Dive-In Movies

First the drive-in movie. Now the dive-in movie.

“It started out as something that we did for employee parties,” said Jim Lehnen, promotions manager at Raging Waters, the 44-acre water park in San Dimas, which rented its first movie screen in July of 1987. “Then we figured, ‘This could be a neat thing to do for the public,’ so we began showing them last summer on Fridays and Saturdays.”

Lehnen said that the dive-in movie program, which began its second season last week with “The Creature From the Black Lagoon” in 3-D, was designed to build the park’s weekend after-5 p.m. clientele. He added that about 500 people will watch each weekend screening, increasing evening attendance by more than 25%.

The water-oriented movies are shown on Fridays at 8:30 p.m. on a 20x20-foot screen at the end of the park’s “wave pool.” Patrons can watch while floating in the pool on inner tubes, sitting on the beach at the pool’s opposite end or reclining in chaise lounges along the pool’s side.

Although only a handful of the approximately 200 people who watched Thursday’s unadvertised sneak preview of “Creature” braved the nighttime cold to stick it out to the movie’s shivering end, most said they would return to watch another dive-in movie. They felt it gave them their money’s worth and saved them from having to pay hefty theater prices.

“I have a season’s pass (to Raging Waters) so I can get in for free and not have to pay,” said Andrew Huffine, 13. “Besides, they show some good movies.”

Several teen-agers said they liked the dive-in movies because it gave them a place to hang out and meet people.

“It’s fun, especially if you have a girlfriend,” said 15-year-old Orlando Washington. “It’s neat. The open area makes it like a drive-in movie.”

Toni Olivas, 15, from San Dimas, said she and her friends have Raging Waters season passes and plan to watch many of the weekly dive-in movies. “It gives us something to do,” she said. “Teen-agers really can’t get out and do stuff if they’re under 16. But we can come to see the movies--we can hang out and be bad.”

In addition to providing a summer evening hangout for teen-agers, dive-in movies provide a good time for adults as well, said Barbara Amiel, 35, from Diamond Bar, who watched Thursday’s preview with her children.

“Showing the movies is a great idea. I’d come back once a week at night just to see a movie and get out of the house,” Amiel said.

All of those interviewed agreed, however, that the movies could never replace the park’s mainstay of water rides.

“It’s good,” 10-year-old Natalie Bushey from Alta Loma said of the film, “but I like the rides better than the movie.”

Raging Waters will show a different movie every Friday night through Labor Day, Lehnen said. He added that the park plans to hold fireworks shows on Saturday evenings but, if the county fire marshal doesn’t approve the plans, the park will also offer a second screening of each movie on Saturdays.

Scheduled films are the original version of “Jaws” on Friday; “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” July 28; “Treasure Island,” Aug. 4; “Piranha,” Aug. 11; “Splash,” Aug. 18; “Pirates of Penzance,” Aug. 25; and “Yellow Submarine,” Sept. 1.

“We hope it’s a nice way for our guests to end their day here,” Lehnen said of the films.