Stranded at the drive-in
Branded a fool
What will they say
Monday at school?

A lovesick Danny Zuko warbled those lines, sitting in a swing at a drive-in theatre with a flipping hot dog projected on the screen behind him in the hit musical Grease back in 1978. Now, when Mom took me and my siblings to see it, I’m pretty sure it was at the West Town Theatre that used to sit out in front of the mall. There wasn’t a PG-13 rating yet, and PG ratings were pretty loosey goosey back in the 70s. Suffice it to say, there were a few moments Mom threw airplane arms out, not so much for me and my older brother but our younger siblings. She didn’t approve of Sandy’s “transformation” at the end, either.

The romance of the drive-in theatre era was coming to an end by the time I was in high school. I came along on the tail end of that, just as I did the age of drive-in dining that I wrote about last week (see story here). We had a lot of fun with that trip down memory lane.

For my family, when I was very young, a trip to the movies meant going downtown to the Tennessee for something Disney, perhaps out to the Capri Cinema (so posh) on Kingston Pike or, on a few occasions, the Family Drive-In on Broadway. The Family Drive-In sat back from Northgate Plaza, where the old Kmart used to be.

The drive-in theatre experience offered some similar benefits for parents of young children as drive-in dining: get the kids out to the movies without ever having to get them out of the car (except, perhaps, for a bathroom break). If they fall asleep, they fall asleep, and any fussiness is contained to the car.

My memories of going to the drive-in are very vague, but I’m pretty sure two occasions involved Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. But I could be completely wrong. My generation was too late for the teenage love scenarios that played out Danny and Sandy in Grease.

There are no longer any operating drive-in theatres in Knox County. In addition to the Family, there was Cinema Drive-In on Alcoa Highway, the River Breeze Drive-In on John Sevier at Asheville Highway, Knoxville Drive-In on Kingston Pike, Chapman Hi-Way Drive-In (self-explanatory), the Skyway in Halls and the Twin-Aire on Clinton Highway. If you wanted to grab a taste of that experience today, you’ll need to head out to the Parkway Drive-In in Maryville.

Which drive-in theatre did you go to, and what did you see?

Beth Kinnane writes a history feature for KnoxTNToday.com. It’s published each Tuesday and is one of our best-read features.

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