Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/131975
outtahere MANY MOONS AGO Past and present drive-in employees shed light on the great Aussie tradition of watching movies by moonlight under the stars. By Oliver Pfeiffer. "Drive-ins combine Australia's love of the outdoors, cars and movies," says David Kilderry about the appeal of this cinematic pastime. David and his brother, Matthew, are the proud owners of Australia's largest and longestrunning drive-in cinema: the Lunar Drive-in Theatre Dandenong, in Victoria. The Lunar, first known as the Dandenong Panoramic, opened its gates on May 4, 1956. At the height of the popularity of drive-ins, love-struck couples, young families and excitable teens would drive in, park, wind down the windows, hook up the speakers and immerse themselves in the magic of the movies. "Outdoor cinemas have existed since the dawn of the [film] industry in Australia," says David, "so it was only natural they would team up when the car came along." Interestingly, although drive-ins are considered an American invention, there's evidence to suggest these Aussie outdoor cinemas predated the first US-style drive-ins. Areas with stalls and stages known as 'pleasure gardens' were popular in Perth during the turn of the century, and it was at one of these that the first film season screened, just months after the Australian premiere of projected films in Melbourne. The open-air and travelling picture shows, with their makeshift screens hung between trees, led to the drive-in concept, where cars drove in to face the screen and sound was emitted from loudspeakers. However, the actual drive-in was the invention of an American auto parts salesman from Camden, New Jersey. Richard M. Hollingshead Jr experimented with a screen nailed to a tree, a radio placed behind, and a Kodak projector fixed to the hood of his car. He later finetuned his idea by building a ramp to elevate the front of the vehicle and tested sound levels with the car windows up and down. Hollingshead was granted a patent for his invention on May 16, 1933, and founded the appropriately titled Park-It Theatres. A month later he opened the first Hollingshead Automobile Movie Theatre with the alluring advertisement: "The whole family is welcome, regardless of how noisy the children are!" In Australia the first conventional drive-ins were established in the south-east. Opened on February 18, 1954, in the Melbourne suburb of Burwood, the Skyline is regarded as the first of the 300-plus drive-ins to open across Australia. In 1957, the ACT's first drive-in, the Starlight, was "Opened in 1954 in the Melbourne suburb of Burwood, the Skyline is regarded as the first of 300-plus drive-ins to open across Australia." 16