See Movies from Your Car! (If You Can Beat the Traffic)

Sidney Lust's Drive In Theatre, U.S. Route 1, Beltsville, Maryland (NAID: 169136694) It’s summertime and that means that it is drive-in movie season! In their heyday, there were thousands of drive-in theaters across the United States. Some of these drive-ins could accommodate over a thousand vehicles at a time, so you can imagine the kind … Continue reading See Movies from Your Car! (If You Can Beat the Traffic)

How the U.S. Army Served its Movie-Mad GIs during World War II

This post was written by guest blogger Tanya Goldman. Goldman is a PhD Candidate in Cinema Studies at New York University. The ease with which most of us stream movies and television makes it hard to envision the labor of media distribution. Before home video and streaming, transporting films as physical objects demanded careful logistical … Continue reading How the U.S. Army Served its Movie-Mad GIs during World War II

The Measure of a Screen: Motion Picture Aspect Ratios in the Archives

Take a look at the two movie screens in the photos below. Notice anything different? The screen in the color image, photographed in 1998, is much wider than that in the 1946 black-and-white image. Each screen has a different aspect ratio. Merriam-Webster defines motion picture aspect ratio as “the ratio of the width of a … Continue reading The Measure of a Screen: Motion Picture Aspect Ratios in the Archives

This Week in Universal News: A Drive-In Movie for Horses, 1954.

For the release of a new short film about Austria's Lipizzan horses, Universal-International, the maker of Universal News, staged a special publicity event at a drive-in movie theater. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IvnUi61dQA From the release sheet: "HORSE NIGHT" AT THE DRIVE-IN, CALIFORNIA - "Horse night" at the drive-in. An enterprising theatre manager sets up oats and rye on … Continue reading This Week in Universal News: A Drive-In Movie for Horses, 1954.