JANIE GOULD

The drive- in theater was a postwar icon. Parents would pack up their baby boomer kids and everyone enjoyed an evening of inexpensive entertainment. Jack Chesnutt opened the Vero Drive-In in 1950.

“Admission then was 44 cents, and children under 12 got in free. Of that 44 cents the theatre only got 37 cents because there was still an excise tax from World War II: 20 percent.”

1. “What were the prices of the food?”
2. “Oh, it was terrible. Hot dogs were 15 cents and the drinks! I think the regular size was 10 cents and the large was 15. We did have lots of mosquitoes. I got DDT spray from Mosquito Control. We had 55- gallon drums on the back of a truck and it went through the exhausts. We sprayed for mosquitoes and it really made a difference.”
3. “You were telling me about a promotion you did around Easter.”
4. “This was probably the second year we were open, and I came up with the idea. I talked to Law’s Feed and Supply, and they agreed to give us 3,000 baby chicks to give away. Actually, we didn’t give them away. We gave certificates. Anyhow, we advertised 3,000 baby chicks to be given away on that Easter Sunday, and would you believe the cars were lined up from the drive-in theatre all the way into town! Some people even brought containers to put the chickens in, but we gave them certificates to go to Law’s and pick up 15 chicks. U.S. 1 was totally bogged up. They had the police there trying to direct traffic and everything. We filled up and still had cars that couldn’t get in!”
5. “Lots of chicken dinners over the next few months?”
6. “I guess so. It was a different lifestyle from what we have now.”
7. “You did this on Easter Sunday in conjunction with the movie that was playing?”
8. “I don’t remember the name of the movie that day. It was just a promotion. The chicks kind of go with Easter. New birth.”
9. “I guess a lot of people in town had chicken coops.”
10. “Well, actually, when I moved to Vero Beach in 1933, we lived in a house right across from where city hall is. We had our own chicken yard and we had chicken every Sunday. I was the one who had to kill the chicken and pick it. My mother took it after that.”
11. “So that type of thing was still going on, especially when practically everyone in town got 15 baby chicks!”
12. “You can’t even raise chickens in the city of Vero Beach now. It has changed.”
13. “You were showing me a picture of a teepee that you had outside the drive-in. Chief Crazy Hoss. That’s H-O-S-S. What was that all about?”
14. “Universal Films came out with a drive-in theatre week. They offered prizes for the best exploitation of their movies. The one that I chose to do was Chief Crazy Horse. Ted Morris had a Model-A Ford, and we built a teepee on it and drove it all around town. I submitted that and won as the best exploited picture in the United States that week. I was awarded all of $250.”

Q.“It helped drum up business?”

1. “Well, in the theatre business it’s called exploitation. I don’t think the theatres do that much any more, but we used to do it a lot. You’re always trying to come up with something different – gimmicks. I remember one time at the Florida Theatre we put a house on the back of a truck and drove around town advertising a movie. I can’t even remember the name of that one.”

Chesnutt also managed the indoor Florida Theatre. At the drive-in, teens sometimes slipped in without paying by hiding in the trunk of a car.

“Pretty soon after we opened, we had ramp boys. After the show had started, one of ‘em went and leaned up against a post watching the movie. The car he was next to had a couple of kids in the trunk and they couldn’t get out. They were in there about an hour. Maybe they learned a lesson.”

1. “I was going to get to that and ask if you ever checked trunks when people were coming in.”
2. “No, we did not. Some of the kids came in from behind. We knew that and we didn’t worry about it. They would buy stuff at the snack bar.”
3. “As long as they did that, it was OK?”
4. “That’s right.”

The screen tower at the drive-in was built in triangular design to withstand hurricane winds.

“And it did, but it didn’t withstand the wrecking ball later!”

The Vero Drive-In, which was near the present site of the Outback Steakhouse, was closed in 1980. The Florida Theatre on 14^th Avenue was closed a few years later.

This story was first heard as a radio interview on Janie Gould’s Floridays series on public radio station WQCS. More stories are available in her books, Floridays: Stories From Under the Sun. Contact her at Janiegould@aol.com for details.