In honor of the 79th anniversary of the first drive-in movie theater opening in Camden, New Jersey, Google is celebrating with a new doodle. The 31-second interactive doodle, which replaces the search engine’s official logo on its homepage, depicts the typical drive-in scene. There are cars with families and young couples pulling up to a multiplex screen, which features dancing soda cops and popcorn with the Google logo.
The first drive-in opened in Camden on June 6, 1933, during the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. The drive-in theater, which was created by Richard Milton Hollingshead Jr., offered viewers the unique experience of watching films from inside their cars, with sound synced to a radio station.
The drive-in theater became a staple in the 1950s and ’60s, with audiences ranging from teens to families to the elderly. However, there are currently only 336 drive-in theaters left across America, down from 4,000 in 1958. Drive-ins began closing for several reasons, including video rental market and urban sprawl.
Mike Dutton, who created the Google Doodle, had to do heavy research before creating the video. He said he wrote a lot of blogs about what people missed about drive-in theaters. Dutton said many people wrote that they missed having an intermission to stretch and get a snack, as well as people sneaking people in their trunk.
Watch the drive-in theater Google Doodle below.
Written by: Karen Benardello
