bigger and better." So far, handyman Paddon has outfitted his operation with a "surround-sound" speaker system, tiki torches and an occasional fire pit. But it's the painter's-dropcloth screen that makes the first impression to startled passers-by -- which is to say the Paddons are well-acquainted with the sounds of passing cars stopping, then whirring into reverse. With son Mitchell's birthday late last month, a movie night seemed the logical thing to do. Bewaring the rare threat of August rain, Paddon placed a canopy over his rolling equipment cart and secured the screen with a length of PVC pipe to weigh it down. As always, wires and cords were taped to the ground so as not to be tripped loose. Theme nights Paddon is already imagining future movie-and-dinner theme nights -- "I should have gotten a popcorn machine," he said -- but he's come a long way since launching with Walt Disney's "The Love Bug" and a case of Junior Mints from Costco. "You kind of feel good that you're doing something for other people," he said. "And you don't have to spend a ton of money." To see more of The Seattle Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.seattletimes.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Seattle Times Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |