{"id":164781,"date":"2026-04-13T20:41:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T20:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/164781\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T20:41:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T20:41:10","slug":"decades-old-lehigh-valley-drive-in-theater-nominated-for-usa-today-award-lehigh-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/164781\/","title":{"rendered":"Decades-old Lehigh Valley drive-in theater nominated for USA Today award | Lehigh County"},"content":{"rendered":"

OREFIELD, Pa. – A Lehigh Valley drive-in theater that has been in business for decades has been nominated for a USA Today award.<\/p>\n

Matthew McClanahan and Lauren McChesney, owners of Shankweiler\u2019s Drive-In Theatre, said the historic theater has been nominated for the USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice “Best Drive-In Theater” award for the third year in a row.<\/p>\n

The drive-in placed 2nd place last year, and 5th in 2024’s contest, according to a news release from the theater.<\/p>\n

The nomination comes as Shankweiler’s Drive-In Theatre celebrates its 92nd anniversary.<\/p>\n

Shankweiler’s originally opened on April 15, 1934. It holds a Guinness World Record as the oldest continually-operating drive-in theater in the world, according to the news release.<\/p>\n

“It’s such a huge honor to be\u00a0nominated\u00a0for the third year\u00a0in a row,” says McClanahan.<\/p>\n

“We were thrilled to be voted 2nd last year and can’t wait to see what happens now.”<\/p>\n

Shankweiler’s was named “Best Drive-In” by Lehigh Valley Style, one of the “Top 21 Coolest Theaters” in the world by Variety Magazine, one of the “15 Best Drive-Ins” by Fodors Travel, and one of the top 10 “Best Drive-In Theaters” by Newsweek, the theatre said in its news release.<\/p>\n

In addition, the theater was featured on Good Morning America and CNBC’s “Make It” program last summer.<\/p>\n

The USA TODAY 10BEST Readers’ Choice Awards highlight top national attractions and businesses and are voted on by the public. There is no cost to participate in the awards, and nominations cannot be purchased.<\/p>\n

The theatre said voting begins on Monday, April 14 at noon EDT and ends on Monday, May 11 at 11:59 a.m. EDT.<\/p>\n

The winners will be announced on Wednesday, May 20 at noon EDT.<\/p>\n

The Lehigh Valley has had several landmarks and attractions recognized in various categories of the USA TODAY 10BEST competition in recent years, including the Easton Public Market winning “Best Public Market” in 2023, and ThreeBirds Coffee House placing second for “Best Independent Coffee Shop” in 2024.<\/p>\n

Downtown Bethlehem is a recurrent winner for “Best Main Street,” and Iron Pigs’ Coca-Cola Park recently got 1st place for “Best Minor League Ballpark,” the theatre said in its news release.<\/p>\n

For the\u00a0complete list of this year’s 10Best nominees, click here.<\/a><\/p>\n

In addition to Shankweiler’s, the Mahoning Drive-in in Mahoning Township, Carbon County, is on the list. Last year,\u00a0Shankweiler’s finished second and Mahoning finished fifth.<\/p>\n

Theaters in\u00a0Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, in western Pennsylvania, also made the list.<\/p>\n

A drive-in theater in Cumberland County, New Jersey, is also on the list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OREFIELD, Pa. – A Lehigh Valley drive-in theater that has been in business for decades has been nominated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,74235],"class_list":["post-164781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-shankweiler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}