Reports say the Sky Vu closed (again) in 2014. Which means it must have been closed for a while before that. The United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association wrote that the Sky-Vu reopened in 1994. “Shortly afterward, he and his wife formed Martro Theatres, Inc.” And they began running X-rated movies at both drive-ins. Around 1969, Marvin Troutman, son of Marvin and Ada Troutman, bought the Sky-Vu and the nearby Halifax Drive-In. The Lykens Valley blog fills in part of this period. Trautman, that’s how it stayed through the final IMPA list in 1988. When ownership information resumed after a decade off, the 1978 edition listed Trautman, capacity 200.

For the 1961-66 editions, only the owner changed, to E. Wolfe, which is how it stayed through at least 1959. The 1951-52 International Motion Picture Almanac listed the Did that mean under construction? By the 1952 edition, the listing had evolved to the Sky Vu, capacity 232, Exec: Eston, Artz and Carl, Spring Glen. The 1949-50 Theatre Catalog lists “Drive In” in Gratz, capacity 550, Exec: Artz and Carl (UNC). (I’ve uploaded the ad to the Photos section here.) It doesn’t quite say so, but it appears to be a grand opening ad: “SKY VU Drive-In Theatre welcomes you to one of America’s most unique outside theatres.” The ad described the Sky Vu’s benefits in copy that wasn’t repeated in the weekly ads that followed. The first newspaper reference I could find was an ad in the Elizabethville Echo of July 13, 1950. Eston and Stanford established a partnership to create the Sky-Vu Drive-In Theatre in 1950.” “In 1949, the land on which the theatre now stands, was sold by Allen Lincoln Shade and Etta May Shade to Eston C.

Norman Gasbarro’s Lykens Valley blog has a great history of the Sky-Vu.

Sky vu drive in