- Up next on "Keystone Stories".

Drive-ins.

(mellow music) When it comes to drive-in theaters, Pennsylvania plays a significant role in their history.

The second drive-in theater built in the United States was built in Eastern PA and is still open to this day.

But this little bit of Americana is struggling to stay alive.

And there aren't many drive-in theaters left.

- It's hard to explain the love of a drive-in theater.

You just love the people, the patrons.

They come back week after week.

- You're welcome.

- Once it gets in your blood, it's there.

- I do what I do because I love keeping this little weed piece of Americana alive.

I'm one of those few that are still doing this.

- It's just a very relaxing atmosphere.

Families come here.

I like to see them having a good time enjoying themselves.

- If you went to most drive-in owners, you're gonna find the same kind of person as me.

They love what they do.

And that's the only reason why those drive-ins are there.

- Believe it or not, the first drive-ins began as early in the US as 1915, but the first real drive-in built as a dedicated space opened in New Jersey in 1933.

- After World War II, car ownership began to rise.

And so did the drive-in.

Theaters were being built all over the country.

At its peak, the drive-in industry saw nearly 5,000 theaters nationwide.

One of those theaters was the Super 322, which is located near Clearfield.

It was built in 1950.

The Super 322 was the first drive-in Barb Frankhouser visited as a child.

- My mother occasionally would bring us kids for a special night out and she would bring us here to the drive-in in a station wagon.

And it was the most fascinating thing to see everything so big on the screen.

And that's my first memories and recollections of the drive-in was this drive-in here.

- You could say Barb's husband Bill was born to be in the theater business.

- My dad was a union projectionist and I was about 14, 15 years old.

And he worked in the, a theater in Clearfield, but he would sneak me up in the projection booth and teach me how to make changeovers and teach me how to lace film up and change the (indistinct).

Then a while he would just sit back and let me do it.

And of course, after high school, I had a full-time job, but I always kept my fingers in the theater business.

- In 1973, Bill had the opportunity to work at the Midway Drive-in located in Juniata County.

- So I went down right then and there I knew I fell in love with drive-in theaters.

And I worked there for three summers.

You weren't cooped up in a little booth all the time or in an indoor theater, you were more outdoors and it was a more casual type of atmosphere.

And it was just a lot of fun.

- And in 1989, Bill and Barb purchased the Super 322, the same drive-in where Barb fell in love with the big screen as a child.

47 miles up the road from the Super 322 is Brookville, home of the Moonlight drive in.

- I immediately fell in love with it.

I love the, the setting.

This is one of the most beautiful settings for drive-in theater anywhere.

You're surrounded by by trees every which way you go.

We don't have any outside light that shines on the screens from the store next door, or the car lights or train lights or anything.

- Jim La Puma also got a start in the business at a very young age.

- When I started, when I was about 14 years old, I started drive-in theater that where I grew up was down by Pittsburgh and I went to school with one of the owner's daughters, and I went up and saw free movies.

And one night the the mother, who ran the snack bar said, "You want summer job?"

And I said sure.

Didn't know it was gonna last for 42 years.

- When Jim bought the Moonlight Drive-in, it wasn't in great shape.

But he brought the theater back to life and reopened it in 1996.

- He's so committed to the community and making things right in the community.

And this is part of the community, the Moonlight Drive-in, and we will wanna try to help keep it here another 60 plus years.

So it's a piece of history of town that we don't wanna lose.

- You really have to love it.

If it wasn't love for drive-in theater, the Moonlight Drive-in wouldn't be here.

- Pennsylvania holds an important place in the nation's history of the drive-in.

Shankweiler's Drive-In, only the second in the nation, was opened in 1934 in Eastern PA, and is still open today, making it the oldest operating drive-in in the nation.

Over the next 25 years, more than 180 drive-ins opened in the state.

Today, nearly 85% of those theaters are no longer open.

27 still remain in business, making Pennsylvania number two in terms of open theaters in the country.

- The late 1950s were definitely the peak of the drive-in trend in the US.

A lot of things were happening to change the popularity of drive-ins.

Although they certainly persisted well through the 1960s and the 1970s.

Some of the things that were changing were the complete penetration of television throughout the country.

In many rural areas that did not have television or had limited access to stations the drive-in was still a really important entertainment choice.

- A lot of drive-ins were built on the outskirts of town and as towns expanded, the ground became more valuable and they've sold the ground off for developers and things of that nature.

- We're losing drive-ins by the buckets.

Even this summer, as owners are getting older and circumstances with a pandemic and times are tough, we're losing drive-ins.

It's always been an issue when the properties have become more valuable as property than it is as it operating a drive-in theater.

So we keep losing them.

- The drive-ins that have survived are here to serve families because of family.

- My daughter started here when she was 14.

She is 28 now.

So we've been here for quite some time.

- You can involve the entire family and make an entire evening of entertainment.

It's not just, you know, we went here, we did that.

It's an entire evening.

You come here, you park the car.

The kids are down front playing while the parents are getting things set up.

They come in, they can get dinner, they can watch a movie and spend an entire evening together.

- Drive-ins are all about family entertainment.

And these days that can mean more than just showing movies.

- Well, we've had an Elvis impersonator here.

We had a car show and that was big.

- Tonight is our annual trunk or treat extravaganza.

Years ago, we started by adding trunk or treat, not just showing a kid show, adding trunk or treat where the kids can dress up.

As you can see, the adults can dress up.

- And during the pandemic, drive-in theaters became a refuge for events that required social distancing.

Thanks to the open space provided, communities were still able to participate in concerts, church services and graduations.

America has changed a lot in the 90 years since drive-ins first started appearing.

People get their entertainment from other places now.

It can be a struggle to keep these places around, but the drive-ins that are still here are keeping a little piece of the past alive.

- Now that there are so few of them left around the country, people I think really appreciate them as a unique form of entertainment that is at the same time loaded with cultural memories of post-war baby boom America.

- Despite times being tougher, most owners have no plans to close their theaters.

- This country has more drive-ins of course, than any other place in the world.

They were invented here and they thrived here.

And we just need to try to keep what's left.

- And thanks to the folks who do the hard work maintaining this little bit of Americana, there are still magic nights at the drive-in.

- If I can take a look up the front row and see it's practically full.

There's people sitting out , there's kids out there playing.

This is what the drive-in's about.

This is what it's all about.

It should be like this every night.

- Keeping Americana alive goes beyond projecting films on a screen.

Our next story is from Reynoldsville and features a man who continues the tradition of handmade neon signs, the type of signs that you'll find at a lot of drive-in theaters.

- My name is Dave Simmons, and my story is about Neon Exposure, our sign business.

The main things we do, banner material or vinyl or vehicle wraps, which is all done on a 54 inch wide full colored vinyl machine.

Channel letters, which is more of an architectural stuff for like a mall situation, sign on the front of a building.

The WPSU logo that we did, the demonstration was done on the router table.

Use a big V-Y bit.

Typically that would be a gold leaf sign, cut out of foam, inch and a half foam.

The pylon signs that we manufacture, there's a golf course that we did up at Dubois, which had a red tee on the bottom of the sign, all hand fabricated with the plastic LEDs inside of it.

Message centers, we install that kind of stuff.

Basically the stuff we build is all custom work.

I don't really do cookie cutter type sign work.

I met a teacher here at Jeff Tech.

I would've been 15 years old.

His name was Jim Alberts, and I thought the world of the man.

He had taken me under his wing here at Jeff Tech.

And he had invited me one time to his house to show me how to use a paintbrush.

And then he taught me how to pinstripe.

And the joke was he was right handed and I was lefthanded.

So when we would go on a, on a job together and we would paint from the center out.

Somehow I ended up following his lead.

Time went on, we did billboards, stone, so forth.

And every time I'd get into a contract or something, I'd call Jim and I'd say, "Jim, this is, this is too hard.

This is too much work."

And Jim would always say, just go back, take a deep breath and keep working at what you're doing.

It took me from '81 to 1986 to get my first neon tube to light.

And I ran into Jim and I said, "Jim, I'm getting ready to set up my first neon sign."

I said, "You have to come see it tomorrow."

And he says, "Well, I'm going to State College.

I'll be back tomorrow."

And Lord and behold, he passed away that night.

So he never got to see what his work of teaching me the hand painting and then going on and then getting into the upper echelons of sign work, which is the neons, like the top level of it.

And he had passed away.

It just broke my heart.

So I put a little dedication plaque to, to Jim on my first sign.

I'm literally like the last of the Mohican.

A lot of different sign companies come to me because it's, it's a dying art.

It's not about the money.

It's the challenge of learning something is why I love this business.

I landed in Reynoldsville, 'cause I went to the school.

This school is so important for this area.

I've learned how to take care of my family because of the school living in Reynoldsville.

This school taught me that everything in life is not about money.

It's about helping other people, learning something new, you know, being friendly to people.

That's why I like Reynoldsville.

- Drive-in screens are built in many different ways.

Some are made of wood or metal and some are made of cinder blocks like this one, but you might be surprised to find what's behind this screen here at the Moonlight Drive-in in Brookville.

- The screen's always an inquisitive thing 'cause everybody doesn't understand.

Most drive-in theaters have a steel structure as a screen.

Here at the Moonlight Drive-in we're actually projecting on concrete block.

You'll be able to see from the side of the screen, it's 14 feet deep.

It was made to house three apartments on the inside.

I don't know if they were gonna rent them or whatever.

It was never finished.

The roof rotted, the wood fell part.

And that was the end of that.

They never did the apartments.

When you go behind this wall, this is where I spend my time because I live here.

I actually had a mobile home here 'cause I used to live 60 miles away.

Traveling back and forth got to be a bit much.

So I got a mobile home, put it here so I could stay overnight when I needed to in my travels far back and forth.

Not only do I spend my time here, you can see I've ducks.

We have chickens.

We have goats and I have one secret pet, but I you'll have to meet him first.

(rooster crows) Come on.

Let's go, move.

Come on Grump, move, move, move, move, move, move, move.

Okay, go.

That's Vinny.

When you're in the house, he's in your lap.

Just like a dog.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

You can't sit without him being on top of you.

Huh Vinny.

People think pigs are dirty and smelly and he doesn't smell and he is not dirty.

He's a great kid.

He he's really, really a good kid.

Come on in Jack.

I think everybody I've ever brought in here has done that look and they can't understand how they're inside of a screen.

I mean, that's just a fact.

This is what I call the drive-in room you come into.

My other drive-in theater in 1996 was picked as one of the top 10 drive-in theaters by Playboy magazine, Galaxy Drive-in.

This stein was made by Budweiser.

I've had that for a long time.

This door here goes right out toward the snack bar.

This is my living room.

I call it the mafia room.

You'd never guess, would you?

I initially put an office in here because I needed a place to work.

And then upstairs, there's two bedrooms and a bathroom.

And there you go.

You can see my yard.

I'm always a, a music nut so I always have to have music on and everybody laughs, but I'll let you hear this.

(rock music) Everybody said those are small speakers and now I have a sub cabinet under the steps.

So that's why you can feel the bass.

I'm a, a lighthouse fanatic.

I love the ocean and things like that.

These are all pictures that I took.

You can see how many different lighthouses I've been to.

I think I've been in about 50 of them.

I've even been awarded the key to city by the mayor of Brookville.

So not too many people can say that, but I was.

You're sitting inside of a screen.

You know, it's just unique.

Not too many people can say that, not many.

- WPSU has been telling stories about drive-ins for years.

This next piece aired in August of 2006.

It's from a series called "Where's Charlie".

(big band music) - The movie is about to begin here at the Starlight Drive-in in Center County.

This is a very popular place tonight.

- One of the main reasons they come to drive-is to bring their lounge chairs, sit outside, have a picnic party atmosphere.

But one of the great things they like, they still like that 90 foot wide screen.

- People come early to get close, get a good spot, meet friends, family, and have dinner.

But why a drive-in instead of a regular theater?

- What I like about the drive-in is that you can just be around your friends and you can talk to people and, and you've got the whole group around you rather than just in the seats of the movie theater.

- It's a family event and anybody can come.

- I don't know.

I, I actually prefer to come to the drive-in versus a regular movie theater just because I don't know, I like to be outside and you can control the volume yourself or you can fall asleep if you want.

- Well, it's Friday night and we're kind of bored.

So we thought it'd be fun to come out and watch some movies.

- Oftentimes when you, you go to a regular movie theater, now it's just, you go and you see the show and that's it.

And you go back home and it's the end of it.

Whereas you come out here and you can sit out before and you enjoy the evening.

And it just makes a whole night of it really coming out to the movie.

- One of the things that makes it different from the old days is that most of the people are now outside their cars.

The old window speakers are gone and the stereo sound comes through your radio.

- Thanks.

Great job, Rick.

Good job in the car.

Ricky Bobby.

- One other thing that goes hand in hand with the movie is the food.

And it has to be just the right food.

Nachos, hamburgers, hot dogs, candy.

And of course popcorn.

- You know, I used to work in a drive-in theater and I used to make all the popcorn and I used to eat salty popcorn until my lips hurt.

- Movies, food, friends, and family, they all seem to bring back lots of memories.

- It would be like a mystery movie on and it would be, and the killer is, and then you hit a snack bar closing 15 minutes.

Closes in 15 minutes, snack bar be closing, dun dun dun.

Then the movie will be over.

- When I'm working around the theater.

A lot of people come up to me and tell me about, they had their first date here and they're probably maybe a little older than I am right now.

There's, there's a lot of memories that go back through that many years.

And we have a lot of people that you actually see maybe two times the same weekend on the same show.

- Whether it's the parents or grandparents, bringing their kids to experience the good old days or new people enjoying it for the first time, one thing seems to be the case.

Drive-in theaters will continue to grow in popularity as long as they project a good image.

- Our final two stories come from WPSUs "Our Town" series.

Drive-ins became very important during the pandemic, especially in Portage and Kane.

- My name's Dustin Grush and I'm here to talk about the Bar-Ann Drive-in.

The Bar-Ann Drive-in began by George Wasco in the 1950s during the drive-in boom across the country.

We went from zero to over 4,000 drive-ins in a span of about 20 years and returning GIs had new cars and needed something to do on Saturday night.

And the drive-in was the perfect place to go.

It's a family oriented business.

We meet a lot of people who came to the drive-in as kids.

And when they come back to the area or if they still live here, they bring their kids, even their grandkids.

Generally people come in about an hour or so before the movie starts.

They can gather, they can play down in the field.

They bring Frisbees and baseballs, soccer balls, and we have a full concession stand.

Offer many items for sale there.

They can eat, get together, enjoy, sit on a blanket, watch the movie under the stars.

We've had special events at the drive in.

We've had Boy Scout groups in the past have come out.

They've watched a movie, they've camped out overnight.

We've had a few businesses that have brought in their employees for a special event night for that business.

They've rented out the theater.

Occasionally for holidays or special events We'll bring in a triple feature.

And for the past five years, every Saturday before Labor Day, we've had a dusk to dawn show.

So we show six movies.

We start at eight o'clock at night and we end up about six o'clock in the morning.

We serve breakfast after midnight and people come, have a great time.

They bring tents and just really enjoy themselves.

COVID 19 brought on some challenges, but when we were finally able to reopen last year, we made a few changes and gave people an opportunity to come out social distance, and get to enjoy a movie that they otherwise might not have been able to enjoy.

The pandemic has opened our eyes that there are more uses for the theater than just movies.

We were approached by a couple of companies that wanted to have things like concerts and other or types of events at the drive in.

Last year, we did show several prerecorded concerts that people were able to come in and watch.

And we're hoping to be able to show some live concerts this year as well.

What makes Portage great of course is the people, the work ethic, the businesses and the town and Portage is one of the great small towns in Pennsylvania.

- Hello, my name is Lowell Watts.

We're going to talk about the Kane family Drive-in Theater today.

The theater was originally built in 1952 and seven years ago we became the proud owners of the Kane Family Drive-in.

- So my name is Jackie Watts and my family and I own the Kane Family Drive-in Theater.

We had an opportunity to consider purchasing the drive-in.

Now we had quite a history with the drive-in.

Lowell and I had our first date there.

We had taken our children there many, many times as they were growing up.

So the kids were more than anxious to be a part of that history.

And that's how we came to be the stewards of this community theater.

- When we purchased it, we decided that we would purchase the potential that the drive-in had and try to develop that potential.

And we wanna save it for the next generation, 'cause it's a very, very special place in the community and everybody loves it.

I'm definitely not a drive-in guy.

I'm definitely not a movie guy, but yes, it's something we absolutely want to preserve in our community.

- We just love that this is a place where everybody comes and everybody's happy to be there.

With COVID, you really didn't know what to expect about any place you went or anything you did for the last year.

But I think that people come to the drive-in and it's the drive-in.

It's like it's always been, nothing has changed and everybody feels kind of happy and relaxed to be there because it's just like it's always been.

- Wow.

Last year was an eye opener.

We had church services out there, which was wonderful.

Everybody could stay socially distanced in their car.

You know, it was non ecumenical.

It was wonderful.

We got the opportunity to have graduation at the drive-in.

I'm just getting goosebumps talking about it.

It was phenomenal.

We had a beautiful fireworks display.

We had a great commencement address by our mayor.

We've been able to do so many different things out there.

- The cohesive part of all those events is the community involvement.

The community involvement though, in this little town of Kane, there is more talent.

There are makers, there are are cooks.

There are musicians.

There are people who build, people who do technology.

Everybody came together to make all those events happen.

It was fabulous.

Just because everybody wants to work together to do something special for a purpose.

- My goal is when my kids are graduated from college and I'm, you know, no longer able to stay out until 2:30, 3 o'clock in the morning and we do sell it.

I wanna make sure that it's a profitable business.

So it gets to stay a drive-in and it doesn't become something else.

That's our goal is to preserve it for future generations.

- It thrills me to be at the ticket booth and see our community pass right by me.

I get a chance to talk to everyone.

We just love that this is a place where everybody comes and everybody's happy to be there.

- So next time you want to catch a movie, consider doing it under the stars.

See you next time on "Keystone Stories".