We take a look at the rise and fall of the drive-in movie theatre on the theater's 80th birthday. The bar chart shows the number of operating theaters, year-by-by year. The fad peaked nationally in 1958 but peaked in California in 1967. Among the pictures I used were the first drive-in in California, the largest drive-in here in Orange County and the last drive-in here. A box at the lower right shows the three closest drive-ins, just in case readers would like to try one. June 6, 2013.