Feeling Nostalgic? Why Not Head Out to the Drive-In?
Drive-in movie theaters have been a part of American culture for decades. According to driveintheater.com, the very first drive-in opened on June 6, 1933 in Camden, NJ. Other theaters quickly followed, and by the time the car culture of the 1950s hit the scene, the drive-in was nearly ubiquitous.
During the 1950s, the drive-in became not just a place to see a movie, but an entire evening experience. Many theaters opened as much as three hours before the film was scheduled to start. This gave parents the opportunity to take their kids to the mini-amusement parks that were beginning to spring up at drive-ins everywhere. Many theaters offered boxed dinners, some of which could be ordered from a car hop and enjoyed in the comfort of the car. Theaters often hosted double features, and elaborate intermission films were created, many of which amounted to giant advertisements for the concession stand. From families to dating teenagers, the drive-in was a great place to spend the evening.
Drive-ins began to slowly die out over the decades that followed. By the end of the 1980s, only a small fraction of America’s drive-ins remained. It appeared that the drive-in had officially become an anachronism.
American tastes tend to run in cycles, however. By the 1990s, drive-in nostalgia had set in. Slowly, gradually, the few drive-ins that had remained began to see an increase in business. By the end of decade, drive-ins that had set empty for decades began to reopen, while those that held out actually added additional screens.
Today, drive-ins have not yet regained anything close to the popularity that they enjoyed in the 1950s. However, they are experiencing a definite renaissance. The majority of audiences appear to be families with children, a far cry from the rough and seedy places drive-ins became in the 1960s and 1970s. So the next time you are in the mood for a family night out, why not pack the family in your Certified Mercedes and catch a double feature at the local drive-in?
Filed Under: Certified Mercedes-Benz
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