when did the blockbuster in wall township new jersey go out of business

Read more about the history of Monmouth and Ocean counties.

He originally experimented with a Kodak projector on the hood of his car and a screen nailed to trees, according to, a website for drive-in nostalgia. While early renditions of what would become the drive-ins first appeared in the Southwest in the early 1900s, Richard Hollingshead of Camden patented the idea in 1933. New Jersey was the birthplace of the drive-in theater. The venue was an open airfield next to the airport. Brown, the owner of Allaire Airport, now known as Monmouth Executive Airport. The first-ever of its kind when it opened in 1947, it was the brainchild of Edward I. Wall had two drive-ins, including one that catered to airplanes called the Fly-in Drive-in. They were in places such as Brick, Brielle, Toms River, Eatontown, Stafford and Wall. 5, 1991. But there was a time when 10 drive-in movie theaters operated at the Shore. The last one at the Shore, the Hazlet 35 Drive-in, closed for good on Sept. More in this series: Wild West City, Frontier City and Cowboy City: Whatever happened to these Shore tributes to the old West? Once a rite of passage for teenagers sharing a first kiss, the screens were going dark everywhere.

The decline was not confined to the Shore. They were a victim of a host of ailments that took their toll on the outdoor venues in the late 1970s and 1980s: declining revenue, fourth-run or B movies, competition from cable TV, VHS tapes and land-hungry developers.

By 2004, drive-in movie theaters were long dead at the Shore.

When did the blockbuster in wall township new jersey go out of business