HOPE, Ark. — With COVID-19 still cutting into indoor movie theater attendance, innovative college officials at the University of Arkansas Hope-Texarkana cleverly took a page out of American film history Saturday evening.
Campus leaders headquartered in the university's Hempstead Hall activities area went retro and took a gamble by throwing their dice at least 86 years back to the genesis of outdoor drive-in entertainment.
The gamble seemed to work as at least 50 automobiles pulled eagerly in front of a movie screen attached to the university's Science and Technology Center's outside northern wall. There, the idle motorists took in a showing of 1985's "Back to the Future" starring Michael J. Fox.
Since the film is now 35 years old and much of the plot takes place in November 1955, the movie may have seemed more like "Back to the Past" for viewers, but that didn't stop moviegoers from filling most of the parking spaces and tuning into the movie on their car radios for a couple of hours.
For Amanda Lance, Hempstead Hall director, the first night's nostalgic experiment seemed to yield at least a partial mission accomplished.
"Because the evening weather is still pretty nice and cool, and because this movie is relatively short, we kind of felt like this might be just about the right time to try this," she said. "Because social distancing is still being called for, this actually allows people to get outside and still be safe by just staying inside their vehicles. The outside fresh air and breeze is also more safe from viral germs."
Lance added that with the movie itself being 35 years old, it seemed to complement the nostalgic drive-in atmosphere.
The idea for drive-in theaters originally took root after a homeowner somewhere in the U.S. started showing movies to his neighbors by projecting them on his garage door at night. Eventually the novelty grew into an industry and by 1958 as many as 10,000 outdoor theaters dotted the U.S. Eventually the growing popularity of indoor air conditioning drew movie fans back indoors and by 1983, the country had perhaps fewer than 200 outdoor theaters still operating.
Nevertheless, Lance said she plans to continue showing movies outdoors as far into summer as she can before it gets too warm.
"My parents went to drive-in movies and I actually got to see the outside of one while I was going go college in Fayetteville," she said. "Right now we are just still experimenting with this, but we'll see how it goes."
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