CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It isn't just the whole watching-a-movie-from-your-car thing that makes Aut-o-Rama Twin Drive-In a classic slice of Americana.

Check out the old-timey concessions stand, which boasts more treats than a carnival. Or the trailers with those circa-1960s graphics. Check out the vintage signs and those old speakers.

(By the way, the speakers don't work anymore; they're relics from the old days. But they add to the milieu.)

"It's all about the experience," says co-owner Deb Sherman. "People are nostalgic for the drive-in."

Starting June 7, they'll be just as nostalgic for the movies on the screen.

Roll Retro Tuesdays.

The weekly series offers double features of oldies, goodies and cult classics. It opens with "Caddyshack" and "Spaceballs" -- two vintage hoots from the 1980s.

Sherman has been scouring lists of films from the '50s, '60s, '70s and '80s looking for decade- and theme-based pairings.

"You would think that people would just watch these movies on TV at home, but they come out in droves," says Sherman. "Interest has just kept on building for the series over the years, and more and more people kept on coming out."

The films start rolling at dusk. The series, which runs through Aug. 23, closes with "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Kid."

I must say, I can't wait to see the pairing of "A Clockwork Orange" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" -- two 1970s classics screening on July 12. Whoa, the series also includes "Taxi Driver," the 1976 Martin Scorsese film that's celebrating its 40th anniversary. It's paired with "Deliverance" on Aug. 9.

The annual "Christmas in July" double-feature is July 26 and includes "A Christmas Story" and "Miracle on 34th Street."

Whoa, that midnight cult classic "The Wall" is being paired with "The Doors"? Yeah, dude, Floyd and the Lizard King -- June 14.

Coincidentally, the Doors were formed in 1965 -- the same year Aut-o-Rama opened its doors -- er, lot? -- at 33395 Lorain Road, in North Ridgeville. It has stayed in the Sherman family ever since.

"There have been times where I didn't think we'd stay open," says Sherman. "It seems that people have been writing off drive-ins since the 1980s."

Drive-ins have been on the endangered species list for decades -- threatened by multiplexes, the advent of the VHS and DVD, the Internet and streaming.

The latest threat proved the most deadly.

A number of drive-in theaters around the country closed because they could not afford to go digital, as stipulated by the movie industry. The sum to upgrade -- $75,000 per screen - was just too expensive for many theaters.

Ironically, it rallied drive-in fans to drive out to Aut-o-Rama, which was built on farmland owned by the Sherman family.

"People came for one last look," says Sherman. "They fell in love with us all over again and kept on coming."

Not bad for an old-timer that was once seemed like a summer memory from the ancient past.

The first drive-in was opened in 1933 in New Jersey by Richard Hollingshead. He got the idea one night after stretching a bedsheet between two trees in his backyard in 1928. Then he projected a movie onto it.

Then a light went off in his head: The drive-in theater was born -- and movies and cars were pronounced married.

Eighty-some years later, the relationship is still going strong at Aut-O-Rama Twin Drive In.

Call 440-327-9595 or go to autoramadrivein.com.