Tevanian knows from experience two of his family-owned-and-operated drive-ins in Maine have been demolished, one to make way for condominiums. With two screens, state of the art digital projectors, high resolution audio through your car stereo system, and 1,060 car spots, we cater to any movie lover looking for a unique Drive-In cinema experience. The offers just become too lucrative to back away from.” They show movies Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights.
If you were on the edge of the city or town in the fifties, you might just be sitting on prime development land now,” states John Tevanian, owner of the Bridgton Twin Drive-In Theater in Bridgton, Maine. Moonstruck Drive-In touts itself as the only permanent drive-in movie theater in Houston proper. “You’ve also got to realize most drive-ins sit on ten to fifteen acres of land. But in 1946 the sound available at movies was greatly improved by the invention of the speaker pole, which allowed movie magic sound to be piped directly into a vehicle via a speaker that hung on the car window.īy 1972, the invention of piping the sound through the car radio had arrived however, by this time, the number of drive-ins was already in decline.
The sound was slightly delayed and car windows had to be wide open. Originally, these theaters had giant speakers on either side of the screen. The first film shown was Wives Beware.Ĭelebrate Drive-in Movie Day on June 6th!īy 1945, the original patent obtained by Hollingshead was declared void, and drive-ins began to spring up on both coasts. There are many more that are permanently closed but still remain standing and could potentially be re-opened at some point in the future. Currently, there are about 330 Drive-in Movie Theaters still operating in the United States. The screen was 40 feet by 50 feet, and could accommodate 400 cars. Back in the 1950's at their peak, there were over 4000 drive-in theaters operating in the United States. On June 6, 1933, during the height of the Depression, Richard Hollingshead and his partner, Willis Warren Smith, Jr., decided to take a big risk and opened the first drive-in movie theater in Camden, New Jersey. The drive-in is credited with being the brainchild of a New Jersey man. ( Locate one near you.) They saw a rise in popularity in 2020 thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, but what does the future look like for drive-ins? The First Movie Ever Shown at a Drive-In Theater Shopping Cart Friday, August 19th Beast AND Jurassic World 3 (August 19th) Where The Crawdads Sing AND Bullet Train (August 19th) Saturday, August 20th. Harvest Moon Twin Drive-in Movie Theatre: Not impressed - See 54 traveler reviews, 92 candid photos, and great deals for Gibson City, IL, at Tripadvisor. Today, there are 305 working drive-in theaters across the country-a number that has been in a steady decline. Post-World War II young couples embraced the chance to get out without having to hire a babysitter. How many still exist? According to Joe Bob Briggs, a film critic, comedian, and drive-in movie expert, by 1956 there were 5,000 drive-ins across America. Take acres of available land, mix it with people’s desire for ample personal space, and add to it their love of the automobile, movies, and nearly anything on a grand scale, and what do you have? The elements that coalesced into a largely American phenomenon we know as the drive-in movie theater.