[title subtitle=”WORDS Dwain Hebda
IMAGES courtesy Kenda Drive-In, Flintrock Media Bob King, Arkansas Mobile Theater, Fort Smith Brewing Company18 entertainment”][/title]
It’s Friday night in north Arkansas and as the summer sun starts to sink in the west, cars are already lining up at the Kenda Drive-In Theatre. Kenda Dearing is in the concession stand, popping popcorn, pouring drinks and flipping burgers. You can get a cheeseburger here for almost pocket change – heck, make it a double. The prices here, like the movie experience, are something from yesteryear.
“It’s more than just the movie. It’s an experience,” Kenda says. “It’s grandparents bringing grandkids. It’s family together. When you come here, you still have family interaction. It’s not just sitting in a seat concentrating on a movie. It’s an overall experience. It does go back to simpler times with family interaction and that’s kind of the key.”
If you think it’s a remarkable coincidence that the concessions manager shares the same name as the Marshall, Arkansas, landmark, it’s not. The drive-in, launched by her parents in 1966, is named after her. Given that, you can understand how personal it is to have seen the attraction survive and, in the age of coronavirus social distancing, even thrive.
“On any given night, we have people that drive a long distance to see us,” she says. “We have seen an increase in new people, people that have never been to the drive-in. The newbies, the ones that don’t know the radio station to tune into for sound. You can tell when they come in the gate they’ve never been here.
“Basically, it’s just people that are looking for a safe way of getting out of the house and they’ve realized that we’re here and they bring in the kids, bring in the grandkids. They’re just struggling to find something to do to get them out of the house.”
There aren’t many good things to say about COVID-19, but the renaissance in drive-in movies is one of them. As the Washington Post reported in June, the drive-in turned eighty-seven this year, uniquely American form of entertainment sprung from one set-up in Camden, New Jersey. A few years later, in-car audio systems were developed and the concept took off, peaking at more than four thousand screens in the late 1950s.
The decline of the drive-in – various sources put the number of survivors nationally around three hundred – follows the development of VHS, DVD, streaming services and gargantuan high-definition televisions. Kenda remembers well the lean times her parents endured.
“I can remember VHS killed a lot of theaters. It was bad,” she says. “I can remember in the ‘80s my mom and dad entertainment 19 struggling. But, [the drive-in] was already paid for and they weren’t building one at that time, so I guess basically they just weathered the storm.”
Officially, there are three drive-ins operating in Arkansas; besides the Kenda, there’s the Stone Drive-In in Mountain View and the 112 Drive-In in Fayetteville. Unofficially, the number is much higher as businesses and communities statewide are using the concept to help bring people out of their homes for some COVID-approved entertainment. In May, the Little Rock Marathon and UA Little Rock partnered for a drive-in feature, as did the Arkansas Cinema Society at a site in North Little Rock.
The trend has spawned at least one new mobile drive-in business, Arkansas Mobile Theater, launched in May by Drew Clark with the help of his father, Ken. Little Rock-based AMT offers a mobile movie setup for backyard gatherings, parking lot screenings and various groups.
“I think there are probably a couple different factors that play into (demand),” Drew says. “One of them is everyone’s just a little stir-crazy to an extent and anything that gets them out of the house, even a change in the routine, is probably exciting.
“Another aspect of it is when movie theaters went out of operation, it was hard to get that experience. I think there’s absolutely a demographic, and I’m part of that demographic, that totally misses movie theaters. We all understand the reason for those movie theaters closing down, but it’s still a bummer that you can’t watch movies on the big screen like that.”
The idea for the business grew out of Drew’s nineteenth birthday party in May for which his parents gifted him the projection equipment for a movie screening with his friends.
His dad pitched the idea of launching the business as a way to fill the summer hours and to recoup the cost of the gear. Drew, an avid movie buff with a DVD and Blu-Ray collection exceeding twelve hundred titles, was more than game.
“Doing this little side hustle is perfect for me at the moment. It’s right up my alley,” he says. “We’re keeping people interested in movies. I think some people just kind of long for that experience and we are happy to help people get that.”
Businesses are also cashing in on the concept as a way to lure people out of their homes. Quentin Willard, co-founder of Fort Smith Brewing Company, says the business had been hosting movie nights inside the craft brewery for some time. But with coronavirus, management began looking at converting the promotion to a drive-in format.
“When COVID hit, a lot of our regulars who went to watch the movies were really upset that they couldn’t do their normal thing,” he says. “My parents grew up in Missouri and there’s a big Route 66 Drive-In there we used to go to. It was kind of fresh on my mind, so that’s kind of where I put two and two together and that’s what we came up with.”
Quentin says making the all-ages attraction a reality meant custom designing a screen and amending the menu to include popcorn and candy. To his surprise, the regulatory approval hurdles were far less than what he expected.
“Arkansas Beverage Control worked with us very well,” he says. “We put a very safe plan in place so people could still consume their beverage in their vehicle in the parking lot.
That was a huge rule that ABC worked with us on, because they understood that nobody could be inside, but they still needed tax revenue and I still needed to keep my employees employed. So, they were very gracious to allow us to do that. We can’t thank them enough.
“Actually, every Arkansas government entity, the Health Department, everybody, was very understanding. We discussed a lot on what we could do to make it safe for the community. Honestly, I’m proud to be here in Arkansas with everything they’ve done to allow us businesses to stay open.”
Meanwhile, back in Marshall, the Kenda is aglow with its weekly 1980s-vintage double-feature. Hollywood isn’t making much new product right now, but the patrons don’t seem to care. In fact, Back to the Future feels particularly apt right about now.
“It’s kind of like an antique car. You buy a new car and it starts to go down in value and then eventually you reach a point where it’s so old that now it’s something that’s worth more,” Kenda says. “Now, we’re nostalgia and some people want to come for the nostalgia. But a lot of people prefer this method of watching a movie, too. Those are customers that I know by name or by face. Those are our regulars.
“This is my happy place. Fresh-mowed and everything’s ready to go right before Friday night. It makes me smile.”
Fort Smith Brewing Company
7500 Fort Chaffee Boulevard
Fort Smith, AR
479.242.3722
Kenda Drive-In Theatre
107 Westwood Drive
Marshall, AR
870.448.5400
kendadrivein.com
Arkansas Mobile Theater
ArkansasMobileTheater@gmail.com
facebook.com/ArkansasMobileTheater/
