by Julia Pierrepont III

LOS ANGELES, April 19 (Xinhua) -- After a more-than-one-year COVID-19 pandemic which is still ravaging across the United States, California, particularly the Los Angeles area became home to the latest movie craze: drive-in movie theaters.

Drive-ins, where customers watch movies in their cars on huge screens outdoors, is a distinctly America lifestyle innovation that is the marriage of two of America's favorite pastimes: movies and cars.

Now of course, during the COVID-19 pandemic, drive-ins offer one more thing: safety, which is still a big concern for Americans as infection cases and hospitalizations are still increasing in some areas and variants continue to spread.

Even though CBS news channel announced that American adults in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are eligible for the vaccine as of Monday, the Centers for Disease Control(CDC) warned at the same day that the country is in a "complicated" stage of the pandemic.

Harkening back to a more innocent era, drive-ins were first invented back in 1933 but came into their own in the 1950s as fun outings for the whole family or romantic date-nights for the poodle-skirt clad, teeny-bopper crowd.

"Drive-ins started to really take off in the '50s," Jim Kopp of the United Drive-in Theatre Owners Association reported to the Smithsonian Institution, one of the largest museum, education, and research complex in the world.

"They offered family entertainment. People could sit in their cars, they could bring their babies, they could smoke. Drive-ins offered more flexibility than indoor theaters."

The Los Angeles area boasted a few permanent to semi-permanent drive-in theaters that pre-dated the pandemic, like Van Buren in Riverside, Vineland in the City of Industry, Paramount in Paramount, Rubidoux Swap Meet and Drive-in in Riverside, West Wind in Santa Barbara.

And the grand-daddies of them all, the Gardena Cinema in Gardena first opened in 1947, the Roadium in Torrance (1948) and the Mission Tiki Drive-in in Monclair (1952).

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, drive-ins experienced a resurgence in popularity. People craving entertainment or just dying to get out of the house to escape COVID-19 isolation opted for a safer way to see movies: from the comfort and security of their own vehicles.

In and around Los Angeles, more huge screens were erected last year that can be seen for long distances, equipped with speakers to broadcast the sound or mobile apps that allow viewers to listen in by phone.

Set in the great outdoors in parks, college campuses, and parking lots, customer's cars were spaced eight-feet apart and masks and proper social-distancing were strictly enforced in the snack bars and bathrooms serving each theater.

One of LA's better-known outdoor drive-ins, the Mission Tiki Drive-In in Montclair, was sold last year for a real estate development project. But the pandemic gave it a reprieve on its final curtain call.

"It's kind of a mixed blessing, but Mission Tiki has expanded its audience base and done well during Covid," 73-year-old Frank Huttinger, CEO of DeAnza Land and Leisure, owner of Mission Tiki Drive-In and others, said in a recent interview with LA Magazine.

"Our theaters have always been a neighborhood place, but now people are coming from a great distance. The American Cinematheque's 'Beyond Fest' was one of our highlights and introduced a whole lot of people from the western part of L.A. to the drive-in who have all been very appreciative."

In answer to the increased demand for outdoor venues, temporary drive-ins also popped up all over, including, "Drive-in at the Park" in Santa Clarita and Culver City; Cinespia at the Greek Theater; Arthouse theater Arena Cinelounge in Hollywood for new indies; Street Food Cinema in Arcadia, Calabasas and Santa Monica; and Definite Media Events that hosts pop-ups around town.

Some companies, like Definite Media Movie Events who works with We Drive-In to host classic films outdoors, went all out, expanding their drive-in events to include fund-raisers and concerts.

"When the pandemic hit, as a dad and businessowner I was nervous," Scott Juceam, owner of Definite Media, told Xinhua last week. "I knew I had to kick into high gear and do something different to keep the business alive."

He found mentors to help him and invested in equipment to move into the drive-in movie business. And it worked. "We are grateful, it's been good. Now we are also doing concerts and fundraisers too."

But not everyone thinks the drive-in boom will last much beyond the pandemic.

"Motion picture exhibition is going to continue to be highly impacted by streaming, and premium video-on-demand, and whatever the cable channels put out," explained Huttinger. "You can buy a five-foot TV for 500 U.S. dollars now ... It's disappointing but I'm not going to make a long bet on drive-in theaters." Enditem

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