Muckenthaler Cultural Center and Frida Cinema bring a pandemic-friendly drive-in cinema to O.C.

When the Muckenthaler Cultural Center and the Frida Cinema put tickets on sale online for their first drive-in movie event, featuring the 1987 classic “The Princess Bride,” it sold out in a minute and 17 seconds.

“We thought, ‘Wow, that’s 120 cars in a little over a minute,’” said Farrell Hirsch, the center’s CEO.

It was planned for Saturday evening, so they made another date for Sunday. It sold out in a minute and 38 seconds.

Because it was Memorial Day weekend, they thought, should they do one on Monday too?

“That one didn’t do as well,” Hirsch joked. “It took three minutes to sell out.”

It was Logan Crow, founder and executive director of Frida Cinema, who picked “The Princess Bride,” which Hirsch thinks was the perfect choice. People who are in the middle of the pandemic are starving for silly comedy, innocent romance and nostalgia that appeals to multiple generations, he said.

“And you can never go wrong with Andre the Giant,” said Hirsch. “Just about every kid I know is fascinated with Andre the Giant.”

Hirsch doesn’t expect all their future drive-in events to do that well, but he learned there’s an appetite for entertainment that isn’t risky.

“People want to see the light at the end of this tunnel, and they want to feel like they’re living their lives,” said Hirsch. “But we went to great lengths to keep people safe. I personally was out on patrol and made sure everyone had their masks on.”

They even hired someone to sanitize the restroom every single time someone used it.

Hirsch and Crow had already been planning to collaborate on an outdoor movie series this year, so after the coronavirus happened, they decided to continue it. Instead of having it in the Muckenthaler’s 300-seat outdoor amphitheater, they created a pop-up drive-in movie theater in the grassy area next to their parking lot.

“This is our mission: to provide the public with the arts,” said Hirsch, of the mansion that was donated to the city of Fullerton in 1965 because Harold Muckenthaler wanted his childhood home to be used as a public cultural center. “And it doesn’t say that you stop doing it when it’s hard.”

Since March, artist-in-residence Marsha Judd has led a project where each week, locals can drive through the center and pick up a new, creative art kit for kids.

That was another idea Hirsch underestimated. He thought fewer than 20 families, sheltering in place, would make the effort to come. But Judd made 300 of the kits, and they were gone in an hour. Every week since, they have created 500 kits.

On June 7, they plan to open their art gallery, but in a way that’s by appointment only. People can sign up and have the gallery all to themselves for 15 minutes.

In addition to future drive-in movies, which will soon include food guests can preorder, they will continue with their annual concert series by making them drive-in concerts.

The first will kick off on June 25 with singer Sean Oliu.

For more information, go to themuck.org and thefridacinema.org.

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