{"id":2647,"date":"2012-05-01T13:21:03","date_gmt":"2012-05-01T19:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=2647"},"modified":"2012-05-01T13:21:03","modified_gmt":"2012-05-01T19:21:03","slug":"the-last-drive-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=2647","title":{"rendered":"The Last Drive In"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The 1930’s will always be remembered as the decade of The Great Depression. But it wasn’t all doom and gloom in the 30’s. For instance, a New Jersey man opened the very first drive-in movie theatre in 1933. The outdoor movie craze caught on like wild-fire all across the country.<\/p>\n

The drive-in movie theatre’s peak of popularity came in the late 50’s and early 60’s – with some 4,000 drive-ins spreading across the United States.<\/p>\n

Here in Nebraska, there were once more than 50 drive-in theatres.
\nToday sadly, there are just two. One is in Alliance and, as I found out on a recent trip to Antelope County, the other is in Neligh.<\/p>\n

I know from experience, nothing says says summer is on it’s way, like opening night at the drive-in movie theatre.<\/p>\n

A year ago, the Starlite Drive-in was on the verge of extinction. Stacy Klabenes didn’t want it to go away, so he bought it. His reasoning was nostalgically simple, “Cause I have a lot of fond memories here. Just packin’ a bunch of friends in the pickup and comin’ here, watchin movies, bringin’ girls here.<\/p>\n

Neligh’s Emily Anderson makes the most of this annual tradition, “We’ve all been coming here since we were really little, cause it’s always been here I guess, it’s just something we always look forward to in the summer.”<\/p>\n

In Lancaster County, I received some good news this week from the City of Hickman, where they say their long-term plans include the building of a new drive-in movie theatre as part of their master parks plan.