Janson Media Titles Celebrate the Rise and Fall of the Drive-In Theater

This week marks the 76th anniversary of an legendary American icon. On June 6, 1933, the very first drive-in movie theater was opened by its inventor, Richard Hollingshead in Camden, New Jersey. The cost of admission? Only 25 cents. Over the next few decades, Americans would watch the popularity of drive-in's rise and as they became one of the most important elements in the history of youth culture. Fast forward to 2000 and now and notice that while the price of an indoor movie ticket has skyrocketed, the number of outdoor movie theaters has dwindled to nearly nonexistent. No other special takes you back to this experience and documents the rise and fall of the drive-in theater better than the Janson Media DVDs Drive-In Movie Memories, and After Sunset. Drive-In Movie Memories is a one-hour documentary celebration of America's greatest icon of youth, freedom and the automobile. What began as an auto parts owner's business venture to make some easy money accidentally became a magical place where romance, fun and a sense of community flourished. This film chronicles the drive-in's birth and development, its phenomenal popularity with audiences of all ages, its tragic decline, and its inevitable comeback as a classic form of Americana. Drive-In Movie Memories was produced by Don and Susan Sanders, and directed and edited by Kurt Kuenne, who also composed the musical score. The DVD includes such extra features as a twenty-minute reel of nostalgic concession stand advertisements. In After Sunset, filmmaker Jon Bokenkamp (screenwriter, Taking Lives) and his ragtag crew hit the road. Using drive-in theaters as their only map, these four young men travel the backroads of America in search of a simpler time. Talking to those who built and lived the drive-in, they paint an honest depiction of what the outdoor theater was all about. Enlivened by colorful commentary, After Sunset features notables such as horror film director John Carpenter (Halloween), film critic and satirist John Bloom (aka Joe Bob Briggs) and legendary movie mogul Samuel Z. Arkoff (producer of Beach Blanket Bingo).