Richard Milton Hollingshead, Jr. (February 25, 1899 – May 13, 1975) was the inventor of the

drive-in theater A drive-in theater or drive-in cinema is a form of movie theater, cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor movie screen, a projection booth, a concession stand, and a large parking area for automobiles. Within this enclosed area, customers ...

. Created in the early 1930s, Hollingshead's drive-in theater was first presented at Admiral Wilson Boulevard in Pennsauken, New Jersey.

Early life

Richard Milton Hollingshead, Jr. was born in

Riverton, New Jersey Riverton is a borough located in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough had a total population of 2,779,Millville, New Jersey Millville is a city in Cumberland County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the city's population was 28,400,Camden, New Jersey Camden is a city in and the county seat of Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Camden is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan area and is located directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the 2020 ...

, using his car, a 1928

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

movie projector A movie projector is an optics, opto-mechanics, mechanical device for displaying Film, motion picture film by projecting it onto a movie screen, screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices ...

, and two sheets nailed between two trees for a screen. Eventually, he came up with a ramp in each parking space, so that patrons could elevate the front of their cars to see the screen without being blocked by other vehicles.p. 6
/ref> He applied for a

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

on August 6, 1932 and was granted number 1,909,537 on May 16, 1933. With three investors, his cousin John Smith, Edward Ellies, and Oliver Willets, he formed a company called Park-It Theatres, Inc. The building of the drive-in began when the patent was official on May 16. The construction workers were taken off the Pennsauken Township relief rolls with a salary of 40 cents per hour for skilled workers and 20 cents per hour for

laborers A laborer (or labourer) is a person who works in manual labor types in the construction industry workforce. Laborers are in a working class of wage-earners in which their only possession of significant material value is their labor. Industries e ...

. In under three weeks, construction of the theatre was completed. Their "Automobile Movie Theatre" opened on

Admiral Wilson Boulevard U.S. Route 30 (US 30) is a U.S. highway running from Astoria, Oregon east to Atlantic City, New Jersey. In the U.S. state of New Jersey, US 30 runs from the Benjamin Franklin Bridge at the Delaware River in Camden, Camden County wh ...

in Pennsauken Township NJ on June 6, 1933. The marquee title read "Drive-In Theatre" - "World’s First Sit In Your Car - See and Hear Movies".

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Aris ...

provided three six foot (1.8 m) by six foot speakers to go with the 40 foot (12 m) by 50 foot (15 m) screen. Following complaints from passengers in the rear of the theater lot, Hollingshead worked with RCA to design small speakers that could be mounted on cars and receive sound through a radio signal. The first movie screened was '' Wives Beware'', starring

Adolphe Menjou Adolphe Jean Menjou (February 18, 1890 – October 29, 1963) was an American actor. His career spanned both silent films and talkies. He appeared in such films as Charlie Chaplin's ''A Woman of Paris'', where he played the lead role; Stanley Ku ...

and having its second theatrical run. The charge was $0.25 per person and $0.25 per car, with 3 or more persons for $1. Hollingshead sold the theatre in 1935 and opened another one. Park-It Theatres licensed the concept to Loews Drive-In Theatres, Inc., but had trouble collecting

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...

in 1937. Eventually, after Loews was taken to court, Hollingshead's patent was ruled invalid in 1950.

Personal life

According to the New Jersey State Census, Richard Milton Hollingshead married Elsa Hermine Collins on March 28, 1923 in Philadelphia. They had a son Richard Milton Hollingshead III born April 23, 1924 in Camden. He married Mary Reed and had three children including Richard Milton IV.

References

Year of birth uncertain 1975 deaths Drive-in theaters 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American inventors {{US-business-bio-1900s-stub