Hi Everybody, Just a couple of more thoughts for today. In this day and age, what is a drive-in theater supposed to do for people? Everyone knows there arent many of them left. In most states it is hundreds of miles between drive-ins. Some states have no drive-ins left at all. A lot of my old customers may remember me saying over the microphone that in the 1950s there were over 4,000 drive-ins in the United States. Today there are less than 400 in the entire country. The exact number Im told, is around 357. It is extremely rare that in this area we have four drive-ins within 25 miles of each other!!! Beckys, Shankweilers, The Laurel and of course us. I know all of the owners and they are terrific people. So what do I do to make the B.P.O.T. stand out? Most of todays old drive-ins have been heavily altered. They have multiple screens, buildings that arent original, and the ones that are have been heavily remodeled inside. Theres nothing at all wrong with that. Thats what they wanted to do. Here at the B.P.O.T. we have an original single screen drive -in, utilizing the original buildings, in pretty much the original condition from when it opened in 1948. Everyone faces the same direction, enjoying the same movies at the same time as everyone else. Its kind of like before cable TV came along. Once a year, you raced home from wherever you were to watch The Wizard Of Oz on TV, because you knew everyone else was watching it too. Its a little like that. Well, thats what I do. I market the original 1950s drive-in experience. Its like stepping back in time. Back when I first started at Mahoning, one of my customers came up to me and said, wow I really love this place because it looks almost exactly like it did when I was a kid! Well, a lightbulb came on in my head, and since then I want my customers to feel like theyre stepping back into the drive-ins heyday. Its not a perfect time warp. There are some things that will take time and money to re-create the 1950s, and this is only my first year pulling the strings. We first have to concentrate on going digital. Obviously, thats not retro, but it is a necessity, or we will be left in the drive-in dust. Well, thats all for now. I have a lot to do, and only a short time to do it in. I would like to open the end of April, beginning of May. I will let you know for sure as the time gets closer. In the meantime, if you have any questions or comments, I will try to answer them as soon as I can. I plan to check in with this page everyday or every other day at the worst. Again, thanks for coming along with me on this little adventure......Jeff.......Manager, B.P.O.T.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 17:19:59 +0000
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