Trivia Today - Monday, July 28, 2014

Greetings Infomaniacs,

NOTE: Because I will be out of town and doing this week's newsletters ahead of time, I will not be featuring a new mind scrambler this week. Please check back next Monday for a brand new mind scrambler!

Over the weekend my cousin and I went to one of the few remaining drive-in theaters in the Chicagoland area. Neither of us had ever been to one, and it was on her list of things to do this summer, so we decided to go for it! It was a very cool experience, and it makes me sad that so few of these theaters remain.

During the drive-in's heyday, there were around 5,000 theaters across the country. Now, less than 500 survive in the United States. Of course, this is due to the ever increasing price of real estate, along with walk-in theaters and the convenience of cable and video rentals. Glad we at least made it to this one while it still exists!

Enjoy!
Melissa

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WHO SAID IT?
QUOTE: "To me, bad taste is what entertainment is all about."

HINT: (1946-), American film director who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films.


RANDOM TIDBITS
The first-ever drive-in movie theater was Park-In Theaters located on Crescent Boulevard in Camden, New Jersey. It opened on June 6, 1933.

The theater was the brainchild of Richard Hollingshead. Reportedly inspired by his mother's struggle to sit comfortably in traditional movie theater seats, he came up with the idea of an open-air theater where patrons watched movies in the comfort of their own automobiles. He received a patent in May of 1933 and opened Park-In Theaters, Inc. less than a month later.

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 drive-ins 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. Sound quality started out as poor - Hollingshead originally mounted three speakers manufactured by RCA Victor near the screen. Later technology made it possible for each car's 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.

(www.history.com)


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WHO SAID IT?
QUOTE: "To me, bad taste is what entertainment is all about."

ANSWER: John Waters.

***
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