Drive-in theater
A drive-in theater/theatre or drive-in cinema is a form of cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor movie screen, a projection booth, a concession stand, and a large parking area for automobiles. Within this enclosed area, customers can view movies from the privacy and comfort of their cars. Some drive-ins have small playgrounds for children and a few picnic tables or benches.
The screen can be as simple as a painted white wall, or it can be a steel truss structure with a complex finish. Originally, the movie's sound was provided by speakers on the screen and later by individual speakers hung from the window of each car, which was attached to a small pole by a wire. These speaker systems were superseded by the more practical method of microbroadcasting the soundtrack to car radios. This also has two advantages: 1. the film soundtrack to be heard in stereo on car stereo systems, which are typically of much higher quality and fidelity than the basic small mono speakers used in the old systems; and 2. it prevents the driver from forgetting the speaker is attached to their window, and driving off, which breaks the cord connecting the speaker to the sound system, the driver's side window, or both.
History
Early drive-ins (before WWII)
A partial drive-in theater—Theatre de Guadalupe—was opened in Las Cruces, New Mexico on April 23, 1915:Seven hundred people may be comfortably seated in the auditorium. Automobile entrances and places for 40 or more cars within the theater grounds and in-line position to see the pictures and witness all performances on the stage is a feature of the place that will please car owners.
The first movie shown by the Theatre de Guadalupe was Bags of Gold, produced by Siegmund Lubin. Theatre de Guadalupe was soon renamed De Lux Theater before closing in July 1916.
Image:First drive-in theater Camden NJ 1933.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|First drive-in theater, Pennsauken, New Jersey, 1933
In 1921, a drive-in was opened by Claude V. Caver in Comanche, Texas. Caver obtained a permit from the city to project films downtown. With cars parked bumper-to-bumper, patrons witnessed the screening of silent films from their vehicles. In the 1920s "outdoor movies" became a popular summer entertainment, but relatively few "drive-in" experiments were made due to logistical difficulties.
The drive-in theater was patented in Camden, New Jersey, by chemical company magnate Richard M. Hollingshead, Jr., whose family owned and operated the R.M. Hollingshead Corporation chemical plant in Camden. In 1932, Hollingshead conducted outdoor theater tests in his driveway at 212 Thomas Avenue in Riverton. After nailing a screen to trees in his backyard, he set a 1928 Kodak projector on the hood of his car and put a radio behind the screen, testing different sound levels with his car windows down and up. Blocks under vehicles in the driveway enabled him to determine the size and spacing of ramps so all automobiles could view the screen. Hollingshead applied for a patent of his invention on August 6, 1932, and he was given on May 16, 1933.
Hollingshead's drive-in opened in New Jersey on June 6, 1933, at 2901 Admiral Wilson Boulevard in Pennsauken Township, a short distance from Cooper River Park where the first commercial airport to serve Philadelphia was located – Central Airport. Rosemont Avenue now runs through where the theater was and is currently the site of Zinman Furs. It offered 400 slots and a screen. He advertised his drive-in theater with the slogan, "The whole family is welcome, regardless of how noisy the children are." The first film shown was the Adolphe Menjou film Wives Beware. Failing to make a profit, Hollingshead sold the theater after three years to a Union, New Jersey, theater owner who moved the infrastructure to that city, but the concept caught on nationwide.
The April 15, 1934, opening of Shankweiler's Auto Park in Orefield, Pennsylvania, was followed by Galveston's Drive-In Short Reel Theater, the Pico Drive-In Theater at Pico and Westwood boulevards in Los Angeles and the Weymouth Drive-In Theatre in Weymouth, Massachusetts. In 1937, three more opened in Ohio, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, with another 12 during 1938 and 1939 in California, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Texas and Virginia.
Early drive-in theaters had to deal with sound issues. The original Hollingshead drive-in had speakers installed on the tower itself, which caused a sound delay affecting patrons at the rear of the drive-in's field. In 1935, the Pico Drive-in Theater attempted to solve this problem by having a row of speakers in front of the cars. In 1941, RCA introduced in-car speakers with individual volume controls which solved the noise pollution issue and provided satisfactory sound to drive-in patrons. Just before World War II, 9 of the 15 drive-in movie theaters open in the United States were operated by Philip Smith, who promoted a family-friendly environment by allowing children to enter free and built playgrounds.
Peak (late 1940s–1960s)
After 1945, rising car ownership and suburban and rural population led to a boom in drive-in theaters, with hundreds being opened each year. More couples were reunited and having children, resulting in the Baby Boom, and more cars were being purchased following the end of wartime fuel rationing. By 1951, the number of drive-in movie theaters in the United States had increased from its 1947 total of 155 to 4,151.File:Baseline Drive-in Ad - 2 August 1957, Highland, CA.jpg|thumb|right|Drive-in advertisement from 1957 for a double feature of I Was a Teenage Werewolf and Invasion of the Saucer Men. Horror and sci-fi were popular on the drive-in circuit, and specifically aimed at teens.
The drive-in's peak popularity came in the late 1950s and early 1960s, particularly in rural areas, with over 4,000 drive-ins spread across the United States in 1958. They were a cheaper alternative to in-door cinema theaters because not only did they save the gas of driving out to the city and then back home, but the cost of building and maintaining a drive-in theater was cheaper than that of an indoor theater, resulting in the lower overall cost of attendance. Among its advantages was the fact that older adults with children could take care of their infant while watching a movie. At the same time, youth found drive-ins ideal for a first date. Unlike indoor cinema theaters, there was an air of informality that was appealing to people of all ages, but specifically to families. The drive-in's success was rooted in its reputation of being a family-friendly place. Parents were able to bring their children to the theater, often in pajamas, without worrying about bothering other movie-goers and were also able to spend time together without paying the expenses of babysitters. Drive-ins catered to their known audience, offering luxuries such as bottle warmers and diaper vending machines, and later miniature golf courses, swimming pools, and even motels on the land with windows facing the screens so that viewers could watch the films from their beds. During the 1950s, the greater privacy afforded to patrons gave drive-ins a reputation as immoral, and they were labeled "passion pits" in the media. The 1978 movie Grease portrays the local drive-in as a preferred spot for trysts. This indicates that the drive-in theater experience was a part of North American pop culture during this time, coupled with people's love for cars and movies. It was also popular among young people to meet up and have sex, smoke marijuana and drink alcohol. It was appealing to young people as it allowed them to express freedom and liberty they would otherwise lack at home.
At their height, some drive-ins used attention-grabbing gimmicks to boost attendance. They ranged from drawings for prizes and free admission, small airplane runways, helicopter or hot air balloon rides, unusual attractions such as a small petting zoo or cage of monkeys, personal appearances by actors to open their movies, or musical groups to play before the show. Some drive-ins held Sunday religious services or charged a flat price per car on slow nights like Wednesdays or Sundays. On "buck" or "bargain" nights during the 1950s and 1960s, the admission price was one dollar per car; during the 1970s and '80s, bargain night admission was generally five dollars.
As revenue was more limited than regular theaters since showings could only begin at twilight, there were abortive attempts to create suitable conditions for daylight viewing, such as large tent structures, but nothing viable was developed.
One of the largest drive-in theaters was the Johnny All-Weather Drive-In in Copiague, New York. Covering over 29 acres, it could park 2,500 vehicles. It had a full-service restaurant with seating on the roof and a trolley system to take children and adults to a playground and a large indoor theater for bad weather or for those who wanted to watch in air-conditioned comfort. The largest in the world was Loew's Open Air in Lynn, Massachusetts which could hold 5,000 cars.
Decline (1970s–1990s)
Several factors contributed to the decline of the drive-in movie industry. Beginning in the late 1960s, drive-in attendance began to decline as the result of improvements and changes to home entertainment, from color television and cable TV to VCRs and video rental in the early 1980s. Additionally, the 1970s energy crisis led to the widespread adoption of daylight saving time and lower use of automobiles, making it increasingly difficult for drive-ins to remain profitable.Mainly following the advent of cable television and video cassette recorder, then with the arrival of DVD and streaming systems, families were able to enjoy movies in the comfort of their homes. The new entertainment technology increased the options and the movie watching experience.
While exploitation films had been a drive-in staple since the 1950s, helped by relatively limited oversight compared to downtown theaters, by the 1970s, several venues switched from showing family-friendly fare to R-rated and X-rated films as a way to offset declining patronage and revenue, while other venues that still catered to families, began to show R-rated or pornographic movies in late-night time slots to bring in extra income. This allowed censored materials to be viewed by a wider audience, including those for whom viewing was still illegal in some states, and it was also reliant upon varying local ordinances controlling such material. It also required a relatively remote location away from the heavier populated areas of towns and cities.
By the late 1970s, many drive-in theaters were showing mainly B movies, older second-run films and low-rated films from the movie industry. While movie rental fees were increasing, the film industry was also expecting drive-in theaters to maintain prolonged time to run the shows. A combination of these factors was creating difficulties for the drive-ins to compete with the growing indoor cinemas.
The runaway inflation and real estate interest rate hikes in the late 1970s and early 1980s made the large tracts of land used by drive-ins increasingly expensive and thus far too valuable for continued use as drive-ins. Many drive-ins operated solely on weekends, while some were open only during the spring and summer months; drive-ins were also frequently subject to poor attendance or cancellations due to adverse weather. By the late 1980s, the total number of drive-ins still operating in the United States and Canada fell to less than two hundred.
In addition to the large amount of land drive-in theaters occupy, older drive-ins were now showing their age and many required improvements or replacement of their infrastructure; many owners were not willing to make further investment in repairs and improvements and growing land prices were also making it difficult to invest in and maintain the expense of operating a drive-in theater business. As many of the drive-in theaters were set up in the outskirts, the expansion of towns was making the maintenance of large property more difficult and costly.
Many former drive-in movie sites remain, with several re-purposed as storage or flea market sites, often after residential housing or other higher-value uses came to rural or sparsely populated areas where the drive-ins were located. In Michigan, former drive-in properties have become industrial parks, shopping centers, indoor theaters, and even churches. In Philadelphia, the South City Drive-In became the location of the original Spectrum in the late 1960s, with a small portion of its old property line extending into what would become the Veterans Stadium complex.. Another example of a drive in-turned-flea market is Spotlight 88 in North Sewickley Township, Pennsylvania, which ended business as a drive-in after an F3 tornado destroyed much of the property on May 31, 1985. As a joke, after the tornado hit, the owners put up the "now-showing" sign Gone with the Wind. It was most likely copied from a Taylor, Michigan Drive in called Ecorse Drive-In. On July 16, 1980, a freak derecho storm with 150 mph straight-line winds swept the Drive-In away leaving only the "now-showing" sign with the letters "Now Playing Gone with the Wind". The screen was rebuilt, but the business never recovered; by 1989, it was sold and now is the site of a Kroger grocery store.