This couple used savings and a $ 1 million loan to buy the world’s oldest theater in the world

Lauren McCtni got more than one acceptance of a double feature when she handed her ticket to Mattanahhan in a different car she managed to manage in 2018. They started dating a year later, and in August, she was involved. Between this, they bought the Shankweile’s Drive Theater, which was the first engine in Pennsylvania and only the second in the country when it opened in 1934.

The couple started brainstorming around the drive during a road on the road across the country, which included stopping in both operating and attacking theaters. Their original goal was to open a new engine, but when they learned that Shankweiler might be sold to the developers, “the light bulb exploded,” said McLanehan.

“Why do we spend a lot of time trying to build one when there is literally on the road from our house for sale and is like the most important engine?” He said.

The film Theater industry started in Camden, New Jersey, in 1933 and reached its climax in the late fifties, with more than 4,000 maximum engineers, according to the Young Drive Theater Association. The numbers decreased rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s as other entertainment options increased, as well as land values ​​that made the sale to re -development attractive. Despite the popularity of the epidemic, by 2024, only 283 remained, according to the association.

McLanahhan, 35, who grew up to Shankweilers, has led another leadership and a mobile film company began during the Coronverus Virus. On the contrary, Maktani, 41, did not advance to driving before 2018, and left the job of a stable company in the health care industry to take over this new project. Shankweilers’s purchase was a risk of both-they collected their savings and obtained a $ 1 million loan to buy the drive in 2022-but one of them says he had resulted.

“This was a pledge that was leaps and limits larger than anything that I have done in my life, in terms of investment, monthly expenditures, and debt.” “He still feels surreal when I think about it.”

They have built a successful work with the help of strong summer presence, transverse film such as “WICDED”, and special events such as “Date Night” for Valentine’s Day. The leadership opens seven days a week from the day of the anniversary to the Day of Workers, and on Thursday until Sunday the rest of the year. Tickets 9 dollars for children and $ 13 for adults.

Ken Kweirio, 52, from Kotsitown, Pennsylvania, will go to Shankoville since he was a teenager. I referred to searching for their owners before a recent presentation of “Al -Fuk”.

He said, “I actually thanked them.” “It is great to have an old school, an old place like this is still ongoing.”

Wilson Shankweiler, the owner of a prominent hotel and film, opened what was then called the Shankweile’s Park-in on April 15, 1934. McKanahhan and Makshni are its fourth owners.

Makshni said that the success of the business played a role in the timing of their participation.

She said: “We knew that we would eventually marry, but we continued to do other things instead, such as starting companies and buying films.”

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