LEHIGHTON, Pa. (AP) —_ As cars roll into the Mahoning Drive-In Theater and wait for the sun to go down, Jeff Mattox loads the first reel of 35 mm film onto a Simplex E7 projector. “Years ago, this was the way it was done,” Mattox said, as he pointed out the different parts of the 70-year-old twin projectors that still run side-by-side in the projection room. Since the movie industry started transitioning to digital cinema technology in 2012, The Mahoning, a drive-in that exclusively shows 35 mm film, is the last of its kind. The movies shown on any given weekend might be relatively new such as the recent showing of 1992’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But patrons still get a taste of what it was like when the theater opened outside of Lehighton in April 1949 and moviegoers sang along to the Mahoning’s premier feature, the musical April Showers. “Carbon County’s big, modern drive-in theater has just been completed in the Mahoning Valley,” said an April 18, 1949, article in The Morning Call. It advertised individual speakers for each auto “that will bring sound directly into the car,” and a switch on the speaker that could be used to summon a waitress from the snack bar. The speakers mounted on individual poles were gone by the time Mattox started working at the theater in 2001. Now moviegoers tune in with their radios. Mattox has worked as the theater’s film projectionist off and on for 18 years, and bought the business in 2014. At that time, the drive-in was still showing the first-run movies that all the cineplexes were getting. But Mattox knew that would end soon. “My production agent told me they weren’t going to make film anymore,” Mattox said. With a screen that’s 110-feet-across and a lot that holds up to 1,000 cars, the Mahoning would have needed a digital system costing $100,000. “I couldn’t afford that, and I knew it,” Mattox said. “So, I had a decision to make: Either in a couple years I can shut it down and that will be it, or what will be available on film? I said, `You know what? I’m going to turn it into a museum, but an operating museum.”’ Mattox decided to “go retro,” showing only the classics or the obscure still available on 35 mm such as The Wizard of Oz, which kicked off this year’s season. Once Mattox made the decision to stick with 35 mm, something unexpected happened: Matt McClanahan stumbled upon the lot. McClanahan, a Temple University film student at the time, was driving back from Luzerene County where he was working on a documentary in 2014, when construction forced him off the Turnpike and onto the back roads of Carbon County. “I saw this marquee and my first instinct was, `Wow, an abandoned drive-in theater,”’ said McClanahan, who decided to follow the sign down Seneca Road, where the Mahoning’s colossal screen suddenly comes into view above the treetops. Call it kismet, but Mattox happened to be at the theater that afternoon. McClanahan told him about his love of film and about his friend Virgil Cardamone, also a film student at Temple, who had dreamed of running a drive-in theater since he was 13 years old. Today, the three film buffs are business partners and Mattox, 60, plans to one day leave the theater to McClanahan and Cardamone. Under their direction, and with the help of many dedicated volunteers, the hidden drive-in off of Route 443 in Mahoning Township has thrived, creating a niche for fans that goes beyond the film. The Mahoning is as much about the social experience as it is about the movie. Every weekend has a theme and guests are invited to dress up like their favorite movie characters and join the party inside the concession stand, which JT Mills, a volunteer from Clarks Summit, usually decorates to look like the backdrop of that weekend’s film. During “Vampyrty Weekend” Mills brought along his own 35 mm copy of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” that he won in an eBay auction, and the original guitar neck turned vampire-slaying stake that was a prop in the 1992 Joss Whedon film. “It’s not just about the films. It’s about putting on a show,” he said. “You can see a movie anywhere, but where else do you get to be part of the show?” It’s not unusual to see a look-alike Buffy Anne Summers eating popcorn at The Mahoning’s concession stand, or a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle posing for photos. Horror shows — the theater’s favorite genre — bring out the neighborhood Frankensteins, Freddy Kruegers and Scream freaks. The management plays up the kitsch, with themed events like “Godzilla Palooza,” and “Bite Night,” where one of the featured films was Jurassic Park and costumed T. Rex trolled the lot. When the movies end, the tents go up, as the drive-in welcomes campers to stay overnight. “This is one-of-a-kind. To do this all season long is crazy, and the fact that we do it speaks volumes about our fandom,” McClanahan said as he worked the ticket booth on a recent Friday night, collecting $10 a person. Since going all retro, the Mahoning went from “crippling debt” to being profitable, he said. The Mahoning’s popularity was also bolstered by the documentary At The Drive-In, shot by director Alexander Monelli during the 2016-17 seasons and released nationally on DVD this April. This summer is the Mahoning’s 70th season and the 86th birthday of drive-in movies. The first theater was opened in Camden, N.J., on June 6, 1933, by Richard M. Hollingshead Jr., according to the book Cinema Under the Stars, America’s Love Affair With The Drive-In Movie Theater, by Elizabeth McKeon and Linda Everett. Drive-ins were a perfect fit for America’s car culture and its post-World War II flight to the suburbs, where large lots of affordable land could accommodate the burgeoning market. At the height of the industry in 1958, there were more than 4,000 drive-ins across the country, according to the United Drive-In Theater Owner’s Association. Increasing land values, which made it more profitable to convert outdoor theaters into commercial development, sent that number plummeting in the 1980s |