It’s been 80 years since a New Jersey auto-parts store manager named Richard Hollingshead Jr. hit upon the idea of a drive-in theater. The wonder of Hollingshead’s concept, of course — as with all of the world’s greatest, most inspired, most life-affirming inventions — is that, despite how obvious it seems in retrospect, no one had thought of it before. Or, if anyone did think of it before, they hadn’t bothered to get a patent on the idea, as Hollingshead did on May 16, 1933. And no one had the wherewithal to actually envision, build and then open to the public this modern marvel, as Hollingshead and three other investors did when they cut the ribbon on the world’s first drive-in movie theater in Camden, New Jersey, on June 6, 1933.
Here, a series of photos from LIFE magazine celebrating the ingenious confluence of two of America’s abiding obsessions: movies and cars. At the height of their popularity in the 1950s and ’60s, there were roughly 4,000 drive-in theaters across the U.S.; today, that number is closer to 400, with more closing every year.
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| Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon in a scene from Beach Blanket Bingo, shown at a drive-in movie theater in Florida, 1965 |
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| Drive-in theater, Chicago, 1951 |
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| Customers arriving by car at a ‘fly-in drive-in’ theater, New Jersey, 1949 |
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| Usher, drive-in theater, San Francisco, 1948 |
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| Drive-in theater, Chicago, 1951 |
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| Drive-in theater, Los Angeles, 1949 |
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| Drive-in theater, San Francisco, 1948 |
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| Drive-in theater, San Francisco, 1948 |
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| Drive-in theater, Chicago, 1951 |
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| Gilmore Island, Los Angeles, 1949 |
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| Gilmore Island, Los Angeles, 1949 |
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| Drive-in theater, Connecticut, 1955 |
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| As a publicity stunt Les Davis (on top of the screen) lives in a tent on top of a drive-in movie screen in 1955 Connecticut |
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| Rancho Drive-in Theater, San Francisco, 1948 |
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| A Joel McCrea movie at the Rancho Drive-in Theater, San Francisco, 1948 |
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| Drive-in theater, San Francisco, 1948 |
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| Drive-in theater, San Francisco, 1948 |
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| Drive-in theater, San Francisco, 1948 |
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| Kids enjoy one of the four double-seated glider swings in the mini-playground at the Rancho Drive-In Theater, San Francisco, 1948 |
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| Aerial view of a ‘fly-in drive-in theater,’ with plane in parking lot, 1949 |
