How romance and a road trip led to the purchase of the world's oldest drive

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The sunsets on the Shankweiler Drive-In as previews run before the feature film "Jaws" in Orefield, Pa., Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

OREFIELD, Pa. – In a romance and adventure worthy of the big screen, a Pennsylvania couple is preserving the past and forging a future as the owners of the world’s oldest operating drive-in movie theater.

Lauren McChesney got more than admission to a double feature when she handed her ticket to Matt McClanahan at a different drive-in he managed in 2018. They started dating a year later, and, in August, got engaged. In between, they purchased Shankweiler’s Drive-In Theatre, which was Pennsylvania’s first drive-in and only the nation’s second when it opened in 1934.

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