Cascade takes filmgoers back in time

"What we need is a drought for 90 days," Jeff Kohlberg says. "That would be really great for the drive-ins. One time several years ago, we hardly had rain for three months. It was wonderful."

Kohlberg's company owns the Cascade Drive-In in West Chicago, and it's been doing a smashup business even with all the rain so far this spring.

"We've been lucking out on weekends," he said. "We're doing well, even though we're totally dependent on the weather. And it's been crazy, unpredictable so far. But weather is the No. 1 thing about drive-ins. Rain and cold kill us. And we've had spring, summer and fall all mixing into each other recently."

Kohlberg, son of the legendary Chicago theater entrepreneur Stanton Kohlberg, also owns the Keno Drive-In in Pleasant Prairie, Wis.

He says one of the most expensive items to maintain in the business is the speaker that patrons place in their car windows.

"We're one of the few drive-ins to still have in-car speakers. Only one company still makes them, and they're very expensive," he said. "They're very prone to accidents and vandalism. But people like the nostalgia of speakers, and a good part of our success at the Cascade is re-creating the experience of being back in the 1950s and '60s. We haven't changed anything in the place since it was built in 1961.

"We want to keep it that way."