Drive-Ins started to develop even more and began to make their own systems, techniques, and policies, Sal-Val being one of the first extremely prosperous ones. The Sal-Val was opened on June 10th, 1938 just outside of Burbank, California and was owned by the California Drive-In Theatres Corporation. Six hundred eighteen cars in nine rows was the capacity of the ten-acre lot, which cost $54,563 to build. The screen area was made out of metal-lath-and-plaster covered with lightweight canvas bedded in white lead and painted a flat white. Between each ramp was a distance of forty feet and the projector was one hundred eighty six feet away from the screen. Like other later ozoners, the projection booth was two to three feet underground to minimize …show more content…
the space that could be taken up by cars. In front of each car was a fixed speaker without volume control. Since there had to be regular changes of speaker volume, there were many complaints about noise by surrounding neighbors, but at the same time if a row wasn’t occupied, the whole row of speakers could be turned off, saving energy and producing less noise. The Sal-Val had to create a system in order to know when to increase or decrease the volume. This system was a signal system, in which attendants at the ticket booth would notify another attendant to increase the volume when a train or truck passed by. To provide snacks and food, there was a concession building with a hot-water heater, gas range and some appliances. The theatre was so famous and entertaining that people drove from as far as fifteen miles to attend it. Also, the drive-in offered the theater for free to churches on Sundays to hold their services in (23-25). Problems with speakers didn’t just exist in the Sal-Val theatre but in almost every single drive-in throughout the country. There were many attempts in trying to solve this problem. The first speaker was directional sound, where everyone in the theater had the same volume. Two main problems arose with this effort, sound was delayed to the cars in the back and people in their homes could hear the film for up to a mile away. Next, came the overhead horn speaker, a huge speaker on top of the screen or on several poles and was aimed towards the center of the lot. Distortion was the primary problem with this method because the sound bounced off of the tops of the cars. Following the overhead horn, owners tried in ground speakers but they were a failure because the sound produced was muffled and very low in volume. The best method before the in-car speaker was later created was the fixed speaker, which had a confined sound. These speakers were on the side of each car but it still had its flaws. Some of the flaws include a little bit of distortion due to wind, your window had to be open even during poor weather conditions to hear the sound, and there was still only one volume level (4,26,32). Most, if not all, of these speakers caused sound disturbance to their surrounding neighbors.
The first ozoner to be charged because of noise disturbance was at Guy Douthwaite’s ozoner, which could be heard one mile away. This violated an ordinance made in the drive-in’s city, Los Angeles, which made it a misdemeanor to have a stadium that sound could be heard fifty or more feet away. Douthwaite argued to the Supreme Court that this was discriminating drive-ins but the court did not agree, and they sent him to municipal court for trial. On June 4th, 1935, Douthwaite was going to have the choice of a fine of $250 or going to jail for ninety days but the case was suspended as long as it didn’t reoccur. A separate case in Detroit was filed and dropped once a reporter went to the drive-in to see how bad the sound was and he said that you could barely hear anything at fifty feet away from the ozoner. Another significant lawsuit which was in Pennsylvania with complaints about noise from the Bethal Township. Residents said that you witnessed the nerve-destroying noise from one mile away and they couldn’t sleep until the films were over at one in the morning. The defense pleaded that the drive-in was just like open dance floors and that they spent $30,000 on constructing the theatre. Spending half a million dollars on their homes was the plaintiffs’ argument. These cases were only three out of the one hundred drive-ins that went to court in 1940 for restraining orders. To …show more content…
reduce complaints, it was suggested to build drive-ins on town lines, also because there were less taxes and land was less expensive (26-27,32). During the beginning of drive-ins, people, like Loew, questioned their long-term potential because of the many citizens and other industries that didn’t preferably like them. And indeed, many ozoners faded after a season or two. Some theatres were even observed to be more of a social occasion than an entertainment hot spot (28-29). The slow start of drive-ins seemed to come to an end until World War II came and froze the boom. Prior to the war, development of the ozoner was slow for eight years, and then for the next four years, during World War II, the progress almost completely stopped due to building restrictions. Before the war, some owners rushed to finish their theatre while others just abandoned their ideas. While the war was occurring and after, there were many problems with cars, meaning that there would have to be problems with ozoners. These problems included a limit of tires because rubber was needed for war, gas rationing and no driving for pleasure. By 1941, RCA made the in-car speaker but they weren’t in all theaters until 1946 because of the freeze on the industry. Once the war was over and the in-car speaker was installed the boom continued and was better than ever; within eight years after the war, the amount of drive–ins grew twenty times in amount (32-33). One of the first drive-ins built after the war was The Drive-In Movies in central Arkansas. Since there was a pause on ozoner production, the owner felt it was necessary to create adds urging people to see the theater under construction. On opening night, the drive-in fit twelve hundred cars onto a four hundred-car lot, being a huge accomplishment (23). Since both the indoor theaters and the monopolies didn’t fancy the drive-ins, they decided to “team up” against them. The two both agreed that the ozoners didn’t have the same conditions as the indoors, and were therefore unfair. Some of these unfair conditions included admitting children for free, being seasonal, having a limited audience to those that only owned automobiles, the prediction that the indoors wouldn’t do as well as the drive-ins would with second or worse runs, having a per car price, not a per person price, and not having the ability to rent a film exclusively, meaning that the theatre showing the film was the only one doing so at that time. In fact, the Fox protected indoors from “unfair competition” by drive-ins and therefore wouldn’t sell first runs to the ozoners (30,54, 55-56). As the war ended and patrons began to notice the convenience of drive-ins, Indoors began to feel a little bit threatened, and therefore disliked the drive-ins. Since there was no air-conditioning in some theaters, during the hot, humid summers they closed. Therefore, the patrons would prefer to go to the drive-ins in the summer, because the indoors were either closed or hot. The ozoners were not only cooler, but also cheaper than the indoor theaters to attend. One independent indoor owner went as far as writing letters to all the theaters in his town to help him protest against a new drive-in being built. This was an overreaction due to the imperfections of the typical drive-in (30,32). In 1948, a census was taken and recorded a drop in attendance to the indoor theaters. This couldn’t be blamed on television, since it wasn’t popular then and there weren’t enough to affect the indoors. Reporters predicted the decline in attendance was due to the fact that the citizens started to spend their money on bigger ticket items, like cars (49-50). By the end of the 1940s, it was clear to patrons that drive-ins were cheaper to attend and clear to both indoor and outdoor owners that they were cheaper to build and operate. Not only were the ozoners cheaper to operate, but a greater profit was made because of the concession stands, in fact the concession stand at drive-ins made twice as much revenue as the ones in indoors. This is so because the concession stands were grander and were cheaper than the ones at indoors (50-51, 77). The stopping of studio monopolies also contributed to the boom of drive-ins after World War II. During the 1930s and the 1940s the major Hollywood studios were trying to have a trust-like control. The eight majors included the Paramount, 20th Century-Fox, Warner Brothers, MGM, RKO, Columbia, Universal, and United Artists, the first five having vertical integration, also known as the Big Five. These majors produced ninety-five percent of all the A features in the film industry and therefore needed to be broken up, which happened by the court in 1949. To keep rivalries limited, there were competition laws, or pools, for the Big Five. The majors also liked to block book, or have only their films played at one specific time at their own theaters. The US government looked into stopping the monopolies in the 1920s but they didn’t end up doing anything. When the Antitrust Act was started in 1938, and ended in 1949, it prohibited block booking, unreasonable clearance, and set admission price in contract. These rules also made the industry more varied and competitive (35-36). For multiple reasons, the drive-ins and majors could be thought of as rivals and enemies. One of these reasons why the majors didn’t like the ozoners was because they couldn’t block book in the drive-ins, or only sell their films for a certain period of time, since they weren’t open in in the winter, six months. Also, the majors would rarely ever supply the ozoners with first runs or even second or third runs, first run meaning the first time the film is shown to the public, which mad the drive-in owners feel like the drive-ins were being discriminated against (35-37). The majors also began to notice the benefits and successes of drive-ins, and therefore started to build some of their own. The studios built ozoners for two reasons; to get more money, and to create more competition for independent drive-ins. The Paramount was one of these majors, having several drive-ins, although it never got too involved in the industry, never having A-movies for their ozoners (29-30). “Battles” between the film industry and the ozoners, and between the indoors and outdoors began in the end of the 1940s with Eddie Joseph. The majors wouldn’t let him have product on any bias, not any runs, because that was there policy at the time. Joseph then filed a suit against Fox, Warner Brothers, and MGM for arbitration, which the majors agreed to submit some matters to. Seven years later, the companies agreed to allow drive-ins to have product ninety days after the downtown release. Eddie Joseph wanted this to be after thirty days so he protested, made public campaigns, and encouraged other ozoners to join, which the Sal-Val did in 1942 (52). In Minnesota in 1947, the Twin City independent indoor theatres tried their best to block patents for drive-ins, but David Flexer and Al Avery managed to get a patent by creating their ozoner without any publicity, so the independents didn’t have a chance to respond.
To block patents, the indoors held secret meetings and tried to persuade the citizens that they were paying extra taxes just to pay for the police at the drive-ins. David Flexer was furious once he found out that the indoors undertook these actions to eliminate the ozoners. Flexer said that the independents tried to bring down competition, told film distributors not to sell to him, told state officials to stop projects and to bring up health issues. Three years later, in Twin City, the independents owned four drive-ins, that showed low, cheap, runs, to not take away audience from the indoors. This also contributed to the fact that film distributors favored indoors, rather than ozoners, because they bought higher, more expensive, runs
(52-53).
However, after the dust settled, it was widely accepted that the blacklist was unjust, which enabled many film workers to pursue the movie studios in civil courts through the 1950’s for unpaid contracts and wages (Lewis, 2008). While the studios were initially impacted by the Paramount decision, the breadth of competition and independent successes of smaller studios gave rise to the advancement of innovative filmmaking that may not have been possible if it were not for the Paramount decision. Filmmaking is one of the riskiest and most profitable ventures in modern day society, and without these events, the studios and the film workers may not share the successes that they do
Not many people in this world truly go out "kicking and screaming". How often have you heard of people talking a stand for what they believe in? How many times have you heard of a minority sticking up for themselves against the majority? How many times have you actually heard tell of it working? Osceola, the son of a Creek-Indian and speculated offspring of white trader, William Powell, was a cocky, spit-fire of a young man.
The concept of change is conveyed through the film Pleasantville in various ways such as colour from black and white to a colourful Pleasantville. This film portrayed the changes that occurred in American society over the past 50 years. The movie describes various changes that occurred such as in sexual relations, violence, and family matters and roles. Pleasantville film represents the viewer with how the racial and sexual equality began and that the world we live in is not perfect. It also depicts the on-going changes in everyday lifestyles of the American citizens. Another change was the civil rights movements, reversed racism. Also, women’s liberation was submissive but not sexual. Moreover, sexual revolution the advent of the pill. Pleasantville
Houchin, John H. Censorship of the American Theatre in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2003.
Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century. By Kasson, John F. (New York: Hill & Wang, 2002. Acknowledgements, contents, tables and figures, introduction, notes, bibliography, index. $17.00 paperback)
In Chicago, we Yippies wanted to have a rally, and Chicago was really central to the movement, so we petitioned the Chicago Parks Department for a permit to have bands come play during the week of the Democratic Convention in 1968. They stalled, and pretended to have little problems with the permit. No one was fooled. We sued them for denying us our constitutional rights; but we withdrew our suit when we saw who our judge was. His name was Judge Lynch, and he was mayor Daley’s friend or cousin or something. Very ironic...the next judge that we went before because the city was stalling was Judge Stahl. S-T-A-H-L. So in a nutshell, we said “can we have a get-together in the park?
In the southern backcountry during the American Revolution, there was a different style of warfare present. The British forces excelled in traditional war tactics, such as bayonet combat. The Battles in the New England region were more traditional but, the continental forces struggled to successful come out of a battle. The commanders in the southern backcountry realized they would never win the war if they continued to fight traditionally against the British forces. So several of the commanders took to a guerilla style of fighting when the war turned to the south. With the guerilla style of fighting they realized with the rough terrain of the southern Backcountry that traditional warfare would be ineffective and foolish for most instants.
At the beginning of their journey, they shocked from the dream that comes true. They have to have adapted with the reality as they become a part of Pleasantville and it is difficult to go back their home. David converted to Bud Parker and Jennifer to Mary Sue the son and daughter on the show. David’s behaviors have changed once he arrived Pleasantville, Jennifer seems afraid of Pleasantville, but her brother encourages her frequently to be effective in the community. Bud (David) that person who does not recognize the life prior Pleasantville begins to act positively by working at restaurant with an artist who makes difference later to the city. Furthermore, he keeps supporting Mary (Jennifer) to live the life and meet a famous guy in Pleasantville
Danville was the first in Contra Costa County to have a neighborhood traffic management program (NTMP) to address neighborhood traffic issues. Due to the fact, that the main town has narrow streets, lined with boutiques, restaurants, and cafes, there is a huge influx of pedestrians, thus, the importance for education and enforcibiity about safe driving is crucial. In the downtown area, the speed limit is 25 MPH, and on the outskirts of Danville, the speed limits range from 30-45 MPH. The town council makes traffic enforcement a priority by instilling safety and appropriate behavior while driving in Danville. Again, due to the beautification project that was recently finished, there are large street signs
During this field trip the group focusing on how the parking problem in downtown biddeford, affected the businesses they visited. When they went to the city theater Nahorney said that it had affected his business. He has had to pause the show to let people move their cars and has even had to cancel the show. If they ever cancel a show they will loose a lot of
City life is an entire different way of living than life outside of the city. Living in the heart of a major metropolitan city, I travel over 30 miles to work that some say is located in the middle of the Midwest cornfields. Life in the city moves at a faster pace. I find people often are walking quicker steps, seemingly to always be on a mission to get somewhere, usually in a hurry. Shopping at one of my city’s local big box food store, I find that most people are pleasant enough, but do not go out of their way to speak. They typically appear to be in their own world, in a hurry to purchase their good, so they can get to somewhere else. The store worker’s rarely make eye contact and sometimes tracking an employee down for assistance can be non-existent. On one recent visit, it took the store over 10 minutes to find an employee to assist me with acquiring an object in a locked cabinet.
Do you ever stay up all night doing homework? Most students are busy after school so they have to stay up all night doing homework. If students stay up all night doing homework they don't get enough sleep for the next day. Burris Middle School needs to have study hall because students would have better grades, more sleep and less stress.
The Woodbine Casino offers an extensive slot parlour to compliment the racetrack and dining options of Woodbine Racetrack. Try your luck at the slots, place a bet on the races, or simply enjoy the atmosphere. The Woodbine Casino provides all the elements of great racetrack entertainment. Live Thoroughbred races run April - December and Standardbred/Harness racing runs January - May and October - December, and parking and admission are always
The United States is constantly undergoing some type of reformation, to improve our bureaucracy. The constant change citizens want for their countries requires five-letter word, “money”. We have the federal and state or local government in our American system that would sometimes bump heads, when it comes to certain issues. Well, one of the issue they would argue on is the percentage of funding each government needs to contribute; in order to improve societies. Surprisingly, our local or state government dislike unfunded Federal laws. Local implementation for unfunded laws is viewed as a tough act for all citizens, so federal government should take more actions to better the nation as a whole
Some people would argue that the Theatres Act caused harm in society. This is because, when they passed the Act in 1968 nudity was shown in public theatres and caused harm to society because young people could