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3rd Annual Drive In Movie Night 9/28/19

September 28, 2019 @ 5:30 pm - 10:30 pm

UPDATE: the drive in map is now available: DOWNLOAD THE DRIVE IN MAP (Right-Click to save)
The drive-in movie is this Saturday; and you do not want to miss watching Avengers: Endgame on our giant screen! The event starts at 5:30pm, featuring food trucks, hayride, moon bounce, face painter, and pony rides. Please bring your blankets and chairs in the event the main parking lot gets filled and you will have to use our seating area. Please be advised that the movie is 3 hours long, so plan accordingly and share the map of the grounds with your family and friends!
We’ll see you Saturday at Camden County College!


On June 6th,1933, eager motorists park their automobiles on the grounds of Park-In Theaters, the first-ever drive-in movie theater, located on Crescent Boulevard in Camden, New Jersey.
Park-In Theaters–the term “drive-in” came to be widely used only later–was the brainchild of Richard Hollingshead, a movie fan and a sales manager at his father’s company, Whiz Auto Products, in Camden. Reportedly inspired by his mother’s struggle to sit comfortably in traditional movie theater seats, Hollingshead came up with the idea of an open-air theater where patrons watched movies in the comfort of their own automobiles. He then experimented in the driveway of his own house with different projection and sound techniques, mounting a 1928 Kodak projector on the hood of his car, pinning a screen to some trees, and placing a radio behind the screen for sound. He also tested ways to guard against rain and other inclement weather, and devised the ideal spacing arrangement for a number of cars so that all would have a view of the screen.

The young entrepreneur received a patent for the concept in May of 1933 and opened Park-In Theaters, Inc. less than a month later, with an initial investment of $30,000. Advertising it as entertainment for the whole family, Hollingshead charged 25 cents per car and 25 cents per person, with no group paying more than one dollar. The idea caught on, and after Hollingshead’s patent was overturned in 1949, drive-in theaters began popping up all over the country. One of the largest was the All-Weather Drive-In of Copiague, New York, which featured parking space for 2,500 cars, a kid’s playground and a full service restaurant, all on a 28-acre lot.

Drive-in theaters showed mostly B-movies–that is, not Hollywood’s finest fare–but some theaters featured the same movies that played in regular theaters. The initially poor sound quality–Hollingshead had mounted three speakers manufactured by RCA Victor near the screen–improved, and later technology made it possible for each car to play the movie’s soundtrack through its FM radio.

The popularity of the drive-in spiked after World War II and reached its heyday in the late 1950s to mid-60s, with some 5,000 theaters across the country. Drive-ins became an icon of American culture, and a typical weekend destination not just for parents and children but also for teenage couples seeking some privacy.
Since then, however, the rising price of real estate, especially in suburban areas, combined with the growing numbers of walk-in theaters and the rise of video rentals to curb the growth of the drive-in industry. Today, fewer than 500 drive-in theaters survive in the United States.

Mayor David R. Mayer and Council are excited to bring residents the third annual Drive-In Movie Night here in Gloucester Township. The Drive-In Movie Night will be held on September 28th at 5:30 pm. Admission is free. There will be food trucks, games, and activities for children. The movie, Avengers: Endgame, will begin at dusk. In case of bad weather, the rain date will be Sunday, September 29th.

Details

Date:
September 28, 2019
Time:
5:30 pm - 10:30 pm
Event Category:
Event Tags:
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Venue

Camden County College
200 College Dr
Blackwood, NJ 08012 United States
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