Once popular enough that there were around 4,000 drive-in's throughout the United States, there are only around 300 left.
So what's the story?
When did they start?
In 1932, when a man by the name of Richard Hollingshead, Jr. created one in his very own backyard for experimental purposes. Hollingshead created a large screen, secured it to trees with the use of nails, mounted a projector on his own vehicle, and then used a radio behind the screen, which he frequently adjusted in order to observe different sound levels with his car. He also experimented and came up with the idea of mounting cars at different levels so that every car could get a complete view of the screen. His work for his "drive-in" movie theater was patented in 1933.
Where to next?
Well, after conducting all of his experiments, Hollingshead opened an official drive-in theater to the public in Pennsauken, New Jersey. People were curious about this new cinematic experience, to begin with, but Hollingshead certainly drew in a crowd by appealing to families with his slogan, "The whole family is welcome, regardless of how noisy the children are!" If you look at Hollingshead's personal business records, his drive-in may not have seemed like that big of a hit, only staying open for about three years, but the idea took off and spread like wildfire throughout other states. It is really because of these 14 states' willingness to run with the idea that the fully functioning drive-in was developed. There were still kinks that had to be worked out with the positioning of the screen, and especially with sound issues, but all of the other drive-ins tampered with these things for the next few years, and eventually came up with solutions.
Drive-in theaters entered their glory days in the 1950s and 60s. They gained some negative connotations due to their extra privacy, making them the perfect date spots and hot spots for teenagers with nothing to do. Despite the bad publicity, however, these "passion pits" still remained popular even throughout the 1970s.
So what went wrong?
Realty. Land prices sky-rocketed, and many of the drive-in theater owners couldn't justify paying for the upkeep of these huge pieces of land that they only actually operated for about 3 to 4 months out of the year. It just became too expensive.
Also, less income was drawn from it as more inventions like color television, extended cable, and VCRs were made available to the public. Who wants to pay to watch a movie in their car when they could be watching movies or recorded tv from the comfort of their own living room?
The drive-ins put up a good fight, though. As the ones that remained open began to notice a decline in customers, they did their best to draw them in--to really make the trip/visit worth their while with special dining services, petting zoos, opening musical acts, etc. Indeed, one of the largest of these theaters ever built was in Long Island, NY, and it featured an actual restaurant, trolley rides, a playground, an extra indoor screen for those who preferred air conditioning, and parking for just shy of 3,000 cars.
What happened to them?
Slowly but surely the theaters went out of business, and as they did so, various different things happened. Especially with the bigger pieces of property, owners sliced of chunks of their land and sold them to seperate buyers, hoping to get more money. The drive-in locations themselves were usually sold to other businesses, some being torn down to make way for expanding business districts, churches, etc. There were quite a few that were not entirely shut down, but combined with other businesses--usually flea markets. And so the drive-in became a thing of the past...or so it seemed.
What about drive-ins today?
Today, there are not nearly as many drive-in theaters as there used to be, but there has been a growth in popularity once more. Efforts have been made, usually by independent business owners, to reconstruct more of the theaters and reopen them to the public. There are many towns that have established temporary drive-ins, often setting a time, date, and meeting place (such as abandoned parking lots or warehouses) beforehand, and using the location as a one-night fling.
Though not as popular as they ever were before, one thing is certain--drive-in theaters will always remain a unique part of cinematic history for America.
That's it for now, folks!
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