After watching a bunch of trailer compilations, I decided to spice things up a bit and check out this great compilation from Something Weird featuring nearly two hours of drive-in intermission ads, announcements, and interstitials. If you’ve ever been to a drive-in, you’ll know that these old-timey concession stand commercials that played in between the double feature are just about as much fun as watching the trailers.
Some of my favorite moments are the “Ten Minutes to Showtime” ads that count down the time until the next featured attraction. The animation segments are often amusing, and the narration is oddly soothing. In between the short animations are commercials hawking the concession stand’s wares, including hot dogs, hamburgers, barbeque sandwiches, cigarettes (!), candy, and (what else?) popcorn! Other commercials include the memorable ad of an animated alien going to the concession counter and a funny ad for the mosquito repellant Pic. I also enjoyed the ads condemning the switch over to daylight savings time (which is a real drag for drive-in owners) and the explanation of the early (and outdated) ratings system.
As much fun as most of this is, I have to say that it is possible to get too much of a good thing. Eventually, the endless shots of hot dogs and hamburgers gets a little repetitive after a while. While I love drive-in ads as much as the next guy, I must admit that something like this works best in small doses. Because of that, I recommend watching it in ten-or-twenty-minute chunks before a movie to recreate the drive-in experience. That caveat aside, Hey Folks, It’s Intermission Time is a real treat for drive-in enthusiasts. Although the running time can be a little unwieldy, I’m certainly glad there are so many wonderful oddball commercials and concession stand ads collected into one place.
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