The automobile did not just merely replace the horse, It replaced our dining rooms and our living rooms. The very first drive-in restaurant, Kirby’s Pig Stand, opened in Dallas, Texas in 1921. Owner Jesse Kirby said his customers were too lazy to get out of their cars. The concept spread to the year-round sunshine and general car-craziness of southern California, and then across the rest of the country after WWII. Carhops, so named for the practice of jumping onto the running boards of cars not yet parked, took the customer’s order and returned with food in sacks or on trays that fit on the slightly-raised windows of the car. Barbecue and sundaes gave way to hamburgers, fries, and milkshakes – foods that could be eaten without silverware while sitting in the car.

The first drive-in restaurant in Kansas City was operated by Kathryn Winstead and her sister, Nellie Montgomery. Leasing a property near 47th and Main from real estate developer J.C. Nichols, the sisters had an art deco-style building constructed and opened for business in 1940. Customers would back into a stall and flash their headlights when ready for a waitress to come take their order. Though no longer having curbside service, Winstead’s remains a Kansas City institution.

By 1960, there were 65 drive-in restaurants in the Kansas City directory. In the early 1950s, the young Masten Gregory would hang out with other teenagers at the Nu-Way to decide who was going to drag race and where. Allen’s at 89th and State Line specialized in a “quality-built” burger ground from steak. Smak’s, with its “ranch fries” and “Smaky the Seal’s seal of approval,” had four locations. Mugs-Up, a burger and root beer joint, had nine. Other drive-ins included Toon ’n’ Tote, the Paul Bunyan, Humdinger, and a second Winstead’s location in Lee’s Summit that today is Johnny Ray’s Drive-In.

Perhaps the most popular and most missed was Sidney’s on the Plaza, at Main and Ward Parkway, in a circle-shaped building that allowed parking all around it. It is remembered as “the place all the high school kids in the 1960s practically lived in, eating ice cream sodas and smoking until the wee hours,” and as a cruising destination where “cars would be lined up around the block just to drive through and check out who was there and see if there were any chicks to try and pick up.” Oh, and it had great food!

Drive-in movies, or park-in theaters as they were first called, were the brainchild of Richard Hollingshead, who was inspired by his mother’s struggle to sit comfortably in regular movie theater seats. After receiving a patent, he opened in Camden, New Jersey, on June 6, 1933. The problem of sound and noise pollution was solved when RCA introduced in-car speakers with individual volume controls in 1941. After Hollingshead’s patent expired in 1949, drive-in theaters began popping up everywhere, with some 4,000 across the country at the peak in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Drive-ins became an icon of American culture, and a typical weekend destination, not just for parents with children, but also for teenage couples seeking privacy. And if the movies weren’t particularly good, that was part of the fun.

There were 20 different drive-in movie theaters in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The earliest was the 40 Hi-way Drive-In in Independence, which opened in 1942. The Leawood at 120th and State Line, with its colonial architecture, was one of the most unique. It opened in 1948, but closed in 1975 and was torn down in the 1980s. Also opening in 1948 was The Riverside Drive-In, on North Hwy 71 three miles northwest of North Kansas City, and The Crest on South Hwy 71 in Hickman Mills. The Hillcrest, at 152 and North Oak in Gashland in the far Northland, opened in 1954.

Opening in 1962 was The Fairyland Drive-In at 7600 Prospect, adjacent to the Fairyland Amusement Park which had been there since the 1920s. The amusement park, unable to compete with Worlds of Fun, closed in the 1970s. The drive-in hung on until the 1980s, but the distinctive sign remained up for another decade.

The Lake Park on South 59th in Kansas City, Kansas, had a kids playground and in-car heaters. It added a second screen in 1971 but closed in the 1980s. Others included The Heart, The Shawnee, The 63rd Street Drive-In, The Fox 50 in Overland Park, The State Twin, The North Twin in Riverside, and The South Twin in Olathe.

Surviving drive-in theaters now broadcast their audio on FM radio, and have converted to digital projection. The three still in operation in the Kansas City area are The I-70 Four Screen on E. Hwy 40, The Twin in Independence, and The Boulevard in Merriam, Kansas.

And so where have all the drive-ins gone? Loitering rock-n-roll teenagers tying up parking spaces with their cars proved to be a bad business model, especially when compared to the mechanized, homogenized fast food chains with speedy service and paltry prices. The advent of color televisions, VCRs, and video rentals, along with the economics of real estate, especially in suburban areas, made the summer-only drive-in theaters difficult to operate profitably. Most of both were killed off in the 1970s and 1980s.

In the next room, The Kansas City Automotive Museum recreates some of the fun of drive-ins… The Winstead’s near 47th and Main, built in an art deco-style, opened in 1940. Today the Winstead’s sign still reads “drive-in” though carhop service was discontinued long ago. ABOVE: Allen’s at 89th and State Line specialized in a “quality-built” burger ground from steak. RIGHT: An Allen’s Drive-In menu from the 1950s. ABOVE: Smak’s was a popular drive-in with four locations around the Kansas City area. Their big burger was called the Smakeroo. ABOVE: A Smak’s specialty was the ranch fries. Some locations survived into the 1980s. LEFT: The Leawood Drive-In disguised its movie screen behind a colonial-style facade. ABOVE: The Crest Drive-In on Highway 71 in Hickman Mills opened in 1949. BACKGROUND: The Fairyland Drive-In closed in the 1980s, but its distinctive sign remained up for another decade.

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Today the Winstead’s sign still reads “drive-in” though carhop service was discontinued long ago.

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The Winstead’s near 47th and Main, built in an art deco-style, opened in 1940.

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Sidney’s on the Plaza was a serious “cruising” destination in the 1960s. “And the food was good too!”

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The Leawood Drive-In disguised its movie screen behind a colonial-style facade.

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ABOVE: The Crest Drive-In on Highway 71 in Hickman

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ABOVE: Smak’s was a popular drive-in with four locations around the Kansas City area. Their big burger

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ABOVE: Allen’s at 89th and State Line specialized in a “quality-built” burger ground from steak.

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ABOVE: A Smak’s specialty was the ranch fries. Some locations survived into the 1980s.

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RIGHT: An Allen’s Drive-In menu from the 1950s.