In the early 1930's, Richard Hollingshead nailed a bed sheet between two trees, put a 1928 movie projector on the hood of his car, and placed a radio behind the screen for sound. Several experiments later, the first drive-in movie debuted in Camden, New Jersey on June 6, 1933. The first movie was "Wife Beware." It wasn't until after the Second World War that drive-ins really spread across the country. By 1950, the patronage of drive-ins exceeded indoor theatres, and peaked in 1958 at 5,000 theatres. Even with a slight resurgence, less than 500 are still in operation today.
Drive-in movies provided a cheap night out for families. Not only did you not have to pay a baby sitter, you could also take the kids in their pajamas so they were ready for bed when you got home. I was quite young when I had my first encounter with a drive-in theatre. My entire family, including my aunt, had gone to the drive-in, but at the conclusion of the movie we discovered that our car would not start. My guess is we left our parking lights on and had a dead battery. I got very upset and cried because I was afraid we would have to stay there all night. I remember my daddy and others pushing the car hoping to get it started. That must have worked because I don't remember them pushing it all the way home.
As traumatic as that first experience was, my best memory of a drive-in movie is that my husband proposed to me at the drive-in theatre in Humboldt, TN. His exact words were, "Do you think we ought to get married?" Now, wasn't that romantic? I was so shocked that I couldn't speak for a few minutes, and by the time I realized what just happened I said a resounding, "Yes!" By that time, he had time to think about what he just said and proceeded to inform me that we shouldn't rush into anything. Well, it was too late for that. Three months later we were married, and have remained married for over 43 years. So you see, I think the drive-in movie was a pretty special place.
Drive-in movies provided a cheap night out for families. Not only did you not have to pay a baby sitter, you could also take the kids in their pajamas so they were ready for bed when you got home. I was quite young when I had my first encounter with a drive-in theatre. My entire family, including my aunt, had gone to the drive-in, but at the conclusion of the movie we discovered that our car would not start. My guess is we left our parking lights on and had a dead battery. I got very upset and cried because I was afraid we would have to stay there all night. I remember my daddy and others pushing the car hoping to get it started. That must have worked because I don't remember them pushing it all the way home.
As traumatic as that first experience was, my best memory of a drive-in movie is that my husband proposed to me at the drive-in theatre in Humboldt, TN. His exact words were, "Do you think we ought to get married?" Now, wasn't that romantic? I was so shocked that I couldn't speak for a few minutes, and by the time I realized what just happened I said a resounding, "Yes!" By that time, he had time to think about what he just said and proceeded to inform me that we shouldn't rush into anything. Well, it was too late for that. Three months later we were married, and have remained married for over 43 years. So you see, I think the drive-in movie was a pretty special place.
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