Pennsylvania features 29 drive-in theaters, including America’s oldest, in Lehigh County. There are four in midstate: Dauphin County, York County, Juniata County, and Cumberland County.
The oldest drive-in, Shankweiler’s, opened in the early 1930s in Orefield, a community of over 8,000 inhabitants. The Guinness Book of Records listed this theater, which opened in April 1934, as being built less than a year after the first in New Jersey.
The drive-in experienced steady development
According to the Shankweiler’s Drive-In website, speaker poles and automobile speakers were installed in 1948. Later, a new CinemaScope Screen, snack bar, projection room, and bathroom facility were built. AM radio micro-vicinity transmission began in 1982, and FM radio micro-vicinity followed four years later.
The 89-year-old drive-in theater pioneered the use of FM broadcast stereo for audio. Additional modifications included Red LED Spectral recorded analog soundtrack readers, a cinema sound processor, and a digital projector. Shankweiler’s was bought by new owners in 2022, and it is now open all year.
More about Shankweiler’s
Lauren McChesney and Matthew McClanahan will take over as owners of the renowned drive-in cinema in November 2022, succeeding Paul and Susan Geissinger. McChesney stated that it was a perfect time to purchase the theater because it had been on the market for years and was beginning to resemble a “gas station.”
The founders of The Moving Picture Cinema, a pop-up movie company, wanted to host outdoor cinema events during the pandemic lockdown. Matthew told USA Today that they helped indoor theaters by organizing outdoor screenings when they were forced to close.
