NORTH WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. - Lauren McChesney and Matt McClanahan had a bit of a rough start when they became the new owners of Shankweiler’s Drive-In in Orefield.
“Our second weekend we were open, the projector broke,” McChesney said. “It's like this insane, high-tech, incredible projector. And it just broke the second weekend. We were like, ‘Are you actually kidding?’”
But the pair had an unplanned backup plan that saved the day.
“Luckily, we had the mobile equipment," McChesney said. "So we were able to set up the van, set up our projector, and project right onto the screen. And so we had the van parked right in front of the drive-in screen, and we were able to continue with our movies.”
- Shankweiler's Drive-In has new owners and a new parent company
- Lauren McChesney and Matt McClanahan are overhauling the business model
- The drive-in — the oldest in the country — will now be open year-round
The mobile equipment pressed into service came from Shankweiler’s parent company, The Moving Picture Cinema. The business is a complete on-the-go theater package owned and operated by McClanahan, with McChesney handling the marketing and business development.
But somehow, it seemed apropos of the little bit of turbulence that would come with new beginnings at America’s oldest drive-in theater.
“It happened that Shankweiler’s was up for sale for like six years, off and on," McChesney said. "They had a few people interested in buying, but nothing really was working out right for" the former owners.
“So we were customers of Shankweiler’s. We went there all the time. Matt used to run a drive-in theater in Mahoning [Township, Carbon County], so that’s where we met.”
But the two initially had visions of building a drive-in of their own in the Philadelphia area, serving a part of the market that has no access to the drive-in movie experience.
The problem?
“We kept comparing things to Shankweiler’s,” McChesney said. “We’d be like, ‘You know, this is a really great size or we really like how they do this.’
“Then we got to the point where we kept saying, 'There is absolutely no way that we can make this happen. We can't afford it. Like, we cannot do this.' But then we just decided to try."
The purchase was announced Nov. 4, with McClanahan and McChesney becoming just the fourth set of owners in the theater’s 88-year history.
‘It’s been ingrained in this community’
It’s easy to run with the narrative that drive-in theaters have been disappearing since their peak in the mid 1900s with the Baby Boomer generation.
At the time, there were more than 4,000 drive-ins throughout the United States, according to DriveInMovie.com. Now, only about 300 are left in operation.
But as the American institution of drive-ins turns 90 next year, McChesney pointed not only to those still in operation nationwide, but also to Pennsylvania’s “good, strong history” of drive-ins as helping to preserve a unique form of family entertainment.
Shankweiler’s, she said, is proud to be among about 30 drive-ins in the state, and looks forward to helping craft memories for future generations while preserving a true piece of American history.
“We are actually the second drive-in movie theater ever built,” she said. “The first one was in Camden, New Jersey, and that was the Camden Auto Park. And so that's the one that was [opened] 90 years ago.
"Shankweiler's was built the next year in 1934. But then Camden shut down. So then for the majority of Shankweiler’s life, it's been the oldest in America.”
"For the majority of Shankweiler’s life, it's been the oldest in America.”Lauren McChesney
So whether movie buffs are spurred by nostalgia, eschewing traditional theaters or just dropping by to check things out, McChesney is encouraged by the reception thus far.
“I would say probably the majority of people who've grown up in this area, when at least as kids or you know, while they were growing up, we've had a lot of older people who went there on dates when they were younger,” she said. “So it's one of those things. It’s been ingrained in this community for such a long time.
“And I think during the pandemic, people started looking back at that and thinking like, ‘Oh, here's a way to safely gather with friends or go see a movie,' or whatever.
“I mean, it's a fun experience. It's so different from just going directly to a movie theater and sitting down and then coming home. And we really feel like people rediscovered that and I don't see it going away anytime soon.”
What’s next for Shankweiler’s?
McChesney summed up the initial hesitancy of buying Shankweiler’s this way: “We were just a social worker and a guy with a van.”
She also had no experience in the industry, but knew one thing — she was totally exhausted with health care.
“I kept saying to Matt, ‘You know, it'd be cool if I quit my job and came to work for you.’ And he's like, ‘Absolutely not. You need to have a real job with real benefits.’ But in April, there was a little job shake up and I was like, ‘This is my sign that I need to just go.’ So I created a position for myself and told Matt how we're gonna handle it and pay for it.”
While enrolled at Lehigh Carbon Community College for business management, McChesney has crafted a plan for what the future of Shankweiler’s will look like. It not only includes fall and winter matinees and operating year-round — “rain, shine or snow” — but collaboration with community partners.
“Matt always says the weather is part of the experience," McChesney said. "So whether it's raining or it's foggy or, you know, snowing or whatever, that's all just part of seeing a movie outside. We were open in the snow that happened a few days ago, and it was actually pretty cool. I don't know … it's just neat to see a drive-in with all the snow falling.”
She’s said she also hopes to boost other local businesses at a time when weather can create a real downturn.
“County Seat Spirits is going to be out this week with their drinks, so we'll see how that goes,” she said Monday. “We had our very first food truck this weekend and… they're excited to be able to come out and do something unique at a movie theater.
“Our feeling was food trucks seem like a natural progression of this, especially if we're looking at the drive-in as an experience, because then there's at least like a rotating specialty food."
McChesney said ties to the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce and a number of entrepreneurship groups have helped them to build a network of partnerships and community organizations and “think outside the box about different ways that we could incorporate all of the community into us.”
“We want everyone to know that we're the oldest drive-in and we want everyone to know that we're open," she said. "And we want to have people feel like we are the community theater. That they’ll want to go here because it’s part of the neighborhood, it’s part of the community.”
