Rca Camden
 Ezio Pinza: sings Italian Songs RCA Camden 1021 UK pressing US $10.00 
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 Lot of 3 Christmas Albums by Elvis Presley US $30.00
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 Lot of 4 Elvis Presley Albums US $40.00
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 Perry Como - The Sweetest Sounds (J21) US $1.55
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The other night, the family and I went to the movies. We were all situated in our seats, our popcorn and soft drinks at hand, our cell phones on silent and the perfect front row seat for a first run movie. As we were anticipating the initial blare of advertisements on the screen, my husband pointed out the most beautiful array of stars across a crayola midnight blue sky, complete with a wash of milky spray across the center. Wait, how did he do that? What kind of theater is this anyway? It's a drive-in theater. A dying, wait, not quite yet, ebbing and flowing form of family entertainment that hangs on for dear life in our hectic, new millennium lifestyle.
If you grew up in an earlier era, your family spent a lot of time at the drive-in. If you were a teenager, say in the 50s through 70s, this was your excuse to spend some quality time with your significant other discussing current events and viewing the latest horror flick. Need a quick history lesson? Okay, lets' back up.
Enter Richard Hollingsworth, thirty-something, bored, auto parts store clerk from New Jersey. Richard understood the conundrum of a family at odds on a Friday night. The parents just wanted to settle in and relax after a hard work week. The kids were itching to get out, maybe see a movie. So, as a test, Richard set up a screen in his driveway with cars parked at different angles so they could see the screen. It was a concept which would launch a form of entertainment which still hangs on today. Mr. Hollingsworth won a patent for his innovative idea in May of 1933 and in June of that same year, he and an investor group built the first drive-in theater for $30,000 in Camden, New Jersey. "Drive In Theater" cost 25 cents per car, 25 cents per person and no more than $1 total.
But just as with that first driveway experiment, sound was a challenge. RCA Victor stepped in for the group and devised a three-speaker sound system mounted next to the screen. Viewers all heard the sound at the same level which was okay if you were sitting up front. If you were in the back row, however, the picture arrived before the sound did throwing off the track.
Soon drive-ins began cropping up all over the country in places such as Orefield, Pennsylvania, Akron, Ohio, Lynn, Massachusetts, Portland, Maine and Miami, Florida. The industry peaked in 1952 when the drive-in attendance surpassed that of the traditional movie theater. From Hollingsworth's Camden location, the industry grew to 95 drive-ins in 27 states in 1942 to more than 3,700 drive-ins across the U.S. in 1955. In 1958, over 4,000 outdoor theaters were in existence taking in $230.42. Hollingsworth tried to defend his patent from all the incoming competition but lost it in 1949 after the Supreme Court declared it invalid.
Not to be outdone, Edward Brown, Jr. opened the first fly-in drive-in theater in 1948 in Asbury Park, NJ. There was "parking" for 25 airplanes in back of 500 cars and the pilots and planes were taxied back and forth from their landing sites to the back row of the theater. Brown's Drive-In and Fly-In was followed by The Roxy Fly-In and Drive-In in St. Ansgar, Iowa, another couple of unnamed fly-in theaters in Belmar, NJ and Spearman, TX and The Air-Sho Fly-In in Mobile.
Today drive-in theaters face highly competitive situations, whether from the high cost of real estate to the extinction of celluloid in favor of digital projection. The 407 remaining outdoor venues still fight to stay viable in the competition for the public's movie going dollar. The next time you consider a movie, consider this: a beautiful warm evening, children playing Frisbee with the family from the next car over, Fido laying at your feet, the smell of popcorn lingering in the air, the sound set, the ability to interact with one another as you enjoy the show and a 2,600 square-foot movie screen. Now that's a family night out.
My name is Jacquie Galvin from Tampa, FL. I am currently a medical device marketer but have a bachelor's degree in journalism from The Ohio State University. I have worked in and out of marketing and editorial services for 20 years and have had articles and short pieces published. I have also been a newsletter editor for the City of Columbus and former editor of the home services division of CompuServe Inc. I have written articles for various small publications for over 20 years.
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