Drive-In

<p><b><i>The Drive-In </i></b><b>meaningfully contributes to the complex picture of outdoor cinema that has been central to American culture and to a history of US cinema based on diverse viewing experiences rather than a select number of films.</b> <p/> Drive-in cinemas flourished in 1950s America in some summer weeks to the extent that there were more cinemagoers outdoors than indoors. Often associated with teenagers interested in the drive-in as a 'passion pit' or a venue for exploitation films accounts of the 1950s American drive-in tend to emphasise their popularity with families with young children downplaying the importance of a film programme apparently limited to old low-budget or independent films and characterising drive-in operators as industry outsiders. They retain a hold on the popular imagination. <p/> <i>The Drive-In </i>identifies the mix of generations in the drive-in audience as well as accounts that articulate individual experiences from the drive-in as a dating venue to a segregated space. Through detailed analysis of the film industry trade press local newspapers and a range of other primary sources including archival records on cinemas and cinema circuits in Arkansas California New York State and Texas this book examines how drive-ins were integrated into local communities and the film industry and reveals the importance and range of drive-in programmes that were often close to that of their indoor neighbours.</p>