13-24 Drive In Keeps Tradition Alive – CNHI Indiana

Originally published by CNHI Indiana

Barb Biehl was about 6 years old the first time she saw a movie at the 13-24 Drive In theater in the 1960s.

She remembers wrapping up in blankets and resting on pillows beneath the stars with her parents as the 35-millimeter film projector shined upon the massive screen.

Today, Biehl is 70 years old and still watching movies at the drive-in just outside her hometown of Wabash, Indiana.

On a recent August night underneath a glowing full moon, Biehl and five of her grandchildren rested in blankets in the back of their minivan or played games as they prepared to watch “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” Nearby, kids tossed footballs while young couples relaxed in lawn chairs for a date night.

“It’s so fun and very nostalgic,” Biehl said as she waited in line at the concession stand with her 12-year-old grandson, Lucas. “They love doing this, the same thing we did when we were little.”

But that uniquely American movie-watching experience has gone from flame to flicker in recent decades.

In the 1950s, as Baby Boomers returned from World War II, packed up their cars and moved to the suburbs, about 5,000 drive-ins could be found scattered across towns in every state.

Today, less than 300 remain. Most are located in just a handful of states such as Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio. That leaves most of the country in a “drive-in desert,” explained Ross Melnick, a film and media studies professor at the University of California Santa Barbara.

“The drive-in experience just doesn’t exist for most people,” he said. “It just gets removed from the things that people love to do.”

Now, as urban development, soaring land prices and streaming services like Netflix all threaten the survival of the nation’s remaining drive-ins, theater owners are fighting hard and getting creative to keep an American tradition alive.

MAKING THE OLD NEW

Steve Sauerbeck, a former corporate employee of Regal Cinemas, spent years watching drive-ins shutter their screens. That didn’t stop him from building a brand new one from the ground up in La Grange, Kentucky, about 25 miles east of Louisville.

Sauerbeck Family Drive-In opened in 2018 just off Interstate 71 after his business purchased the land, cleared the trees and invested about $2 million to put in a 98-foot-tall screen, a digital movie projector and indoor concession area.

On a Friday night in August, the open field filled with folks tucked into flatbed trucks, SUVs, minivans and even a Tesla Cybertruck to watch the double feature “Freakier Friday” and “Fantastic Four.”

One family wore matching pajamas. An older couple played card games on a small table as dusk set in, bringing in a cool reprieve from the heat.

As the first movie started, patrons tuned their dials to the shortwave FM radio station broadcasting the audio. The sound quietly rippled through the darkening field.

Sauerbeck felt confident building a new drive-in at a time when movie sales were at a 25-year low. He was selling more than just a ticket. He was selling a vintage experience that customers craved and couldn’t find anywhere else.

“It’s this kind of historical, nostalgic, Americana experience, and I love it,” he said. “It’s very unique, and I think that’s the key.”

Sauerbeck strives to make his theater even more unique by adding to the experience. He featured hula dancers for a showing this year of Disney’s “Lilo and Stitch,” drawing more than 1,100 viewers to the theater. It was the largest single-day ticket sale since the drive-in opened.

Although the new theater is doing well, threats to its success are persistent. Just this year, the construction of a proposed data center would have forced the drive-in to move elsewhere. Sauerbeck sighed with relief when the data center company withdrew its plans in July.

“What we’re experiencing at this location is urban sprawl,” he said. “So many former drive-ins were at locations that are now shopping centers and subdivisions.”

Also, many theaters close after their longtime owners retire and look to sell the property. The United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association is trying to combat such closures by networking with younger people interested in buying a theater, according to Sauerbeck, an active member of the association.

Movie buffs Matt McClanahan, 35, and Lauren McChesney, 41, took out a $1 million loan in 2022 to buy Shankweiler’s Drive-In Theatre. The oldest operating drive-in venue in the world, Shankweiler’s opened in 1934 in Orefield, Pennsylvania.

The engaged couple said they couldn’t stand by and watch as the nation’s most historic theater teetered on the brink of oblivion.

“It was kind of an ‘If not us, who else?’ situation,” McClanahan told CNBC this month. “... Who else was going to do it but us?”

KEEPING IT OLD-SCHOOL

While Sauerbeck offers a vintage experience at a new venue, the 13-24 Drive In in Indiana, vintage 1951, is a true throwback to the heyday of theaters. It’s one of the few drive-in theaters listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The original marquee still sparkles with glitzy lights along Indiana 13, near the intersection of U.S. 24, advertising the evening’s showtimes.

Patrons park by old metal poles that once held speakers blaring the movie’s audio, and the unassuming concession area is manned by mostly teenagers. A metal cabinet that had harbored the old 35-millimeter movie reels still stands beside the modern-day digital projector.

That old-school vibe at the 13-24 has kept Dwayne Gillard coming back for the past 15 years. He’s 53 years old now and sits in a lawn chair at the drive-in by his wife and kids. But the experience always takes him back to his high school days.

“I love this,” he said. “The concession stand isn’t renovated. It’s all old. You get that feeling like you’re back in 1985 when you come here.”

Christie Sparks, 23, has worked at the concession stand since she was 16. She loves the sense of community created by the drive-in, where families and friends hang out together beneath an open sky.

“People just seem happy when they’re here,” Sparks said. “It makes me sad that streaming is cutting down on this so much. But I’m happy that we’re still one of the only drive-ins left.”

A local couple purchased the property in 2011 to save it from closing. Twelve years later, they donated it to the Honeywell Foundation, an arts-and-entertainment nonprofit in Wabash that operates the facility.

The venue’s nonprofit status is one reason it remains open, explained Cathy Gatchel, Honeywell’s chief development officer.

“We have a business structure that helps us,” she said. “If we were just in the business of trying to return profit, it might be a different story. ... We see this as really a community outreach.”

Other drive-in owners need to make money to stay open, but most aren’t in the business of getting rich, explained Melnick, the UC Santa Barbara film professor. As more theaters close every year, many view their job as a calling to preserve a treasured American pastime, he said.

“They’re doing it because there is nothing they’d rather do than make people happy,” Melnick noted. “Movies can give people their greatest joy, and running a drive-in gives them the opportunity to do that.”

Author: Carson Gerber, CNHI State Reporter

Publication: CNHI Indiana

Publication Date: August 25, 2025

Original Article: https://bit.ly/4nicZex