Jimmy Carter was in the White House and the featured attraction outdoors was Flesh Gordon, an X-rated sci-fi spoof. It was the last drive-in movie I ever saw; admittedly, I was more interested in the person I drove in with than what was on screen. I recall tinny sound from a little speaker broadcasting the bawdy scenario into the tinny Chevy Vega and a discombobulating sense of watching the spectacle from a football field’s distance.
Salacious midnight movies represent one angle on the nostalgically-remembered pass-time of moviegoing from inside an automobile. Other folks recall drive-ins as a family outing: mom and dad and the kids packed into the Galaxie 500 with jumbo popcorn and soda pop all around.\
Little by little, the outdoor theaters disappeared, ploughed under more lucrative commercial developments, including bigger, fancier multiplexes. But with the coming of COVID-19 and the possibility of an ongoing pandemic, the old idea has gained new interest. Maybe it’s a way for quarantined individuals, couples, entire families to enjoy going to the movies while observing social distancing.
On Friday, May 22, the Milky Way Drive-in will open in the Ballpark Commons on West Rawson Avenue near West Loomis Road. The Commons opened last year for an entirely different purpose—as the stadium for the Milwaukee Milkmen baseball team. With baseball cancelled by COVID, the ballpark’s developer, ROC Ventures, decided to turn the field into a drive-in. "We think it's coming at a time people are looking to do stuff, and it can be done in a super-safe way," says Mike Zimmerman, CEO of ROC Ventures.
Drive-in technology has changed since the days of Flesh Gordon. The Milky Way is built around a new, 40-foot LED screen and will broadcast movie audio to cars through a radio frequency. There will be room for 150 vehicles parked in the surface lot off the Ballpark Commons stadium's center-left field.
ROC is hoping to attract food trucks and Ballpark Commons will offer “car hop” food sales from its concessions businesses. People can also come into the stadium itself to order food. Zimmerman estimates attendance would cost about $30 for a family of four.
"Given our current shared challenge in combating Covid-19 via social distancing, the drive-in concept is a great way to gradually and safely 'return to community,'” he says.
The Milky Way will play two movies a day, with family-friendly movies in the early slot. They will be “more classic films, not first-run movies,” Zimmerman says.
"We’d just secured a significant amount of additional gear for the Democratic National Convention, scheduled to be held in Milwaukee this year," says Mike Atkins, general manager of Studio Gear, the local firm installing the LED screen. "When large events began cancelling due to COVID-19, we found ourselves sidelined."
The drive-in is expected to show movies through Labor Day, providing employment for 25 to 35 people.
For more information, visit milwaukeemilkmen.com.
