1952 Pacific Palisades, California

Greg Reuter

1948

Pacific Palisades, California

Interviewed on 2/2/22

By Ashley Dreyer

I remember seeing The Day the Earth Stood Still at the Bay Theater in Pacific Palisades. I was around 4 years old. It was a drive-in theater, so we went in my dad’s 1948 Woody Ford- it was black. The Director was Robert Wise and the actors were Michael Rennie, the main character, and there was also Patricia Neal. They were real heroes, I followed them later on in life.

The one detail that stood out clearly to me was the big robot that shot lasers out of its eyes. It was scary. My mother was a sci-fi freak so we went and I remember it being very scary. The movie stars did not influence me in any way- not as much as the robot did. I recommend you watch it- it really had a message that is relevant today: mankind messes things up.

I went with my mother Eugenia, my father Robert Reuter, and my sister Diane who is three years older than me. I remember there was a concession stand behind the car, we would walk back there and there were swings, we must have got popcorn. Whenever I got candy at the movies I would ask for Jujubes, a little multi-flavored hard candy.

The drive-in theater was really crowded, so we had to get there early to get a good place to park. Dad always made sure we had a nice spot to the left of the screen. There was a speaker at each parking spot that you would put on your window- it hooked on so it was really good quality sound, for the 1950s at least. The image was huge, and I remember there was color because the laser that came out of the robot was really bright orange.

I grew up to be a sculptor, the robot had some influence on me I think. Reminds me of the Haniwa Japanese structures- really solid, round legs. 

The parking lot itself was made up of crushed gravel or dirt, between each row was a mound. You would pull your car into the parking spot, but it pointed up so you could view the screen. Today, there are not many drive-in theaters left. They have waned, but have come back because of the pandemic- this might cause a resurgence of them.

In southern California, the weather was beautiful year-round. I went and saw a lot of different movies at the drive-in, and since it was in southern California weather was rarely an issue, the temperature at night hardly dipped below 60 degrees. That’s another thing I remember- the Bay Theater always had great sunsets. We would get there when it was still light, around 7 o’clock, and the screen would be backlit by the beautiful crimsons and oranges. There were always cartoons right before, and they were a little bleached out because of the sun setting. Looney tunes would play- Elmer Fudge the hunter chasing the rabbit, I liked the roadrunner the best. They would always play 1 to 2, or even 3 cartoons. You might get a bugs bunny, a roadrunner and woodpecker, or Yosemite Sam. I don’t remember there being any advertisements, those came later.

The screening itself started after it was dark out. All the cars would honk their horns in anger if someone showed up late and left their lights on because it would bleach out the screen.