The outdoor theater used to be a staple of the American landscape.
Richard Hollingshead opened the first patented outdoor theater on June 6, 1933, in Pennsauken, New Jersey, with “Wives Beware,” a British comedy. From that humble beginning, outdoor theaters blossomed until more than 4,300 operated across the 48 states in their heyday during the 1950s.
Various elements contributed to the success of outdoor theaters. The prime one is that the outdoor theater combined a series of mythical American elements together — the film, the car, and the outdoors.
Movies had been a part of Americana for more than 30 years by the time drive-in theaters peaked. With the screwball comedies and adventure pictures of the 1930s, Americans could forget the crushing reality of the Great Depression. The war movies and noirs of the 1940s inspired audiences and reminded them of the darkness in all of us. The science fiction and Biblical epics of the 1950s unleashed new fears and old hopes. Through these decades, Americans used films to process a world that was changing faster than it previously had.
Inside these recreated, sacred, Greek-style spaces, Americans encountered archetypes and gods who reminded them of fate, destiny, justice, and tradition in an endless loop. Unlike the stage, films were eternal. The archetype captured in film was there — in that form, in that place — forever.
While drive-in theaters are not completely extinct, they are rare, with only about 400 still operating, which means most Americans cannot reach them at
