There is a certain beauty of the ‘drive-in movie theater’..
Images taken from the 1950s and 60s, the 70s and even into the 80s, all showcase a darkening landscape behind a massive screen of the latest Hollywood hit (or dud at times).
Cars of families lining up underneath moonlit skies! First dates! Or seconds…. It could be a Norman Rockwell painting! Vintage Americana.. something special and magical that was swept away from the nation at large by changing societal economics.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a surge of popularity of Drive In theaters. Perhaps not a surge in the number of actual facilities, but at least renewed interest and stronger numbers of people attending with indoor theaters shuddered for months. Places like the Mahoning Drive-In and the Sky-Vu in Gratz have benefited.
CHANGES ACRES
There were a number of changes in American culture that created the death of drive-ins through the decades. People chose more economical cars during gas shortages–and less room for romantic back seat encounters would result..
VCRs of the 1980s brought entertainment into the home.. Malls brought movie theaters into air conditioned venues.
The 15+ acres of land needed for drive in theaters began to be sold by owners for housing developments and strip malls. The death of the drive in was on the way.. culture had shifted away from the open air entertainment spot filled with families, popcorn, make-out sessions, and memories.
All things move on..
All things change.
Those few remaining drive-ins are symbols of the past but also have created a surge of nostalgia in our modern world.
HOW IT BEGAN: THE FIRST DRIVE IN
While the vintage American drive in theater claimed popularity when everyone liked IKE, the actual beginning can be traced back to 1933..
It was thanks to Richard M. Hollingshead, Jr, who experimented with various versions of a drive-in theater with cars in his own driveway..
This is how the History Channel recalls events:
Park-In Theaters–the term “drive-in” came to be widely used only later–was the brainchild of Richard Hollingshead, a movie fan and a sales manager at his father’s company, Whiz Auto Products, in Camden. Reportedly inspired by his mother’s struggle to sit comfortably in traditional movie theater seats, Hollingshead came up with the idea of an open-air theater where patrons watched movies in the comfort of their own automobiles. He then experimented in the driveway of his own house with different projection and sound techniques, mounting a 1928 Kodak projector on the hood of his car, pinning a screen to some trees, and placing a radio behind the screen for sound. He also tested ways to guard against rain and other inclement weather, and devised the ideal spacing arrangement for a number of cars so that all would have a view of the screen.
As a result, eager motorists parked their automobiles on the grounds of Park-In Theaters, the first-ever drive-in movie theater, located on Crescent Boulevard in Camden New Jersey on June 6, 1933..
The first night, this open air theater, must have been magical, no?
The COURIER POST in Camden New Jersey reported that 600 people were there for the first night.. The theater was called the Automobile Movie Theater and was built for $60,000. Beer and food was available.. The entire family had a price of admission for $1…
Drive-ins ended up getting a bad reputation for teenage fights along with promiscuous and scandalous sexual encounters.. it was that reputation along with those other societal and economic changes that almost killed the drive-in on the American continent.
TODAY
Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania have the most drive-ins still in operation in the U.S…
Right here close to home we have a few still open.. But a lot more are closed for good.
So as summer 2021 begins, we felt it was time to take a stroll back through time.. capture the historic record of what was.. and is.. And present for you the Coal Region drive-ins that we know, and those we have not forgotten.
Welcome to the past. Sit back over the next several weeks of summer and enjoy the show.
