Drive-ins: Ag pleez deddy . . .
Today’s drive-in is a smart, slick, portable pop-up one, to be enjoyed anywhere
In 2012, when Randburg’s Velskoen Drive-In was bulldozed to make way for a shiny new townhouse development, Johannesburg bade a misty-eyed farewell to its last outdoor movie theatre. Two years later, the final nail was hammered into the coffin in Pretoria, where the Menlyn Park rooftop drive-in threw the dust jacket over its trusty 35mm projector. The advent of digital projection had rendered movie reel technology obsolete, and modern audiences were cocooning and investing in lavish home entertainment systems. Who needed a giant outdoor screen when you could have your own giant indoor screen? But for many, the death of the SA drive-in cinema marked the end of an era when working-class families could enjoy affordable entertainment under a starry sky complete with all the cultural trappings of rock ’n roll Americana. Conveniently sidestepping the fact that drive-ins were not accessible to all races during apartheid, many have been trotting out sepia-tinged, romanticised eulogies. Sent...
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