Silver Moon Drive-In

The Silver Moon Drive-In near Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, opened in late May 1952 on Route 15 between Lewisburg and West Milton, in Kelly Township. Frank W. Royer and Frank Lewis ran it. It held about 600 cars, with in-car speakers for each. Union pickets walked the site that month over non-union construction, then stood down after the contractor agreed to talk.

Pennsylvania's blue law banned commercial movies on Sundays, and from 1952 to 1955 the Silver Moon showed them anyway. A local historian's account drawn from the Daily Item says the owners were cited every week and simply paid. In July 1953 a week's bill came to $128, and fines that year had already passed $1,100. Customers were invited to leave a silver offering at the ticket booth to help. A 1953 township vote to allow Sunday shows failed narrowly. Ministers preached against the shows, though one held a dawn Easter service on the lot in 1955, with about 200 people in 50 cars. The showings stopped after a 1955 hearing, a 1957 vote passed by 18, and the Silver Moon first showed Sunday movies legally in the 1958 season.

The theater once handed out a plastic promotional boat that doubled as a whistle, printed with its name. Car radio sound replaced the speakers in 1977, and newspapers sometimes called it the Route 15 Drive-In in that decade. A flea market came to the lot in 1989. Lewis sold the property in June 1990, and the last show was June 17, 1990. The flea market stayed, paved over the field, and the site still carries the Silver Moon name.