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Movie Nights

June 6, 2013

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Profile America -- Thursday, June 6th. A major pop culture phenomenon began on this date in 1933. With the automobile increasingly reshaping Americans' habits, Richard Hollingshead opened the nation's first drive-in movie theater in Camden, New Jersey. Soon, drive-in movies became a fixture across the country and a popular place for teenage dating. Drive-ins reached their peak in the 1950s. There were nearly 21,000 movie theaters then and more than 4,000 of them were drive-ins. Now, there are nearly 4,900 movie theaters around the country -- most of them with multiple screens -- while there are fewer than 270 drive-ins remaining in operation. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau, online at <www.census.gov>.

Sources: www.driveintheater.com/history
Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, p. 855
Statistical Abstract of the United States 2012, t. 1128
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/information_communications.html