The drive-in cinema got going synchronously with great upheavals at the end of the 1940s. Private mobilization was coming out of its trough, the old Hollywood formulas were less and less effective, certainly not for returning soldiers. Instead of confirming the fiction of an educated, white audience, teenagers and millions of households were now consuming and living differently. Heroic half-castes as well as nuclear families in the suburbs did not yet know what they were doing, as they marveled at the isolation amidst the uniformed suburban hell full of like-minded people in their own four walls plus garden at the barbecue. War won, existence secured, but no exit far and wide. Here, the promises of the pre-war idea took hold: "Guests can enter the theater in their automobiles and attend the performances without leaving the car. Thanks to the inclined platforms, even those in the rear of the car can follow the events on the screen," reported ADAC Motorwelt as early as 1933 (the ban on reporting on developments in other nations came later, as did fracture writing).
In the drive-in the sound comes from the car radio. The Federal Network Agency must allow drive-in cinemas to broadcast the soundtrack over a VHF frequency. According to the agency, applications for the allocation of broadcasting frequencies are booming like never before. Since the beginning of March, 43 frequencies have been allocated, and another nearly 80 applications are still being processed, it said.
The conditions for the cinemas are strict: no more than two moviegoers per car are allowed – unless it is a family or a household. The car may only be left to go to the toilet or in an emergency. There will be no traditional beverage or food service.
Matthias Penzel: "Objects in the rearview mirror are often closer than you think: The car biography." orange-press, 2011.