Retro movie fans will head “Over the Rainbow” for some “Pure Imagination” when Lehighton’s Mahoning Drive-In Theater opens for its 75th season Friday evening.

The theater, located on Seneca Road off Route 443, will screen family classics “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) and “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” (1971) on Friday and Saturday. The films have opened the drive-in’s season annually since the theater went all-retro in 2015.

“It seemed like a good family double feature at the time,” said Mark Nelson, the theater’s general manager since 2020. “We decided to make it an annual tradition to replicate how, for many of us of a certain age, it was an annual tradition to watch it on network TV.”

Victor Fleming directed “The Wizard of Oz,” an adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” Mel Stuart, meanwhile, directed the “Wonka” film, based on Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

The Judy Garland and Gene Wilder vehicles, Nelson said, “represent movie magic, dreams coming true, childhood wonder, and look great on our giant screen.

People get excited to be back on the lot again, seeing each other and us, dressing up in costume and celebrating.”

Remembering Jeff

Originally set for late April, the theater’s seasonal opening was postponed following the recent passing of Jeff Mattox, the drive-in’s owner and master projectionist.

“What Jeff was able to do over the last 10 years here was live out his dream of running a classic drive-in,” said Virgil Cardamone, who currently operates the theater. “The Mahoning’s legend was born from his passion for 35 mm. Jeff’s spirit will always live inside of his booth and he will continue to guide us into the next 75 years.”

A memorial video dedicated to the “Man Behind the Curtain,” along with a pre-show DJ set, will precede the films. Gates open at 6 p.m. both nights, with show time at sundown.

The opening event will also include special food items, themed displays and raffles, with one winner each night finding a Golden Ticket, redeemable for prizes, in their popcorn.

Unable to attend

Paris Themmen, who played TV-obsessed child Mike Teevee in the “Wonka” film, planned to attend opening weekend, though the new dates conflicted with his schedule.

Themmen, born in Boston and living in Los Angeles, “loved ‘The Wizard of Oz’ as a child. It has a similar ‘heroes’-journey structure to ‘Willy Wonka.’ A child on the cusp of adulthood goes out, makes friends, there is a sage-like figure and at the end, he is changed.”

On Themmen’s mother’s side, “Cowardly Lion” Bert Lahr, “is a cousin or uncle of mine,” he said. “I have an old photo of him in our family photos somewhere.”

Filming of the “Wonka” film took place in Munich, Germany, marking Themmen’s first time outside the U.S. The international backpacker, who caught the travel bug after owning a travel service in New York and Paris after college, has visited 75-plus countries to date.

Themmen, who started acting at age 6, did commercials, voice-overs, TV and Broadway’s “Mame” with Ann Miller. Though just 11 when filming the “Wonka” movie, Themmen was “a veteran, if you will, so I think I was pursuing objectives, doing character work, etc.”

Though Themmen, as a child, shared qualities with Mike Teevee - “spirited, rambunctious, likely to get into things” - he does not recall, as co-stars claim, letting bees out the bell jar.

“It’s the sort of thing I might’ve done. Even though I don’t think that I did. I would’ve had to climb up pretty high onto the gum-machine apparatus and then lifted the bell jar even higher. It just doesn’t seem reasonable to me. But it makes a good story.”

In terms of “Willy Wonka’s” lasting appeal, Themmen credits Dahl, Stuart, Wilder, the supporting characters, the music, the candy and the sets by Harper Goff.

“Also, it operates on two levels,” he added. “One for the kids and another for the adults. As kids grow up and think about showing the film to their children, they look forward to it because they know that they will enjoy it, as well.”

A long history

As The Mahoning Drive-In ushers in its 75th season, Nelson cited major challenges the theater has surmounted over the years. They include: operating costs; the advent of TV, cable, VCRs and streaming; and, in 2021, threat of demolition to make way for a solar farm.

Despite the recent passing of Mattox, Nelson - who started as a volunteer at the theater in 2016 - believes “the Mahoning is poised to be stronger and more secure than ever, in part due to the obstacles we’ve overcome.”

Upcoming highlights include the return of events such as Muppets Take Mahoning, Zombiefest, VHS-Fest and Camp Blood, plus sought-after animated titles and Thursday Thread-Up screenings of cult classics and deep cuts.

On June 6, the theater’s 75th anniversary event will feature late-1940s vaudeville comedy “April Showers,” the first film screened upon the theater’s April 1949 opening, and 1993’s “Jurassic Park.” The latter was the first title shown in the drive-in’s all-retro, all-35-mm era.

“Seeing films of the past on 35 mm helps create the sense of going back in time at the Mahoning,” Nelson said, “with a screen and building that haven’t changed all that much in the last 75 years. As Jeff would often call it, ‘a living museum.’”