10/01/2020
Some great history about this drive-in! https://www.facebook.com/pg/Nostalgic-Drive-In-Theater-Newspaper-Ads-134504123231363/photos/?tab=album&album_id=250621621619612
In this new feature, we will look at the histories of drive-ins that are still open today. The Harvest Moon Drive-in Theater officially opened in Linden, PA on July 4, 1952, meaning 2012 will mark the drive-in's 60th Anniversary. The grand opening ceremony included a two-hour performance from the Jersey Shore High School Band, a movie called Red Mountain starring Alan Ladd "in glorious technicolor" and a fight film, a technicolor musical and cartoons. The Harvest Moon was originally constructed and operated at a cost of $85,000 by a team of five Bellefonte, PA area business people, led by H.E. Neill (Is he still alive today?) who purchased 150 acres of land on which the drive-in continues to sit today from a farm owned by Ollie K. Robinson. The original Harvest Moon Drive-in upon opening utilized a 40X60 foot screen and a concrete concession building of the same size. Both have since been replaced. The drive-in could accomondate 600 cars, including 200 cars in the waiting area or drive-ways leading into the theater. The Linden area had only two additional drive-ins open at that time: The Star-lite on Route 14 East of Montoursville and the Lycoming Drive-in, 1 mile North of Williamsport on routes 14 and 15. Both the Starlite and the Lycoming have since long closed. (The Pike Drive-in of Montgomery, PA, the only other drive-in besides The Harvest Moon also still operating today in the region, would open on April 16, 1953. Grand opening ads for the Pike are included in this album, as well as ads for other drive-ins and indoors that once existed in the area at the time including the Park Drive-in in Lock Haven). At the time the Harvest Moon was built in 1952, the United States had just over 3,000 drive-ins, including 1,557 built during record boom years for the medium between 1950 and 1951. On April 20, 1956, the Harvest Moon reopened as the Port Drive-in Theater, under new owners of the Comerford Theaters Group. The reopening came with several renovations, including new landscaping, and "the area's finests cafeteria-style snack bar" for quicker service that made the new Port Drive-in "truly a drive-in equal to the country's finest." The grand re-opening ceremony on April 20, 1956 incuded a fireworks display and an opening film presentation of Artists and Models, starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis and Lana Turner in Rains OF Ranchipur. Today, as of a few years ago, the Port Drive-in, now a two-screen drive-in, was taken over by the husband and wife team of BOB MADARA and Darlene, who renamed the location in a tribute back to its original name between 1952 and 1956: Crazy Bob's Harvest Moon Drive-in Theater. Mr. Madara was previously instrumental in reopening New Jersey's only open drive-in theater: The Delsea Drive-in Theater in 2004, which had been closed since 1987. Mr. Madara and I had a few disagreements over promotion of an earlier retro show we co-sponsored on May 29 this year. But I acknowledge that Bob is the true regional drive-in expert and Legend, where I am just trying to learn the ropes. For 2011, Bob has teamed up with acclaimed national film exhibitor George Reis, the man behind the annual Drive-in Super Monster-Rama, to bring some of the country's only true retro dusk-to-dawn drive-in shows to the Harvest Moon throughout all of 2011, in a true dedication to the accomplished history of the Harvest Moon Drive-in Theater.
