Skyvu drive in movie#
Skyvu drive in free#

Lacking the ability to show afternoon matinees, drive-ins frequently had late shows. The Sky-Vu missed four weekends in a row during the infamous Blizzard of 1960.Īs at all outdoor drive-ins, the movies were timed for just after sunset, when it was dark enough to see the projected image on the large screen. The weekend-only season begins typically in late October or November, depending on the weather. Spring openings come as early as 31 March in 1951 and as late as 22 June in 1966. Because the theater was outside of the town limits of Boone, municipal blue laws forbidding the showing of movies on Sundays did not apply-another advantage of drive-in theaters over hard tops. The pattern established for the Sky-Vu in its first year of existence was carried on with few interruptions for the next 17 years: opening for weekly shows, seven nights a week, in the spring, followed by a winter season opening only on Saturday and Sunday nights. It was located two miles south of Boone, on what was then the Blowing Rock Road (Highway 321/221S):

Skyvu drive in movie#

Watauga County's first and only drive-in movie theater was the Sky-Vu, variously spelled 'SkyVu,' 'Sky Vu' and even 'Sky View.' It opened in May 1950, not coincidentally just as the Appalachian Theatre (1938-2007) was being reopened following the disastrous January fire, and operated until 1967. Most of the time, the films catered to a younger audience with light-hearted themes-Elvis movies were a big draw, for example-so perhaps rapt attention to the film was not necessary. And all of that eating and ordering food interfered with the film by the time everyone figured out who had which burger and what happened to their fries and drink, the movie could be half way over. On the downside, if you were one of the children stuck in the backseat (as I was), it wasn't much of a view, even in the much larger and more upright automobiles of the era. It was dinner and a movie at the same time, at economical prices.

Those with larger families were a prime target, drawing the family away from television with the promises of larger screens with color, not black-and-white, images as well as comfortable seats (varying with the age of your car, of course), and plenty of food.

Skyvu drive in free#

In most drive-ins, children were admitted free or the admission charge was simply per car. But in the early days it was clear that the original intention of the drive-in owners was for family style entertainment: mom, dad, and the baby-boom children. Popular culture tends to look back upon the golden age of the drive-ins in the 1950s and 1960s as somewhat seedy places catering to the amorous pursuits of teenagers. In drive-ins in colder climes, they even had individual hanging heaters similar in style to the speakers. You could also control the volume of your individual speaker and, presumably, the talking and noise of those in the car with you. In addition, with individual speakers hanging inside your car window, sound was better than at many older theaters. At the drive-in, you could eat all you wanted in the comfort of your own car.

The Appalachian Theatre in Boone, for example, had a soda shop outside of the theater entrance and patrons were encouraged to consume food and drink in the shop itself before or after the film. At many movie theaters in traditional buildings-called 'hard tops' in the business to distinguish them from drive-ins-drinking and eating would have been done outside of the seating space for the film. Drive-ins were also located on the outskirts of towns where the city lights would not interfere with the projected image on the screen and where, coincidentally, the traffic was lighter than downtown.Ī less obvious advantage of the drive-ins was concessions. But at the drive-in, your seats were in your car-your parking space became the theater. As more and more people moved out of cities and small towns into the suburbs, using their cars to commute to and from work and shopping, theater goers were faced with longer drives to see a show and fewer parking spaces once they arrived in town. There were obvious and not so obvious reasons for the popularity of the drive-ins. Suburban and rural drive-in theaters were a natural extension of the car-crazy culture that fueled the 1950s. Although drive-in movie theaters had their beginnings in the 1930s, it was in the post-World War II era when they truly flourished.