. . .and you don't even remember the cartoons.
It’s October 1966 – You Live In L.A. – You’re Of A Certain Age, And You Do Certain Things – And You Can Because It’s A Drive-In
October 1966 – KGIL – Larry Van Nuys Show for Pacific Drive-In – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
October 1966 – Let’s face it; Drive-ins were great places and they were destinations for endless adventures, from jamming all your friends in the trunk and getting away with paying only for two – picking up that six-pack you bribed somebody older to buy for you. Grabbing whatever bottles were sitting your parents liquor cabinet, running off to the Drive-In to get sloshed. Bringing an unspecified number of joints with you, so you could fire up and be reasonably safe from getting busted – except the odd times the cops decided to cruise the rows of cars, pointing flashlights.
It was also a place where, if luck ran right, Date Night was consummated against a backdrop of Bugs Bunny, Paul Newman or The Diabolical Dr. Z – and while everyone was busy covering eyes or shrieking loudly, you were busy shrieking loudly too, but for different reasons. The Drive-In was many things to many people and it was a rite of passage for most. What completed the Drive-In experience was the cumbersome metal box you attached to your car window – that’s where the sound came out. And before the movie got started and at the intermission, you’d hear music; neutral enough to not be jarring to anybody – yet a kind of sonic wallpaper to the goings on inside your naugahyde paradise. And maybe Drive-ins no longer exist; the world of 2018 bears no resemblance to the world of 1966 – and those rites of passage have changed. The circumstances, methods and promises have all become different. But there’s always going to be the desire to go someplace and escape – do things you can’t do at home – try things you aren’t officially old enough to appreciate. That part hasn’t changed a bit.
But to remind you (if you were there) about the intermission music and the Disc Jockeys from local radio stations, piping in to promote a run to the snackbar – here is about an hour’s worth of KGIL from October of 1966, with disc-jockey Larry Van Nuys, a fixture at the station in the 1960s and a voice still very much with us in L.A. – at the time he was up to his eyeballs in suave – just the kind of voice you’d want to hear while you were in the midst of your adventures.
