Bruss can tell you about the first one, the most recent one, and about the time Charlton Heston came to Madison to promote "The Private War of Major Benson" at the Badger Outdoor on the East Side. It was Aug. 26, 1955, and the ad that day in the Wisconsin State Journal said: "On stage! In person! Today only!" Heston appeared at the Badger at 8 p.m. and if you happen to have a photo of his appearance, Bruss would very much like to talk to you.

What Bruss already has, something he is extremely proud of, is an envelope. It's postmarked July 17, 1933, and the return address is the Camden Drive-In Theatre in New Jersey. It's significant because the theater had been opened just weeks earlier, on June 6, when a man named Richard Hollingshead hung a sheet in his back yard and charged people a quarter to park in his driveway and watch a movie outdoors.

The legend is that Hollingshead's mother was upset about not being able to fit comfortably into the narrow seats of traditional movie theaters, and told her son to do something about it.

"What Hollingshead did," the Philadelphia Inquirer noted in 1999, "was walk to his back yard and invent the drive-in movie theater."

Check that above date again -- June 6, 1933 -- and queue the drum roll: Today is the 75th anniversary of the opening of the nation's first drive-in movie theater.

Along with his prized envelope from Camden, Bruss, who is 37 and lives in Milwaukee, has a Web site that is devoted to the past, present and future of drive-in movie theaters in Wisconsin. The site -- www.drive-inthruwisconsin.com -- takes note of Friday's 75th anniversary of the drive-in and urges everyone to "make it a carload night" Friday night at your neighborhood drive-in.

Of course, not many neighborhoods today have drive-in theaters. Madison does have three inside of an hour's drive: the Big Sky in Wisconsin Dells; Highway 18 Outdoor Theatre near Jefferson; and the Sky-Vu near Monroe.

There used to be two drive-ins in Madison. The Badger, which opened Sept. 4, 1948, was the third drive-in theater in Wisconsin. The first was the Blue Mound Outdoor in Brookfield (June 1940) and the second was the 41 Twin Outdoor in Franklin (July 1, 1948).

It was a big deal in Madison when the Badger opened. The Capital Times ran a front-page photo and story that reported the "figures on the screen are sometimes 20 feet high" and that 600 cars could fit on the 25-acre site, located on Highway 51 across from Truax Field. The first movie to play the Badger was the musical comedy "Down to Earth," starring Rita Hayworth.

The Big Sky Drive-In, which as a West Sider is the one I remember most fondly, opened May 27, 1954, near what is now Mineral Point Road and the Beltline. The first movie was "I Love Melvin," which had to be better than it sounded.

Of course, many of us went to the drive-in with no expectation of witnessing Great Cinema. It was a boredom-beater on a hot summer night, a romantic adventure, a lark. I can remember being chased from behind the Big Sky one night when I was either too young or too broke to pay to get into the theater, which was showing something R-rated like "Killer Biker Chick Zombies From Mars."

It was a sad day when the Big Sky closed in 1984. My friend Rob Zaleski waxed nostalgic recalling his first visit to the theater on arriving in Madison in 1977: "I remember my daughter dozing off around 10 p.m. and spilling her can of Mountain Dew in my wife's lap. And I remember having to close the windows because the mosquitoes were gnawing through my polyester slacks."

You have to admit you can't get that at Sundance.

The Badger went down five years after the Big Sky, but both Madison drive-ins live again on Charles Bruss' Web site.

When we spoke this week, Bruss said what he really hopes to do is a book chronicling the history of drive-ins in Wisconsin. It will include not just those that have vanished (Bruss wrote the text for the historical marker at the old 41 Twin site, now occupied by an insurance company), but those that live on, like the Highway 18 Outdoor Theatre near Jefferson.

Current owner Lee Burgess re-opened the theater, which had closed in the mid-1990s, on Memorial Day weekend in 2000. He spruced it up with an eye toward history (the first six rows can use the old-style speakers that attach to your car) and told me business has been good, if not spectacular.

Few get rich in the drive-in movie business -- certainly not Richard Hollingshead, who started it all 75 years ago today. He closed after two years, citing high film-rental rates.

Many who carry on, like Burgess, do so because they are passionate about movies. Burgess said that on Labor Day weekend he 'll have a dusk-to-dawn marathon, playing films from sunset to sunrise.

"Everyone who stays gets breakfast," he said.

Contact Doug Moe at 608-252-6446 or dmoe@madison.com.