DRIVE-IN SPEAKERS

I worked there in the late 1970’s. By that time, the heat and AC were long gone. I was told that it’s use was discontinued in the early 1960’s. To prevent speaker theft, all speaker poles were retrofitted with ¼ inch mono phone jacks and each speaker had a ¼ inch plug on the end of it’s cord. When you bought a ticket, you were handed a speaker to plug in at whatever spot you parked in. The only exit open at the end of the show had employees stationed at it to retrive the speakers as cars left. If the driver said that at it was still on the pole, someone from the car would have to walk back to get it. We did still have some of the custom made speakers in use for sell out nights when we would run out of the newer ones. Eldon Pollock, the theater owner designed the combo heat/AC/Sound speakers himself and had them custom made locally.