Standard-Speaker from Hazleton, Pennsylvania • C1

09:55 WOLFEBOB CEtc. By Alyson Krueger The New York Times Jen Philhower, 48, a part-time officemanager inAustin, Texas, is one of the many Americans adjusting to almost every group activity being canceled, as people move indoors and into isolation to avoid spreading the novel corona- virus. youngest goes to wilder- ness school, and even that is she said. even playing in the woods is closed, things start to feel a little So Philhower was surprised ecstatic, even to see one group entertainment venue still open for business: the Blue Starlite, a local drive-in movie theater currently allowing 35 to park at one time. Located on a hill with the Aus- tin skyline in the background, the theater resembles a junk- according to Josh Frank, the owner, who opened it a decade ago.

Since the virus hit the United States, the theater has screened movies including Day Off and Breakfast Recently, theatergoers watched short films that were scheduled to premiere at the South by South- west festival inAustin before it got canceled. When children, who are 20, 16 and 12, were young- er, the family would frequent the theater. The kids loved sitting on the roof of the car and chomping on candy under the stars. must have seen three times one she said. But they thought to return until they found themselves going stir crazy at home under the new public-health guidelines.

makes perfect Phil- hower said. can all sit in our cars, away from each other, and do something Drive-in movie theaters may seem like a blast from the past, something out of the 1950s or Numerous baby boomers gone for decades; Gen Xers and millennials, perhaps never. But there are still 305 of them in the United States, according to the United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association in Stephens City, Vir- ginia. The association says every state has a drive-in movie theater except Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Louisiana andNorth Dakota. While most drive-in theaters open for the summer, some of their owners have decided to get an early start this year to provide families an escape insulated by their cars during the pandemic, as malls, concert halls and restau- rants shut down.

would have thought that drive-in movies would one day again become the most attractive option for going Frank said. Other owners are proceeding with caution, watching a situation that changes every day. think got a lucky said Stephen Sauerbeck, who owns Sauerbeck Family Drive-In Theater in La Grange, Kentucky. I also wonder if a too- good-to-be-true kind of Sauerbeck was correct. For the past week he has been in discus- sions with the governor of Ken- tucky and the commissioner of public health.

While the option of showing movies seems to be ruled out, the state is allowing him to sell popcorn over theweekend and lend his venue to churches for ser- vices (patrons can sit in the car and listen to the service on their radios). Of course, none of that is set in stone, he said. seems to change every a responsibility on our side to be as safe as Sauer- beck said. want this to be, found a loophole in the situa- tion, and we are going to operate an underground business the gov- ernment is trying to shut of Even before the coronavirus arrived, the drive-inmovie theater businesswas experiencing a small renaissance. At the end of February, Frank opened a second Blue Starlite, in RoundRock, a town 25miles north of Austin.

Every weekend there have been three to five shows, all of which have sold out days in advance. been really, really, really he said. I had opened a Round Rock location years ago, I would be maybe three decades closer to Sauerbeck opened his drive-in theater in August 2018, after the last indoor theater, owned by Regal Cinemas, closed in La Grange. was such a strong he said. all per- formed well for us, and we grew our customers every month as long as the weather The theatermay look like an old dirt field, but every component of the theater is thought through.

have no speakers or poles as some of the older ones he said. also have a gravel park- ing lot so we can operate if In the recent Quentin Tarantino film Upon a Time In Hol- a still-extant drive-in movie theater in Paramount, Cali- fornia, stands in for one long demolished in VanNuys. Spencer Folmar, a filmmaker, believes so strongly that drive-in theaters are not just the past but the future that he is building what he claims will be the larg- est one in Eustis, Florida, with 500 spots, about a 45-minute drive from Orlando. Meant to be an immersive visual experience, it will have a lighthouse in the mid- dle from which you can see screens in every direction. goal is to provide a scene so dazzling that there is no way it could be replicated from couch.

cineplex can be a generic experience. Youmight as well stream at he said. want to create this world of cine- mawith a unique Concessions by phone Being cooped up at home stopped Americans from posting on Instagram and other social media platforms indeed, it has encouraged some to step up the pace and many drive-in the- aters are trying to help provide safe and novel content. BaileyDeniseNichols, 20, works at a dog-boarding facility in Hous- ton. When her animal clients slowed as people stopped travel- ing, she wanted to do so some- thing new and different with her free time.

So she took her younger cousin to the Showboat Drive-In Theater just outside of town. They cuddled in the back seat of her car with pillows and blankets, illuminated by string light brought for fun, and ate Chicken McNuggets they picked up on the way. was surprised to find out that you use a radio frequency to listen to the audio, so that was an experience for Nichols said. know how exactly I expected to be able to hear the movie. my fault for being Gen- eration I Recently, Clay Lundquist, 43, the owner of a marketing and produc- tion company in Redmond, Wash- ington, flew to Phoenix to watch Major League Baseball spring training.

When the games got can- celed, he was looking for some- thing entertaining and safe to do. have gone to a regu- lar he said. But a drive-in theater sounded fun. He been to one in 20 years, and his wife, Amber Lun- dquist, 40, had never been. At West Wind, an old-school establishment in Glendale, Arizo- na, with (now-abandoned) play- grounds and arcade games, they watched Invisible and People were even dancing by their cars at intermission, although there is a rule that they must stay in their car at all times except to use the restroom.

made the choice to make the most of our Lundquist said. do feel that if people did try a drive-in they would see the magic of the Drive-in theaters that are open are taking extra precautions to ensure social distancing. At the Blue Starlite, you can now just flash your tickets on your phone from your window to gain admis- sion. Many theaters have started having people order concessions by phone. Servers wearing latex gloves deliver them to the car so crowds congregate in con- cession stands.

There are some drive-in the- aters that would love to open right now but are prevented by restric- tions or their worries. After advertising on social media that it would open seven days aweekwhile children are out of school, the Summer Quartet Drive In inMemphis was forced to close Wednesday because it is operated byMalco, and the compa- ny closed all its theaters. Brian Francis, who runs the 99W Drive-In Theatre in Newberg, Oregon, received 30 messages from customers in the past week asking him to open early. are thinking that the drive-in is the original social distance way to see a movie, and this is some kind of golden opportunity for the van- ishing drive-ins to he wrote in an email. But Francis is hesitant to do so until he is sure Oregon implement a lockdown.

He is in touchwith the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Ore- gonHealthAuthority and his state representative to see if, and how we can open for the 2020 he said. want to do my part to flatten the eli DursT The New York Times From the relative safety of their cars, moviegoers watch the Big at the Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive-In in Austin, Texas, on March 21. ABOVE: Holly McVeety-Mill and her partner in social distancing watch Day LEFT: A family huddles cozily in the back of their car at the Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive-In. Unexpected revival Drive-in theaters offer families an isolated escape during pandemic SUNDAY, APRIL 12, 2020.