BIG CITY GETAWAY

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BIG CITY GETAWAY

daytrip ideas to get out of the daily grind

Shankweiler’s Drive-In Theatre

4540 Shankweiler Road, Orefield, PA 18069 610-481-0800 • www.shankweilers.com The Oldest Drive in the USA!

A few years back we did a story on the Fairlee Drive-In and Motel up in Fairlee, Vermont along the river bordering New Hampshire. It is a bit rare to see motorcycles frequenting drive-ins, but the Fairlee had not only a giant screen and the huge eld for the cars, but a row of small motel rooms as well. We brought in dinner for the show.

The Fairlee came up in a discussion one morning over coffee and it reminded me that those who took our route down to Winchester, Virginia, and the Fall Fiesta several years ago had passed by a real piece of Americana – the oldest drive-in in continuous operation in the United States - Shankweiler’s Drive-In Theatre.

Just to give you a brief background on the history of the drive-in you will have to look at its very rst beginnings. The rst cinema of this type was opened on June 11, 1914, with the advent of the Airdome Theater in Las Cruces, New Mexico. This was more an outdoor theater for folks to stand and watch a lm, but it did have room for parking 10 cars too.

The rst open-aired theatre that was opened for automobile use was in Camden, New Jersey; Hollingshead’s Drive-In opened on June 6, 1933.

One year later, on April 15, 1934, saw the opening of Shankweiler’s Auto Park in Ore eld, Pennsylvania – the second in the nation.

Hundreds of others followed and the drive-ins peak popularity came in the late 1950s and early 1960s, particularly in rural areas, with some 4,000 drive-ins spread across the United States.

One of the largest drive-in theaters was Johnny AllWeather Drive-In on Long Island’s Sunrise Highway in Copiague, New York that was 29 acres in size and could handle 2,500 cars. It ran from 1957 till 1984. The site remained untouched for years until it was demolished; making room for another ‘much needed’ shopping plaza with Home Depot and Target. A Red Lobster now sits where the giant outdoor screen used to stand.

Time marches on and a few things began to pile up and add to the decline of the drive-ins around the United States. Home entertainment systems, the fuel crisis of the 70s, and the back and forth about Daylight Saving Time (which made the shows start an hour later) in the ‘70s.

Another thing that ended a few drive-ins was radical weather. On July 16, 1980, in Taylor, Michigan, a freak derecho storm with straight-line winds of 150 miles per hour swept the drive-in away leaving only the

“now-showing” sign with the letters “Now Playing Gone with the Wind.” They left it that way. Now, that is funny!

In late May of 1985, an F3 tornado blew away a drive-in turned ea market called Spotlight 88 in Beaver County, Pennsylvania.

As you can see the weather and changing seasons limit many drive-ins from operating year-round.

Johnny Rockets Burgers recently announced that they would be teaming up with USA Drive-Ins to open 200 drive-ins soon - serving Johnny Rocket’s food at the concession stands. Progress? Not in our book, but it will be better than watching Star Wars on your iPhone.

The disappearance of classic Americana is always of great concern to those of us who love these sorts of places and things.

Shankweiler’s is the only one from that original early 30’s era that is still operational. Being as classic as it is, Shankweiler’s had a bunch of milestones and we thought we’d mention a few. In addition to being just the second drive-in to open in the nation, it was one of the rst to have those classic pole-mounted speakers that would attach to your car’s window, decades before they switched to micro-AM radio in 1982 and then Shankweiler’s became the rst drivein to feature audio in FM broadcast stereo.

These days the old lm projectors are gone, replaced, just a few years back, by a fully digital system.

And the food is much better than the normal stale popcorn, hocky puck hamburgers and at soda. At Shankweiler’s you nd Dietz + Watson hot dogs, several different bbq sandwiches and freshly popped popcorn in addition to a great selection of ice creams and candy – all at reasonable prices.

When we rst began to pen this article it was New Year’s weekend and any thought of visiting a drive-in was not going to happen till the summer, as Shankweiler’s Drive-In Theatre is open only on weekends from mid-April through May, but they operate 7 days a week through the summer.

So, with the idea to head west and the tiny burg of Ore eld, PA rmly set in our minds we had to save and close this article until an open and free 2021 rolls around.

Since starting this article, all movie theaters had been shuttered during 2020, with just a handful reopening slowly. It seemed that drive-ins were to make a comeback as being the perfect social distancing form of movie going. Our rst visit to the movies was to the Warwick, NY, drive-in to see (and we HIGHLY recommend that you don’t) Godzilla vs. Kong. We are certainly looking forward to our visit to Shankweiler’s and hope that their movie selection is far better. Couldn’t be any worse. ,