New Delhi, Sept. 9 -- In a romance and adventure worthy of the big screen, a Pennsylvania couple is preserving the past and forging a future as the owners of the world's oldest operating drive-in movie theater.

Lauren McChesney got more than admission to a double feature when she handed her ticket to Matt McClanahan at a different drive-in he managed in 2018. They started dating a year later, and, in August, got engaged. In between, they purchased Shankweiler's Drive-In Theatre, which was Pennsylvania's first drive-in and only the nation's second when it opened in 1934.

The couple began brainstorming about drive-ins during a cross-country road trip that included stops at both operational and abandoned theaters. Their original goal was t...