Customer Reviews

Cinema Under the Stars: America's Love Affair with Drive-In Movie Theaters

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

A reasonable attempt to cover the love that we all have for drive-ins, but unfortunately it misses the mark. The pictures are great but over-all you can tell the authors don't really know the business.

Several major inaccuracies exist including a cover of a Castle 8mm and 16mm home movie catalog with the caption "Brochure offered by Castle Films for theatre owners". Even keen amateurs would know that Castle Films are for home movie use only and their commercial rights are expressly forbidden. Drive-in operators delt with the major distribution companies exclusively and only with 35mm and 70mm film.

At the right price it's worth a read, but there are other authors like Don and Susan Sanders and Kerry Seagrave amongst others, who are experts in this genre and deserve your dollars first.

While reading the previous reviews, I was reminded of an episode of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. Chef Ramsay went to an awful restaurant and found that someone had submitted a glowing review of that very restaurant to a dining guide. He quickly found out that the owners had reviewed their own restaurant. Maybe they did it in all caps, too.
I have this book, and it does miss the mark. Fortunately, I bought it cheap and didn't pay much for it, otherwise I'd have bad buyer's remorse. Stick with someone who is actually interested in drive-ins.

Very nicely put together, great graphics throughout (though the Janet Lane paintings are not necessary), nice color section. Only reason I deducted a star is because it is short at 95 pages.

It was a golden time, to be sure, when we could drive through the brightly lit gate, pay a small amount, and spend an entire evening in the comfort of our car and watch a great movie. Oh sure, there were those occasional mosquitoes to deal with, but that's why we had PIC and OFF! spray. This book does as much as any publication to capture that long gone time, and communicate the magic of a slower, happier period in our country's history. Well written, nicely illustrated and comprehensive, Cinema Under The Stars will bring those memories back, while those of you who weren't lucky enough to have gone to a drive-in movie will get a real sense of what the magic was all about from this outstanding book.

I HAD SO MUCH FUN READING THIS BOOK! IT BROUGHT BACK SO MANY MEMORIES OF THE FUN THAT I HAD GOING TO DRIVE-IN MOVIE THEATERS. WHAT A GREAT BOOK, I CAN'T SAY ENOUGH. THE PICTURES ARE THE BEST. BUY THIS BOOK FOR A GREAT WALK DOWN THE DRIVE-IN MOVIE THEATER MEMORY LANE!!!!!!

THIS BOOK IS PACKED FULL OF FACINATING INFORMATION ABOUT THE HISTORY OF DRIVE-IN MOVIE THEATERS. THE COLOR AND BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS OF DRIVE-INS AND DRIVE-IN MEMORABILIA ADDS TO THE TEXT. I RECOMMEND THIS TO ANYONE WHO LOVES TO READ ABOUT ROADSIDE AMERICANA. A DEFINATE WINNER THAT WILL BRING BACK FOND MEMORIES OF GOING TO THE MOVIES OUTDOORS.

I never read it so I guess I'm in the same boat as the all caps reviews. In my case I hate SPAM ads so much I will be critical here just because I don't appreciate reviews that don't show anything more than they read the preface or the back book cover. Maybe not even that. They may have been given the text to use in an e-mail. At any rate, if you want me to buy something, DON'T hire fake reviewers to write glowing fake reviews.