Mahoning Drive-In rebuilding iconic marquee

The marquee sign for the Mahoning Drive-In Theater is recognizable to locals and film buffs from far beyond the area.

So when part of the marquee fell during a windstorm in January, the owners knew they wanted to rebuild it.

“I knew it was going to be saved, or re-created exactly as it was. I said, it has to look exactly as it did, or people are gonna notice,” drive-in owner Jeff Mattox said.

Mattox, who took over the business in 2014, was drawn to the Mahoning because it reminded him of the massive 1,000-car drive-in theaters that he attended as a kid in the Lehigh Valley. Under his leadership, it has been resurrected as a destination playing ’80s movies and cheap horror movies on real film in an age when all multiplexes have gone to digital projection.

It was recently the subject of an award-winning documentary, “At the Drive-In,” which has been screened at film festivals around the country.

The sign, which was put up when the theater was opened in 1948, is immediately noticeable. It was originally lit with glass neon tubes, but those were slowly broken over the years. If you look on social media, countless visitors have taken pictures in front of it.

In January, a windstorm toppled part of the sign — the arrow and lighted 3-D letters that spell out “MAHONING DRIVE-IN.” The unique metal sign was left in a heap on the ground.

Immediately, there were calls of support. Mattox said that fans of the theater were hopeful it could be rebuilt.

They contacted the firm that last year undertook the task of repainting the theater’s massive screen. Mazzella Enterprises said it could do it for less than some of the exorbitant estimates that they had received for the work.

“We’ve enjoyed taking on creative projects like this and see if we can reduce the ridiculous prices they were quoted,” said Demetri Patitsas, business manager for Mazzella Enterprises.

The work involves taking the old arrow and letters, bending them back into shape, and building a new skeleton for them to sit upon. The sign fell because of rust and wear and tear from its years of service, Patitsas said.

When the work is completed, he said, drivers should notice that the sign looks just as it was, not that it’s sitting upon a new frame that should last for decades to come.

“It’s more of an artistic work,” he said. “It is just trying to be mindful of preserving that look — that’s a drive-in movie theater, that’s a nostalgic experience.”

Even though it’s lower than some quotes, the work is still a big financial undertaking for the theater.

Most of the work will be sketching out how to rebuild such a unique sign. Mazzella has never had a job like this before, and there probably aren’t more than a handful of other contractors who have undertaken something similar.

“Once we’ve kind of started acting on the plan, then it’s just about putting the puzzle back together,” Patitsas said.

Showing double- and triple-features with movies such as “Back to the Future” and “Evil Dead” will get you a cult following, but it won’t necessarily bring in the big bucks. The staff of the theater do it more for the love of the movies than a paycheck.

So they’ve turned to the loyal following to help resurrect the sign. They started a GoFundMe on Tuesday. In less than two days they raised $4,000 of the $15,000 goal. Mattox said the response has been quicker than expected, and a welcome surprise to the theater’s staff.

“This would have drained our bank account down to nothing. We needed the public’s help, we really did,” Mattox said.

The donations have come from far beyond Carbon County. And the responses left by donors really speak to how much the theater, and the sign, mean to people who live far beyond Carbon County.

“Hands down, my favorite thing to do on a summer night is to turn that corner and see that wonderful sign,” Matt Sullivan wrote.

“This drive-in is a historical treasure. Thank you for keeping it alive!” Lisa Budwig wrote.

Some of the donors said they haven’t even visited the theater before, but they had seen the documentary and wanted to help.

When it’s completed, the new sign should stand for decades to come, Patitsas said.

The hope is to have it done before their opening weekend, April 27 and 28, with a program featuring “Wizard of Oz” and “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.” But preserving the history of the sign is more important than a deadline.

“The quality of work is most important,” he said. “I just want to make it look the way it did.”

If you’re interested in helping support the project to rebuild the sign, visit https://www.gofundme.com/save-the-mahoning-marquee.