As early as 1928, Richard Hollingshead, Jr., owner of an auto products business, was experimenting with screening films outdoors. In the driveway of his New Jersey home he mounted a Kodak projector atop his car and played the image on a nearby screen. In time, Hollingshead refined and expanded his idea, registering his patent for a drive-in theater in 1933. In doing so, he not only recreated an American pastime, but he also contributed to American popular culture for some time to come.

Drive-in theaters, also known as "ozoners," "open-air operators," "fresh-air exhibitors," "outdoorers," "ramp houses," "under-the-stars emporiums," "rampitoriums," and "auto havens," were just that… places where people drove their cars to watch movies on a huge outdoor screen. This was a seemingly preposterous idea—one would drive to a gate, pay an admission fee, park their car on a ramp to face the movie screen, and watch...