ing in a cool reprieve from the heat. As the first movie started, patrons tuned their dials to the shortwave FM radio station broadcasting the audio. The sound quietly rippled through the darkening field.
Sauerbeck felt confident building a new drive-in at a time when movie sales were at a 25-year low. He was selling more than just a ticket. He was selling a vintage experience that customers craved and couldn’ t find anywhere else.
“ It’ s this kind of historical, nostalgic, Americana experience, and I love it,” he said.“ It’ s very unique, and I think that’ s the key.”
Sauerbeck strives to make his theater even more unique by adding to the experience. He featured hula dancers for a showing this year of Disney’ s“ Lilo and Stitch,” drawing more than 1,100 viewers to the theater. It was the largest single-day ticket sale since the drive-in opened.
Although the new theater is doing well, threats to its success are persistent. Just this year, the construction of a proposed data center would have forced the drive-in to move elsewhere. Sauerbeck sighed with relief when the data center company withdrew its plans in July.
“ What we’ re experiencing at this location is urban sprawl,” he said.“ So many former drive-ins were at locations that are now shopping centers and subdivisions.”
Also, many theaters close after their longtime owners retire and look to sell the property. The United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association is trying to combat such closures by networking with younger people interested in buying a theater, according to Sauerbeck, an active member of the association. Movie buffs Matt McClanahan, 35, and Lauren McChesney, 41, took out a $ 1 million loan in 2022 to buy Shankweiler’ s Drive-In Theatre. The oldest operating drive-in venue in the world, Shankweiler’ s opened in 1934 in Orefield, Pennsylvania.
The engaged couple said they couldn’ t stand by and watch as the nation’ s most historic theater teetered on the brink of oblivion.
“ It was kind of an‘ If not us, who else?’ situation,” McClanahan told CNBC this month.“… Who else was going to do it but us?”
KEEPING IT OLD-SCHOOL
While Sauerbeck offers a vintage experience at a new venue, the 13-24 Drive-in in Indiana, vintage 1951, is a true throwback to the heyday of theaters. It’ s one of the few drive-in theaters listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The original marquee still sparkles with glitzy lights along Indiana 13, near the intersection of U. S. 24, advertising the evening’ s showtimes.
Patrons park by old metal poles that once held speakers blaring
the movie’ s audio, and the unassuming concession area is manned by mostly teenagers. A metal cabinet that had harbored the old 35-millimeter movie reels still stands beside the modern-day digital projector.
That old-school vibe at the 13-24 has kept Dwayne Gillard coming back for the past 15 years. He’ s 53 years old now and sits in a lawn chair at the drive-in by his wife and kids. But the experience always takes him back to his high school days.
“ I love this,” he said.“ The concession stand isn’ t renovated. It’ s all old. You get that feeling like you’ re back in 1985 when you come here.”
Christie Sparks, 23, has worked at the concession stand since she was 16. She loves the sense of community created by the drive-in, where families and friends hang out together beneath an open sky.
“ People just seem happy when they’ re here,” Sparks said.“ It makes me sad that streaming is cutting down on this so much. But I’ m happy that we’ re still one of the only drive-ins left.”
A local couple purchased the property in 2011 to save it from closing. Twelve years later, they donated it to the Honeywell Foundation, an arts-and-entertainment nonprofit in Wabash that operates the facility.
The venue’ s nonprofit status is one reason it remains open, explained Cathy Gatchel, Honeywell’ s chief development officer.
“ We have a business structure that helps us,” she said.“ If we were just in the business of trying to return profit, it might be a different story.... We see this as really a community outreach.”
Other drive-in owners need to make money to stay open, but most aren’ t in the business of getting rich, explained Melnick, the UC Santa Barbara film professor. As more theaters close every year, many view their job as a calling to preserve a treasured American pastime, he said.
“ They’ re doing it because there is nothing they’ d rather do than make people happy,” Melnick noted.“ Movies can give people their greatest joy, and running a drive-in gives them the opportunity to do that.”
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