something I hadn't thought about when hearing about drive ins... the real estate under them is worth a fortune... the Santee Drive-In just sold for $22.75 million (approx. $1.69 million per acre)

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10229421043705594&set=pcb.10229421134187856

Shankweiler's Drive-In, established in 1934, is the oldest operating drive-in theater in the world. It was just bought, and the new owners found this when cleaning up sheds and closets, the original source for sound for the drive-in when it was first built in the 1930s - pre-dating even speaker poles

https://www.shankweilers.com

American drive-in restaurants, iconic for 1950s carhop service, neon lights, and parking lot dining, every little town used to have one or two, and teens in the late 60s used to pick a direction and hit everyone to test the shakes/malts and burgers

I don't have enough time to do a proper post on just how damn cool I think it must have been to be a teen in 1969-70, too young for the draft, hanging with friends in a cheap car, with cheap gas, paid for with a gas station mechanic job changing oil, tires, batteries, and having a LOT of fun on weekends with friends

Neon, great fries and burgers, shakes and ice cream cones, seeing who else showed up to hang out as planned, seeing what cars were getting shown off 

Eventually, however, drive-in restaurants went into decline, replaced by the introduction of the drive-through, which negated the need for hiring carhops and saved on money and time.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/timley-return-drive-in-restaurant-180974973

cool scene, in Walking Dead Darryl Dixon, season 2, because I never expected a drive in!

I would bet that Perk's Auto Parts in Plainwell, Michigan is the only one in existence that is housed in an old drive in movie theater.

Perks Auto Parts today. The is the former home of the 131 Drive-In Theatre, south of Plainwell. Before the 131 expressway went in about 1960, this road was the main north- south road on this side of the state.

The drive-in was opened in 1950 by S. Kortes and lasted until 1984. The screen and projection booth remain largely intact.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/157059191540681

great time to catch a drive in photo, with such an iconic scene on the screen

https://projects.newsday.com/feature-grid/long-island/vintage-newsday/#drive-in

The first drive-in theater flickered to life on June 6, 1933

The United Drive-in Theatre Owners Association counts 302 drive-in theaters in the United States as of November 2022, down from 318 drive-ins as of September 2021. There are a total of 533 screens in service, the group reports.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AZ98ZYgvtoNSwjEGU3HblPW7XCAF9MKQEHkIEvGMam4HhfbOhSEQiRY/

https://rolandopujol.substack.com/p/the-drive-in-theater-turns-90-today

The Dennis (Cape Cod) Drive-in Fly-in Theater opened in 1949. At 70 acres and room for 1000 cars, it was the biggest in New England. Mr and Mrs Parmenter flew in with their airplane on opening night to see “The Barkleys of Broadway” with Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire.

 

Thank you Doug! 

https://www.hsoy.org/blog/2022/11/5/lets-go-to-the-drive-in

Livingston Sunset Drive In, most in one car contest 1968

 

https://photobygibson.com/archive/collections/archive/Columbia-County-1960s/

There once was an orphan 12 yr old kid, who ran away and joined the circus. Later he made a fortune drilling for oil, and bought this lion as a month old cub from the Dallas zoo

 

https://www.messynessychic.com/2013/09/24/blondie-the-living-room-lion/

in June of 1950, Harvey Fast opened a drive in... and in 55 he married Betty, and she is still running it, selling popcorn, and mowing the lawn. Respect!

Nothing has shut down this drive in that has been entertaining Winner South Dakota since they hung the first screen in 1950, not TV, daylight savings time, a tornado, vcr’s, cable, dish antennas, and not Netflix.

and it has a playground in front for kids... just like the drive ins I went to when I was in grade school in the late 70s.  I suppose those are there for kids that simply get bored waiting for the movie to start, or never get into the movie and the parents aren't going to leave until the movie is over.

There were only 7 drive ins in South Dakota in the year 2013, and the Winner Driver In Theater made the list of the top 13 places that you must visit before your kids grow up

How effing cool is that?!  https://www.facebook.com/Winner-Drive-In-Theatre-LLC-167329383328477/



http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/8335
https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/south-dakota/kids-attractions-sd/

That is only one story of how much history is in the South Dakota drive in theater business....

Gregory's Hilltop Drive-in, believed to be South Dakota's oldest remaining drive-in, was formed in 1946, and Tom Gallup, 70, has been working at Redfield's Pheasant City Drive-in nearly each summer since May 1959, and he's owned it since March 1972.

Mike Donlin, has worked 45 of his 59 years at Miller's Midway Drive-In theater built in 1953, running the projector, he is also one of the owners.

Honda, which designs digital projectors, got the idea how to help witht he enormous cost of upgrading drive ins from film projectors to digital (over 70k) and that was to have a month-long contest starting in which five theaters across the country received new projectors.

 Each drive-in put together a creative video explaining why it deserved a new projector and the top-five vote-getting videos received new projectors. (2013 info, the link is dead, no idea who won) but in 2014 the Winner Drive in switched to digital

https://www.mitchellrepublic.com/business/1561783-drive-ins-outs

Winner was named for the fact the town had emerged the “winner” as Tripp County’s most successful trading point.