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RCA KlVl'IPMKNT WAS SELECTED FOR THE ridiJElTloN KociM (IE WHITESTONE BRIDCE DRIVE-IN. l.IH IlSTEAKKKS SCSI'ENDEl) UN PEDESTALS BETWEEN KllWS UE CARS ARE DRAWN THROl'Cll A WINDOW AND ATTACHED AT THE MOST CONVENIENT PLACE FOB THE OCCUPANTS. Drive-in Theatres Increase Outdoor Screens, a Pre-war Rarity as Public Flocks to By M. F. Bennett Theatre Eiiiii/nncnt Section RCA \'irtiir f)ivision SOON after sundown, in more than a thousand American communities, automobiles move out into the hijrhways and head for moviehmd's newest innovation in entertainment. the Drive-in Theatre. This idea of viewing the latest film.s from the informal com- fort of your own car is, in reality, nearly twenty years old, hut its jrreatest jrrowth has taken place since the end of the last war. To- , Notf Number More Than 1 iOO Informal Movies. day. these al fre.sco auditoriums are multiplyinjr r;ipidly al! over the country, particularly in sections where the climate is mild durinjr most of the year. The first drive-in theatre was liuilt near Camden, N. .J., in 19:5:i. For nearly a decade thereafter, such ventures were considered in the novelty class. By the end of World War II, the number of out- door screens scarcely exceeded 50. Then the tide turned and what had started as an experiment, soon be- came one of the wonders of the film industry. The fundamental reason for the increased popularity of the drive-in was the development of specialized e(iuipment for the purjiose, i)ar- ticularly film projectors, carbon-arc lamp houses, and sound systems. One of the first firms to sense the importance of this newcomer to the film exhibition field was the Radio Corporation of America. As a re- sult of its jiioneerinjr, the Company has installed equipment in more than 800 of the 1300 theatres now ill operation. A drive-in theatre consists es- sentially of a larpe viewing screen, a precision-built film projector, a powerful li^ht source, a method of distributinjr the sound to the car-borne patrons, and a series of semi-circular ramps or ridjies onto which the automobiles are driven. The averape outdoor theatre ac- commodates -100 to 500 cars, but many larger ones are in operation in the principal cities of our country. Patrons of a drive-in theatre reach their vantage point with a minimum of confusion and delay. They drive their cars to a ticket booth, pay their admission and are then directed to a vacant space on one of the ramps. Each ramp, be- ing raised slightly in the direction of the screen, elevates the front end of the car so that its occupants are able to view the screen over the tops of cars parked on the forward ramps. With his car in positicm, the driver reaches out of the win- dow and lifts a special weather- proof loudspeaker from a handy pedestal and attaches it to any con- venient spot within the car. The speaker is connected to its pedestal by a sturdy extensible cord. If the weather is bad or the temperature uncomfortably low, the car window- may be closed on the cord without damaging it. [2 6 RADIO AGEj