By Eric Kohanik, ReMIND Magazine
Drive-in movie theaters are among the most classic and iconic institutions in America’s pop-culture history. In fact, some would say that, at its peak, the drive-in theater was as American as apple pie.
Drive-ins reached their heyday during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when more than 4,000 were in operation across the United States. But the origins of the drive-in theater date back to decades before that.
Experimental efforts to stage outdoor film screenings are said to have first happened back in 1915, when a hybrid venue called the Theatre de Guadalupe in Las Cruces, N.M., combined regular theater seating with spots for vehicles as well. The venue lasted only a little more than a year.
Outdoor screenings of silent movies did become a popular summertime trend during the 1920s. But it wasn’t until the 1930s that the concept of a full-fledged drive-in theater became a real thing.
Richard M. Hollingshead Jr. has been credited as the official inventor of the drive-in theater. After experimenting with outdoor film screenings in his own driveway, Hollingshead fine-tuned his idea to the point where he applied for, and received, a patent for his invention. On June 6, 1933, Hollingshead opened the first official drive-in theater in the U.S. — Park-In Theaters in Camden, N.J.
Hollingshead reportedly never made a profit from that drive-in and ended up selling it off a couple of years later. But his concept did catch on. By 1940, almost two dozen drive-in theaters had opened across the country. It wasn’t until a decade later, though, that drive-ins really took off.
In 1949, Hollingshead’s patent ended up being overturned, which left the door open for anyone to open a drive-in without having to pay royalties. Before long, thousands of them clicked into gear.
The late 1950s and early 1960s became a golden age for drive-in theaters. Entire families could count on drive-ins for an enjoyable night out. Meanwhile, teenagers who had access to cars found drive-ins to be ideal spots for individual dates or group get-togethers.
Changing technology also improved the movie experience, especially when it came to sound. Large speakers that had been mounted next to the movie screens or on poles in front of the lines of cars ended up being replaced by individual speakers hooked onto car windows. Eventually, those were replaced by a system that used low-frequency radio waves to broadcast the soundtrack to car radios.
By the 1970s, the golden age of drive-ins began to decline. Part of that decline was blamed on the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which made daylight saving time a real damper that forced drive-ins to schedule screenings later. That didn’t go over very well on weeknights. And, not long after that, the rise of color television, video cassettes and more sophisticated home-theater equipment served up more challenges by simply allowing people to enjoy movies in the comfort of their own homes.
Although the popularity of drive-ins declined during the 1970s and 1980s, things began to rebound somewhat during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Since then, drive-ins have begun to encounter new waves of challenges with the rise of digital media and online streaming.
Nevertheless, there are still diehard drive-ins that continue to motor on. Around 330 drive-in theaters are still in business across the U.S. today. Amazingly, one of those theaters is the second official drive-in ever opened in the U.S. — Shankweiler’s Drive-In Theatre in Orefield, Pa., has been in continuous operation since it was opened April 15, 1934, and lives on today as the oldest operating drive-in theater in the world.
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