Category:Shankweiler's Drive-In Theater, Orfield, Pennsylvania

English: Shankweiler's Drive-In Theater is a 300-car single-screen drive-in, located in Orfield, about 12 miles north of Allentown on PA 309.

Its origins date to 1933, when during a return trip from Atlantic City, Wilson Shankweiler and his wife came upon an outdoor theater in Camden, New Jersey. Built in 1932, it was the first drive-in theater in the United States. A movie buff, when Shankweiler saw it, he decided he liked the idea and wanted to have one for himself.

When he returned to Orfield, Shankweiler set about converting a small aircraft landing strip behind his hotel into Pennsylvania's first drive-in movie theater, the second one in the United States. The landing strip was used by barnstorming pilots who would fly into Shankweiler's Hotel for a room, to freshen up and enjoy a meal. A circle of white gravel on the edge of the theater's parking spaces was used by them to help determine sufficient takeoff and landing room.

The original drive-in consisted of two flag poles and a sheet, which was put up in the evenings. A 16mm projector resting on a small table in the middle of the field showed silent films to people in small cars and trucks during the first season in 1934. As the years went by, the technology improved.

Shortly after Shankweiler set up his theater, the owner of the Camden NJ drive in filed a lawsuit against him, calming Shankweiler had infringed on his unique idea. Richard Hollingsehead, owner of the Camden drive-in, wanted to franchise the idea, but Hollingshead used railroad ties piled up with earth behind them to give cars and trucks the proper angle of elevation for the screen, while Shankweiler used mounds of dirt instead. Hollingsehead's patrons who forgot to back away from the incline often got hung up on it as they pulled forward after the show. Shankweiler's mounds allowed patrons to drive ahead when the film was over, and the courts found in favor of Shankwieler to pursue his own version of the outdoor movie theater.

Originally called "Shankweiler Auto Park", the theater also attracted walk-in movie fans who sat on benches up near the screen. When North Whitehall Township sought to levy an amusement tax on all movie theaters, Shankweiler made up a new sign advertising "Free Movies, parking 50 cents". Because there was no tax on parking, Shankweiler's drive-in escaped the new tax. It first advertised in the Allentown Morning Call newspaper on 31 May 1935, and in early 1937 an RCA sound system was installed and it began to play sound films through a speaker to the audience.

In 1949, Al Moffa, a close friend of Shankweiler's who was a theater owner in Allentown, built the country's first in-car speaker system at the drive-in. In October 1954, Hurricane Hazel servery damaged the theater and the projection screen. The damage necessitated rebuilding the theater with a new CinemaScope widescreen and relocated the snack bar and projection booth, the ones still in use today. It did not reopen until July 1955. Al Moffa leased Shankweiler's drive-in in 1958 and employed Bob Malkemis as the theater's manager. In 1959 Malkames took over the lease from Moffa and with Shankweiler's passing in 1963, the drive-in theater in Orfield was sold to Malkames in 1965.

In 1983, Malkemis sold the drive-in to Paul Geissinger and his wife, who together “operated it as a second job and as a hobby.” In 1984, the sound system was switched to AM Radio (now FM), with a micro-vicinity transmitter that covers the drive-in area. The entire film and sound system went to a 4K digital format in 2013, the sound now in Dolby 5.1 surround.

The Drive-in remains in operation today under other owners, last being sold in 2018.