Did you know Pennsylvania is home to America’s oldest drive-in theater?

Matt Benedetto
·2 min read
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(WHTM) – Watching a movie usually means driving to the movie theater or staying at home and streaming one, but during the warmer months, some will jump in the car and stay in their car to watch a movie at a drive-in theater.

According to DriveInMovie.com, Pennsylvania ranks second in the country with 29 remaining drive-in theaters, including four in the Midstate:

  • Sky-Vu Drive-In in Gratz, Dauphin County

  • Haar’s Drive-In in Dillsburg, York County

  • Midway Drive-In in Mifflintown, Juniata County

  • Cumberland Drive-In Theatre in Newville, Cumberland County

But America’s oldest drive-in theater is in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.

Orefield, Pennsylvania is home to around 8,205 people and America’s oldest drive-in, it’s called Shankweiler’s Drive-In and it was established in 1934.

FILE – In this Aug. 10, 1993, file photo, cars form rows at dusk to enjoy movies in the open air at Shankweiler’s Drive-In Theatre in Orefield, Pa. Billed as the nation’s oldest operating drive-in movie theater, Shankweiler’s opened in 1934 near Allentown, Pa., and marks its 83rd season in 2016. In much of the nation, drive-ins have gone the way of rotary dial phones, but in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York, the numbers are holding steady. (AP Photo/Rusty Kennedy, File)

According to Guinness World Records, Shankweiler’s Drive-In Theater opened on April 15, 1934, which was less than a year after the world’s first drive-in opened in New Jersey.

The theater installed speaker poles and car speakers in 1948, according to the Shankweiler’s Drive-In website. In 1955, a new CinemaScope Screen, snack bar, projection room, and restroom building were constructed.

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The car speakers would remain, but in 1982, AM radio micro-vicinity broadcasting was introduced to the theater. This led to FM radio micro-vicinity broadcasting being introduced in 1986 and would make Shankweiler’s Drive-In the first drive-in theater to feature audio in FM broadcast stereo, states the theater’s website.

The theater installed Red LED Spectral recorded analog soundtrack readers and a cinema sound processor in 2002.

A digital projector was installed in 2013 and in 2022, the theater would be bought by The Moving Picture Cinema who then allowed the theater to be open all year round.

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