It was a drive-in movie with pizza and hot dogs, but no wheels. And, as one moviegoer said, there was no danger of "driving off with the speaker still in your window."
Three thousand people thronged Marina Green along the waterfront in Long Beach on Friday night to just enjoy being in Southern California on a balmy late summer evening. They came to socialize and to picnic and, oh, yes, to watch an American classic, "Casablanca," on a 20-by-30-foot outdoor screen.
It was the third--and to date the most popular--in the Long Beach Outdoor Film Series being presented on Friday nights through Sept. 13 by Partners of Parks, a community organization that funds programs ranging from literacy to gang prevention.
The crowd began arriving as soon as the gates opened at 6. They came bearing beach chairs and blankets, picnic baskets and wine buckets. They came in groups, they came as families and they came as couples, who cuddled under blankets as night fell.
Some simply plopped takeout pizza down on their beach towels; others set up little tables with white cloths, wineglasses and candles. Still others eschewed the picnic idea and queued up at the concessionaires' booths for egg rolls, barbecue and popcorn shrimp.
Dianne McNinch and Michael Blasdell of Long Beach couldn't decide whether they were in Casablanca or Hawaii. They hadn't exactly come for the waters, but they did bring a bubble machine--and a string of colorful lights in fish shapes. "We figured tropical," said Blasdell. "I love outdoor entertainment," said McNinch, and "since we live in the best city in the world, why not enjoy it?"
Rhonda Rivera of Lakewood brought her mother, Connie Meyer, visiting from Scottsdale, Ariz., where, Rivera observed, "they don't go outside" during the summer. Her daughters Roxanne, 11, and Erica, 10, were enjoying chips, dip and lollipops while waiting for their dad, Charlie, who was braving the headache of parking.
But small annoyances aside, a party spirit prevailed. In the front row, a multigenerational group was celebrating a birthday. Said Justine Friend, "My son used to take the TV outside and we'd barbecue and all the neighbors would come. When we heard about this, we thought it's better than TV." Would anyone care for grapes, or perhaps shrimp cocktail?
"It's one of the few things you can bring high school kids to and it's cool," said her friend Barbara Strong. In the spirit of things, daughter Brooke, 14, borrowed a pale mink stole to toss over her sweatpants and T-shirt.
