posted 07-07-2013 08:46 PM                    

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Reel history: America's oldest drive-in theater
Shankweiler's encompasses the history of the drive-in, from the Great Depression to the digital age.

By Erik Sofge of MSN Autos

The speaker poles are still standing at Shankweiler's Drive-in Theatre in Orefield, Pa., now in its 80th consecutive season. But there's no sound piped through them: no tinny, ringing dialogue, like so many announcements droning out of a high school public address system. That ended long ago — in the 1980s — when drive-ins started broadcasting audio over AM radio frequencies.

Then came crisper FM stereo broadcasts, something Shankweiler's pioneered in 1986 when co-owner Paul Geissinger built the first such broadcast unit for use in a drive-in. That audio is still coming across FM, but now it's from digital files. And after a major renovation this past year, the oldest continually operating drive-in theater in America has been stripped of its analog past and boasts all-digital projection and sound.

The speaker poles are still there, though. They show you where to park, since the lines painted across the field have worn thin over time.

An industry pioneer, a national institution
Shankweiler's isn't the only drive-in theater still operating in the United States, but its history encompasses the industry it helped pioneer. It was there in the beginning, opening in 1934, just a year after the first drive-in, the appropriately named Drive-In Theatre in Camden, N.J.

Shankweiler's Auto Park, as it was then called, was the nation's second. By the end of the 1930s, there were 18 drive-ins across the country, most on the East Coast, with a third clustered in New England. And while the post-war years of the '40s saw a spike in automotive movie-going, with the total number of drive-in theaters rocketing to some 820 sites, it was the onset of full-blown American car culture that made them a national institution.

By the end of the 1950s, there were nearly 5,000 drive-ins — more than one-third of the number of indoor movie theaters in the country at the time. Theater size ballooned, too. There were drive-ins in Texas and Michigan that accommodated 3,000 cars, and it was common for new facilities to open with space for 1,000 or more vehicles.

A modest affair
In this brave new world of sprawling lots and multiplying movie screens, Shankweiler's remained a modest affair. It has always served roughly as many cars as it does today: 320 or so with a full house. And where other drive-ins featured three or more screens, Shankweiler's offers one. There are concessions at this Pennsylvania icon, but none of the pony rides, sit-down dinners and miniature golf featured at larger, newer operations.

Geissinger didn't start working at Shankweiler's until the early 1970s, but he recalls how the drive-in experience started to shift in the 1960s. "The van and the station wagon changed a lot of things," he says. "But the biggest change was in the '60s, when car companies added headrests to the seats. Then people in back couldn't see the movie anymore." Customers migrated out to chairs and blankets.

By 1971, when Geissinger started running the projector at Shankweiler's, the drive-in boom was over. Roughly a fifth of the country's theaters had closed, and the worst was yet to come. For Geissinger, who had apprenticed at a pristine 35mm indoor movie theater, the state of Shankweiler's came as a shock. "It was bad news, according to my standards at the time," Geissinger says. "It was clean, but the equipment was ancient, held together by rubber bands. Being a 17-year-old, wet-behind-the-ears projectionist studying to be an electrician, it scared the hell out of me."

A life's work
Geissinger isn't sure why, or how, but Shankweiler's went from a temporary gig to a life's work. "I fell in love with the place," he says. "It gets into your blood. Every winter, between seasons, I'd do something out there. I tore the projectors out, made the place more comfortable. But there were a lot of things that people didn't see; we updated everything, electrically speaking."

The AM broadcaster went in, for example, as a supplement to the speakers mounted on poles. And when Geissinger bought the place in 1984, further improvements weren't an option, aside from an upgrade to FM audio — to match the new Dolby audio tracks coming out of Hollywood. "There were many times, even in the '70s, when there more employees at the theater than customers," Geissinger says. "That was the start of VCRs. And we couldn't pay for new prints. We didn't play 'Star Wars' until it had been out for a year." By the late 1980s, the problems at Shankweiler's mirrored the larger crisis for drive-ins. "Business was sucko. It wasn't even profitable," Geissinger says.

In fact, the very idea of the drive-in theater was hurtling toward extinction. By 1990, there were fewer than 1,000 across the nation, the fewest in more than four decades. It wasn't that vehicles had changed, or that car culture had shifted. Media consumption had simply evolved, with more indoor theaters than ever for watching new releases, and more VCRs for viewing at home the kinds of older movies that drive-ins were forced to screen.

Saved by the multiplexes
What saved Shankweiler's, and quite possibly the drive-in as an institution, was the birth of the multiplex. As theater owners adopted a new, multiscreen approach to blockbuster films — running a movie on four screens in the first couple of weeks, for example, and then downscaling to two screens to make way for the next release — distributors were left with an abundance of expensive prints collecting dust after brief runs. With affordable second-run fees, drive-ins offered a second home for otherwise useless prints. "I have to thank the major players in the film industry for building megaplexes," Geissinger says. "That helped the drive-in industry. Film distributors saw we were a viable industry. Now we're playing first-run movies."

And that brings us to the present, where the American drive-in is still struggling, but is far from dead.

According to the United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association, there are 357 drive-in theaters left in the country. They make the bulk of their money from concessions, and nine theaters closed just last year. But, overall, business appears to have stabilized. The movie selection at Shankweiler's varies — in keeping with its family-oriented past, Geissinger leans toward PG and G-rated offerings, with the occasional PG-13 film shown as a second feature (as with most drive-ins, every screening at Shankweiler's is a double feature).

Into the digital age
The cars, for now, continue to show up for a mix of animated films such as "Epic" and "The Croods," and tent-pole summer releases, including "Oblivion" and "Man of Steel." And the biggest difference is on screen, where the digitally projected images are brighter and sharper than their analog predecessors.

In fact, Shankweiler's almost went dark in 2012 when Geissinger and his wife had to decide whether to close for good or make the switch to digital. After $115,000 in renovations (not including Geissinger's own time as a professional electrician), the theater is prepped for the next era, where movies that once filled film cans now arrive on hard drives, reel changes are replaced by playlists and where — with any luck — the owners' 21-year-old daughter will stay interested in the business and eventually take over. "We decided it's only money. We've gone this far. We're both 60. We had to go digital or give it up," Geissinger says. "And we certainly didn't want to be responsible for closing America's oldest drive-in movie theater."

Based out of the Boston area, Erik Sofge is a frequent contributor to Popular Mechanics and Slate.com. He specializes in everything scientific and technical.

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Pretty good article.

posted 07-11-2013 02:27 PM                    

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PARMA, Idaho (AP) — In the early 1950s, new television sets had valley residents staying home more and going to the movies less, which didn't bode well for local theater owners.

Bill Dobbs of Parma decided to open a drive-in theater in the town to get people out of their homes and going to the movies again, his daughter Karen Cornwell said.

Dobbs, who also owned an indoor theater in downtown Parma, sold his home so he could make a down payment on a loan for the theater, Cornwell said. But the Parma Motor-Vu didn't open to huge crowds its first year.

"It really wasn't that great, because there was a drive-in in almost every little town in the valley," Cornwell said. "... It was a situation where you were expected to draw just within your own community, and it wasn't enough. They struggled."

Despite the lackluster start, Dobbs' Parma Motor-Vu gained momentum and has held on through the years. It will celebrate 60 years July 20, and it's one of just 10 drive-in theaters left in the entire state, according to the United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association, down from a high of 40.

"I'm really proud of it and proud that we maintain it," Cornwell said. "It's kind of mind boggling to think that we've survived for 60 years."

What saved the struggling theater in the earlier years was the decision to show Spanish-language films, Cornwell said. For a while the drive-in showed those films Wednesdays and Sundays and English-language films Thursdays through Saturdays. The theater dropped the Spanish films in the 1980s when business slowed, and started showing newer titles. They also closed the downtown theater around the same time.

Cornwell said they realized the drive-in theater was showing films that were older than what was on television.

"There you have it — TV was the culprit again," she said.

Cornwell and her husband took over the theater from her parents in 1976. She said it wasn't her intent to carry on the family business, but it has become something she loves. Her children help with the theater now and some of her grandchildren are on the payroll.

The first movies shown at the Motor-Vu were "Trouble Along the Way," starring John Wayne, and "The Gunfighter," starring Gregory Peck. Adults could watch a movie for 60 cents, children ages 10 and 11 were 20 cents and children under 10 were free.

This past weekend, adults paid $8 and children under 12 got in free to see "Star Trek Into Darkness," starring Chris Pine, and "Fast and Furious 6," starring Vin Diesel.

Although the movies and their stars may have changed, many things at the Parma Motor-Vu have remained intact over its six decades. Popcorn is still popped in the original machine and movies are shown on the original screen.

In April, Cornwell converted the theater to digital, a necessity to stay in business because films will all go digital after this year, she said.

As the number of drive-in theaters dwindles, the theaters have become nostalgic places for families to spend an evening. Cornwell said grandparents like to bring their grandchildren to watch movies outdoors the way they did when they were younger.

But it's not just an older generation that can appreciate the experience. Animated features draw the biggest crowds to the theater, Cornwell said. "Cars" was the most successful movie to ever play at the Parma Motor-Vu. The drive-in had to turn cars away that lined up a quarter-mile down the road. The film also played for five weeks instead of the two weeks movies are normally shown at the theater.

She said the theater is doing much better now than it did in the early days, and draws people from all over.

"The whole valley comes here," she said. "It's not a Parma drive-in theater, it's a valley drive-in theater."

The theater will mark its anniversary with a barbecue for current and past employees, including the original projectionist and the original "popcorn girl," Cornwell said.

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