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If Joe Farruggio has his way, there will be another place to sit back and take in a movie or two under the night sky this time next year.
Farruggio plans to re-open the Gem Drive-In Theatre west of the city, along Route 220 in Woodward Township. The former Port Drive-in theater has been closed for several years and has most recently been used as a staging area for the construction company working on the extensive highway project in that area. Farruggio has owned it since 1978.
"It's been under lease to Glenn O. Hawbaker who's doing the highway reconstruction and his lease is coming up in October, I think, and he's going to have to get out so I have to do something with the property to generate some revenue," Farruggio said.
"We couldn't operate with the highway, with what's going on up there. They took big sections of the front of my property. They took my sign. We couldn't even get in there with all the equipment they have in front of the box office. I'm just going to let them have the whole property until they finish up," he said.
Drive-ins, which were very popular in the 1950's and 60's saw a resurgence during the pandemic as consumers saw them as a way to see movies and still remain socially distant.
"The first year of COVID there was (an interest) because there was plenty of product film supply -- there was a backlog," he said.
"But, the second year of COVID, it fell off, because what happened was, I guess you could say the supply chain dried up, just like it did for everybody else. There was a lag in the supply chain for movies because it takes two to three years to make a movie," he said.
During that time the making of movies also came to a halt, so
drive-ins became a location for alternatives to indoor venues for such things as concerts and even high school graduations.
Although the popularity has waned somewhat, Farruggio, who owns two other theaters, the Pike on Route 15 and the Point in Danville, both of which he leases to someone else to run, feels things are back on sound footing now. Farruggio said that he will personally run the Gem when it reopens.
When it closed, the Gem was a working theater, so there is not too much to do to bring it back up to speed for it to return to its former life.
"The main thing is that Hawbaker has got to restore the grounds to the conditions they were in when he found them. That's going to take some doing. I have him in his word in the lease that he will do that and I also confirmed with his business against that he not only promised, but PennDOT has a regulation that any contractors that do business or work on any of their projects, they have to restore their staging areas to the same condition that it was that they found it," he said.
"That's the big thing there. We've been working inside the building a little bit to get it ready, but I'm a little apprehensive. I don't want to put any big money into it until he restores the grounds.
The ramp's got to go back in and it's got to be seeded with grass seed. Once that takes place, I'll move forward pretty quickly," Farruggio said.
There are two screens at the site to show movies. One, closer to the highway, was there when Farruggio purchased the property. He subsequently built a second screen towards the back of the lot.
Currently new releases of films are in a digital format. Retro films are still available in film. Farruggio is hoping to feature both new releases and retro films at the Gem.
"I anticipate running first-run films on the one screen and probably some retro stuff on the back screen," he said.
"Since the cable companies are getting cagey with their customers. They can't really get the programming that they want. They kind of dictate what you take and what you don't get. A lot of the retro stuff, the B-pictures and the campy stuff, people can't really get it on cable anymore," Farruggio said.
With the disappearance of video stores and the expense of streaming services, Farruggio said that he sees "a window of opportunity" there.
"We can always pivot to something else if it doesn't work out," he said.
Farruggio is hoping to reopen the theater in Spring 2024.