The Rise and Fall of Drive-In Theaters

The year 1933 brought the world’s first drive-in theater. Since that moment, it’s become one of those iconic American-style exports of entertainment. Today it’s a nostalgic experience, still done at several hundred spots around the country and perhaps others around the world but much less than at its peak. The story of the rise and fall of the drive-in theater is a fascinating one.

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The fall, in particular, is blamed on the rising price of oil and a lack of green space due to rapidly deve...