Table of Contents:Further Readings
Drive-In Boom
Though they first appeared after World War I and in significant numbers in the first years after World War II, drive-in theaters boomed in popularity during the 1950s. In 1948 there were only 820 drive-ins operating in the United States. In 1952 this number had ballooned to over 3,000. The prosperity of postwar America was the source of this increase, as workers and farmers, newly flush with cash and driving new automobiles, sought recreation. The drive-ins catered to a new audience of moviegoers who did not frequent the traditional movie theater. In 1950 the Saturday Evening Post described the appeal of drive-ins to people with special needs:
Leading the list are moderate-income families who bring the kids to save on babysitters. Furthermore they don't have to dress up, find a parking place, walk a few blocks to a ticket booth and then stand in line. The drive-ins make it easy for them and for workers and farmers, who can come in their working clothes straight from the evening's chores, and for the aged and the physically handicapped.
The Quality of Drive-In Movies
The quality of the drive-in movies seemed to matter little. Most drive-ins showed second- and third-run features, long since gone from traditional theaters. Some showed newer, low-budget, poor-quality fare. The fare did not seem to affect revenues, a large percentage of which (forty cents of every dollar) came from concessions. One drive-in operator was quoted as saying that "the worse the pictures are, the more stuff we sell."
Surprise Success
In the early 1950s the average drive-in had a capacity of five hundred to six hundred cars and could operate twenty-six weeks a year—longer in warm climates. Later in the decade one chain of drive-ins had an average capacity of nearly two thousand vehicles. In 1950 drive-ins sold upward of seven million tickets weekly. Because the drive-ins attracted a different audience than did traditional theaters, the success of these outdoor movie emporiums was entirely unexpected by the theater industry. In 1952 a traditional film exhibitor derided the drive-in entrepreneur's prospects as being no better than those of running a novelty shop:
It's like midget golf. Lotta poor fellas are going to lose their shirts on it. It's got so every farmer has a piece of land near a highway thinks all he needs is a bulldozer to grade it, and a bank to put up some money for a screen and a sound system and he's in business.
Peak of Popularity
The 1950s were the peak of popularity for the drive-ins, which in the 1960s and 1970s regained the unsavory reputation they held in the prewar years. But they remain a symbol of America's postwar prosperity and burgeoning car culture.
Gale Document Number: EJ2104240262