An uncle had owned the Circle for more than 50 years, as drive-ins faded in the national consciousness. The pandemic changed that. It found its place again, a niche in the community, said Frances Kovaleski, the register of wills and clerk of the orphans court in Lackawanna County, which includes Scranton. Youre in your car. Social distancing to see the movie? You dont have to worry about anything.
Around Dickson City, the Circle is a throwback. It remains the way it probably was, back in the 50s or the 60s the architecture of the concession stand, the layout of the place, the ticket booth when you drive in, said Steven Serge, who runs a car dealership down the road from the Circle. Its a part of Americana.
Drive-ins were a quintessential element of car-crazed American culture in the years after World War II that had long since been written off like junkyard relics. As drive-in audiences dwindled lost to brick-and-mortar theaters that multiplied, amoebalike, into triplexes and quadruplexes and later into multiplexes and megaplexes rising land prices and property taxes drove many drive-in owners to cash out, making way for subdivisions, office parks or shopping centers.
But the pandemic made 2020 different. Drive-ins started to reopen earlier than other businesses in many places, said Nick Hensgen, who follows the drive-in industry as the owner and operator of the website driveinmovie.com, because theyre built for social distancing and you can control who gets in and out of your vehicle. They were literally one of the only entertainment options available. Many sold out, weekend after weekend, he said, in part because most have been operating at only 50 percent capacity, to widen the space between cars.read more
How this Pennsylvania Drive-in ‘Found Its Niche’ in the Pandemic
