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 35 mm 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. Sentimentalists have evoked the ghosts of fresh popcorn, slush puppies, Dagwoods, “slap” chips and hot dogs bought from the cafeteria during interval, as songs by pop group Abba blared from speakers mounted on car windows.

People lamented that future generations of pyjama-clad children would not be able to frolic on jungle gyms under the glare of floodlights. Teenagers would be denied the chance to snog, grope, smoke and sneak an illicit dop while huddled outside the projector room. And drive-in babies would become a thing of the past.