Where Have All the Drive-In Theaters Gone?

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With the opening of an establishment in 1933 wherein people could drive to a specific location and watch a projected film from their car the concept of the "drive-in movie theater" was born. Over the years the began popping up all over America with their peak being during the 1950s and into the 1960s. But by the end of the 60s the drive-in business was stagnating, followed by a drop in the 1970s and then a complete free fall during the 1980s. By the 1990s thousands of drive-ins had dwindled down to hundreds. And yet it is not dead. In fact, given the location, some drive-in theaters continue to thrive.
In this film I discuss the history of drive-in theaters from their inception up until now, intermingled with visits to the several locations in the Portland area where these drive-ins once existed. Today there are no drive-ins in the city but by the end of the 1960s there were eight drive-ins functioning in the Portland area (including one that was located literally feet from the southern border of Portland and even one in the community of Oak Grove, just a couple miles south of the city). While visiting these spots I give their individual histories (which admittedly is not much), discuss the good and the bad and also why these drive-ins were located where they were and why they all eventually went away.

SIDE NOTE: This had to be the most stressful project I have ever worked on. After the loss of my Macbook Pro, which I had been using to edit on for over a decade, I found myself having to re-adjust to using a PC again and on this maiden voyage I found just about every possibly thing that could go wrong while editing this video did go wrong. But I kept digging and pushed on through and fortunately we ended up with a complete video at the end. Again, thank you to all of you for your ongoing support during this transitional period for me and I hope y'all enjoy this little piece of history.