American automotive culture created intense demands for car-oriented services. Drive-in movies mushroomed from 300 after the Second World War to thousands in the 1950s.

Along with drive-in restaurants, these provided convenient outlets for baby boomer families as well as teenagers exploring independence in their social and sexual lives.

Movies faded in the 1970s as suburban expansion swallowed their valuable properties.

Fast-food chains and banks, however, have incorporated “drive-through” windows, without the parking and in-car services shown in American Graffiti (1973). Other experiments like drive-in churches have had limited novelty value, but all emphasize Americans’ continual synthesis of automobiles and lifestyle.