My guess is that the Starlite began its life as the Tower, probably in 1949, then changed its name after Jack Arthur purchased it.
The first reference I could find was in the Nov. 5, 1949 Boxoffice, Nov. 5, 1949 which wrote that R. S. Starling purchased an interest in the Tower Drive-In of Stephenville. The magazine’s 1949 Drive-In Theatre Survey (published in the Jan. 21, 1950 issue) listed a single, unnamed drive-in for Stephenville, capacity 300, owned by W. C. Mauldin and R. L. Roberts.
The Tower debuted on the Film Daily Year Book’s list in the 1950 edition.
The 1949-50 Theatre Catalog listed only the Tower in Stephenville, owners Mauldin and Roberts, capacity 400. But the 1952-56 Theatre Catalogs listed only the Starlite in Stephenville, capacity 300, owner J. J. Arthur. (Who was Jack Arthur, then-owner of all of Stephenville’s theaters.)
The Motion Picture Almanac listed the Tower and Starlite simultaneously, but the MPA was known to fail to notice name changes. The CT hive mind has failed to find another likely drive-in site near this small town (< 7500 in 1960). Theatre Catalog listings are much more reliable, and they suggest that the Tower became the Starlite around 1951.
Google Maps likes the address of 4218 TX-71, Columbus, TX. Although it looks like nothing’s left, the small building in the middle of the field is where the Ono’s concession stand used to be.
The Dixie was just north of what is now a mobile home park at 117 Co Rd 546, Eastland, TX 76448. It’s not within the Eastland city limits, but Olden is unincorporated and Google Maps uses that Eastland address even for the old Dixie site.
A USGS photo taken Sept. 16, 1954 showed two drive-ins on opposite sides of US 60 west of Friona. Another USGS photo 24 years later showed only the drive-in on the west side intact; there was no trace of the drive-in on the east side of US 60.
Based on accounts of the tornado that hit Friona on Oct. 11, 1960, the Chief had already closed, but its neighbor to the west, the Elk was still active.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote the next day, “The first funnel struck about 4:40 p.m. at the Elk Drive-In Theater, knocking down speaker posts and toppling the screen. … The funnel then moved across U. S. Highway 60 into an old drive-in theater being used as a trailer parking lot, where it lashed the six trailers.” The Monitor of McAllen TX agreed.
The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported the opposite sequence. “One of the theaters demolished was an abandoned one … The twister crossed U. S. Hwy. 60 and slammed into the Elk Drive-In Theater, scattering the pink theater as far as the eye could see. Only a few scattered steel speaker poles were left standing at the theater. Both the projector house and snack bar were destroyed.”
A housing development occupies the former Chief site today, address 1502 W 5th St, Friona, TX.
A USGS photo taken Sept. 16, 1954 showed two drive-ins on opposite sides of US 60 west of Friona. Another USGS photo 24 years later showed only the drive-in on the west side intact; there was no trace of the drive-in on the east side of US 60.
Based on accounts of the tornado that hit Friona on Oct. 11, 1960, the Chief had already closed, but its neighbor to the west, the Elk was still active.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote the next day, “The first funnel struck about 4:40 p.m. at the Elk Drive-In Theater, knocking down speaker posts and toppling the screen. … The funnel then moved across U. S. Highway 60 into an old drive-in theater being used as a trailer parking lot, where it lashed the six trailers.” The Monitor of McAllen TX agreed.
The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported the opposite sequence. “One of the theaters demolished was an abandoned one … The twister crossed U. S. Hwy. 60 and slammed into the Elk Drive-In Theater, scattering the pink theater as far as the eye could see. Only a few scattered steel speaker poles were left standing at the theater. Both the projector house and snack bar were destroyed.”
The 1977 Motion Picture Almanac’s drive-in list included just one active drive-in for Friona, the Elk, which stayed on the list through 1982 before dropping off in the 1983 edition.
An automotive center is on the site today, address 1665 US-60, Friona, TX.
On June 8, 1950, the Shamrock Texan ran a front-page story on the opening of the Pioneer later that week. It said there was space for 285 cars pointed at the 47½-foot wide screen, and that the drive-in’s name was selected in a contest several months earlier. “Many improvements are contemplated for the future, including a playground for children which has already been started.”
The Wheaton Journal said on Aug. 21, 1952 that the Monett’s screen had been damaged, apparently in a storm.
The Aug. 30, 1952 Monett Times reported, “Mrs. Georgia Kelley, manager of the Monett Drive-In Theatre, announced that the theatre will re-open tonight as the new screen has been installed.” (per a 50 years ago note in 2002)
The drive-in looked intact in a 1955 aerial photo but was long gone by 1970. A good modern-day address would be 621 State Hwy 37, Monett, MO.
Kenmore’s description pointed me to the site, about three miles east of Memphis. These days, Google likes the address of 22999 US Hwy 136, Memphis, MO.
An Associated Press story, carried in the Sedalia Democrat on Dec. 19, 1966, said that two of the theaters that Kerasotes Theatres of Springfield IL had purchased from Rodgers Theatres of Cairo IL were the Rodgers indoor and Rodgers Drive-In in Poplar Bluff.
A note on March 4, 2013 in the San Mateo Daily Journal gave us the opening date: “On May 10, 1966, the Spruce Drive-In opened behind the South San Francisco Lumber Co. at 55 Spruce Ave. The South San Francisco Fire Department has a facility there now.”
An article by historian Darold Fredricks in the Feb. 14, 2011 issue of the San Mateo Daily Journal added more details. “In 1948, the San Francisco Theater Corp. struck upon the idea of providing outdoor movies and immediately obtained 14 acres of flat land along the present Spruce Avenue, south of South Canal Street. Joseph Van Arkel was hired as a resident manager and the Starlite Drive-in opened Aug. 19, 1948. The first movie was a comedy, Abbott and Costello in “The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap.” The entrance was from Linden Avenue as Spruce and Canal streets were not developed at this time. … Facing southeast, this huge majestic screen was designed to broadcast the pictures to the 850 automobiles in semicircular rows facing west.”
The Sky Vue’s first appearance in the Motion Picture Almanac’s drive-in lists was the 1957 edition. The 1955-56 Theatre Catalog omitted the Sky Vue. The photo kennerado mentioned was taken on Nov. 2, 1955, and I wonder whether the drive-in was still under construction. The back two rows (as shown in later aerials) are unfinished and there’s an odd split just south of the concession building.
On the other hand the Shasta Historical Society’s “Covered Wagon,” published in 2005, quotes De Wayne Smith as saying it opened in 1955 and had a 40x60-foot screen. Aubrey DeWayne Smith’s obituary (May 12, 2011) said, “In 1955 his family moved from Medford, OR and together they opened Redding’s first (sic) drive in theater, the Skyvue Drive-In.” (Overlooking the Starlight, which opened years earlier.) And we know for sure that it was open by November 1956, when it was buglarized per a note reprinted 50 years later in the Redding Record Searchlight.
Boxoffice, March 22, 1965: “The Robert Lippert organization is in the midst of remodeling a number of its properties (including) … the Sky-Vue Drive-In, Redding”
In March 1981, the town approved a lot-split to ease the sale of the drive-in. The Sky Vue’s last appearance in the MPA drive-in list was in 1984.
Boxoffice, May 14, 1949: “REDDING, CALIF. – Merit Espy and Arthur Perkins will open a new 600-car drive-in here sometime in June.”
Boxoffice, June 18, 1949: “REDDING, CALIF. – July 1 is the date planned for the opening of the Starlight Drive-In, now under construction in north Redding. Space will be provided for 450, instead of 400 cars. Shortly following the opening the capacity will be increased to 600. Work was started last fall but was halted twice, first because of bad weather and later because of legal difficulties. Cost estimates have increased from $50,000 to $85,000. The screen is 66x60 feet and is mounted on a 67-foot tower. … Arthur O. Perkins and Merit L. Espy are now the sole owners, having bought out the interest of the third partner, Nordell Huffaker.”
By August 1949, there were brief notes of Perkins and Espy of the Starlight visiting San Francisco Film Row, so it must have opened.
The 1983 Motion Picture Almanac had this drive-in renamed as the Redding Drive-In, which continued through the final MPA list in 1988.
The Redding Record Searchlight ran an article on July 19, 1993 about the likely final season of the Redding, the last drive-in “still operating in Shasta, Siskiyou, Trinity and Tehama counties. One in Mount Shasta closed a few years back.” The McConnell Foundation, which had recently purchased the property, did not plan to continue to lease it to the drive-in.
A later blog post in the Record Searchlight said that after closing in 1993, the drive-in was dismantled in February 1998.
kennerado is right about the 1966 aerial, but it must have been a remodeling project because the Citrus Heights was still active in 1977 at least. The Motion Picture Almanac did a fresh survey that year and included the Citrus Heights under Roseville, and the drive-in was still intact in the 1978 aerial I posted here. Topo maps included it through 1984, and the MPA continued to include the Citrus Heights through its last drive-in list in 1988. By a 1993 aerial, it was long gone.
A USGS aerial photo taken April 10, 1960 showed the drive-in almost in the middle of town, southeast of the corner of Highway 33 (Elgin Avenue) and Almond Street. The modern-day equivalent would be 1624 Alleyne Ave, give or take a house or two. A 1981 aerial photo showed no trace of the drive-in.
As the ad above indicated, Roy Cheverton was one of the owners of the new Sunset. (His wife ran the snack bar.) In a political ad in the May 31, 1960 Humboldt Standard, Geo R. Cheverton wrote, “With the help of Ted and Vada Jennings and Mrs. Nelson, we built the Sunset Drive-In Theatre at Myers Flat. They have since purchased our interest”
The Jan. 16, 1965 issue of the Standard ran a lengthy tour of flood damage along the Eel River, which encircles the town. “The Morrison-Jackson lumber mill is deep in silt. To the west, a beautiful new house lies under a leaning torrent of trees, sticks, and somebody else’s household. The Sunset drive-in theatre has set in a muddy Pacific.”
The Sunset opened on June 22, 1957, per an ad in the Humboldt Standard of Eureka CA the day before.
An article above the ad noted that the screen was 40x80 feet, made of half-inch marine plywood, and erected on a welded steel framework. It held 250 cars on five acres “furnished by Mrs. Mattie Myers Nelson,” and its concession / projection building included a room with indoor seating.
We know that there wasn’t a 1970s drive-in at 3848 McHenry Avenue, because a 1967 aerial photo showed that a big-box store was already there. (Though it wasn’t a Walmart yet, since the company hadn’t expanded into California yet.)
There is a drive-in west of the intersection of then-Briggsmore Avenue and Prescott Road (now about 2200 Plaza Pkwy) that was a single screen in 1967 but a three-screen drive-in in 1982. Looking all along Briggsmore Avenue in that 1967 aerial, I can’t find any others. Could I have another hint?
Although the Valley was advertising and showing movies weeks earlier, it held its formal Grand Opening on Thursday, June 25, 1953. The program that night was “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” plus free candy for the children, flowers for the ladies, and cigarettes for the men.
An aerial photo from 1955 shows a completed drive-in on US 51 about a mile and a half south of Canton, so perhaps the Starlite’s May 2, 1957 program of “Attack” and “Star of India” was just the season opener?
The site was still outlined in a 1975 topo map, but it was completely gone in a 1982 aerial photo. (That didn’t stop a 1987 topo map from continuing to include its outline, which shows that you can only trust topo maps so far.)
That 1982 aerial looks like some business chopped off the north half of the drive-in’s viewing field, and the topo map from the same year shows pretty much the same thing. The booth is near the northern edge of the drive-in. Weird-looking!
An Associated Press story, run on the front page of the Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph on May 8, 1967, included in a tornado roundup: “Seven homes were destroyed Saturday night [May 6] at Clay, Ky., by high winds that hit a corner of the community. Trees were felled and a drive-in theater screen was toppled as an audience watched. There were no serious injuries.”
My guess is that the Starlite began its life as the Tower, probably in 1949, then changed its name after Jack Arthur purchased it.
The first reference I could find was in the Nov. 5, 1949 Boxoffice, Nov. 5, 1949 which wrote that R. S. Starling purchased an interest in the Tower Drive-In of Stephenville. The magazine’s 1949 Drive-In Theatre Survey (published in the Jan. 21, 1950 issue) listed a single, unnamed drive-in for Stephenville, capacity 300, owned by W. C. Mauldin and R. L. Roberts.
The Tower debuted on the Film Daily Year Book’s list in the 1950 edition.
The 1949-50 Theatre Catalog listed only the Tower in Stephenville, owners Mauldin and Roberts, capacity 400. But the 1952-56 Theatre Catalogs listed only the Starlite in Stephenville, capacity 300, owner J. J. Arthur. (Who was Jack Arthur, then-owner of all of Stephenville’s theaters.)
The Motion Picture Almanac listed the Tower and Starlite simultaneously, but the MPA was known to fail to notice name changes. The CT hive mind has failed to find another likely drive-in site near this small town (< 7500 in 1960). Theatre Catalog listings are much more reliable, and they suggest that the Tower became the Starlite around 1951.
Google Maps likes the address of 4218 TX-71, Columbus, TX. Although it looks like nothing’s left, the small building in the middle of the field is where the Ono’s concession stand used to be.
The ramps were still visible in a 1996 aerial photo. Google Maps likes the address of 1100 E Coliseum Dr, Snyder, TX.
The ramps were visible as late as 2016, but now are leveled out. Google Maps likes the address of 2806 S Stockton Ave, Monahans, TX.
The Dixie was just north of what is now a mobile home park at 117 Co Rd 546, Eastland, TX 76448. It’s not within the Eastland city limits, but Olden is unincorporated and Google Maps uses that Eastland address even for the old Dixie site.
A USGS photo taken Sept. 16, 1954 showed two drive-ins on opposite sides of US 60 west of Friona. Another USGS photo 24 years later showed only the drive-in on the west side intact; there was no trace of the drive-in on the east side of US 60.
Based on accounts of the tornado that hit Friona on Oct. 11, 1960, the Chief had already closed, but its neighbor to the west, the Elk was still active.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote the next day, “The first funnel struck about 4:40 p.m. at the Elk Drive-In Theater, knocking down speaker posts and toppling the screen. … The funnel then moved across U. S. Highway 60 into an old drive-in theater being used as a trailer parking lot, where it lashed the six trailers.” The Monitor of McAllen TX agreed.
The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported the opposite sequence. “One of the theaters demolished was an abandoned one … The twister crossed U. S. Hwy. 60 and slammed into the Elk Drive-In Theater, scattering the pink theater as far as the eye could see. Only a few scattered steel speaker poles were left standing at the theater. Both the projector house and snack bar were destroyed.”
A housing development occupies the former Chief site today, address 1502 W 5th St, Friona, TX.
A USGS photo taken Sept. 16, 1954 showed two drive-ins on opposite sides of US 60 west of Friona. Another USGS photo 24 years later showed only the drive-in on the west side intact; there was no trace of the drive-in on the east side of US 60.
Based on accounts of the tornado that hit Friona on Oct. 11, 1960, the Chief had already closed, but its neighbor to the west, the Elk was still active.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote the next day, “The first funnel struck about 4:40 p.m. at the Elk Drive-In Theater, knocking down speaker posts and toppling the screen. … The funnel then moved across U. S. Highway 60 into an old drive-in theater being used as a trailer parking lot, where it lashed the six trailers.” The Monitor of McAllen TX agreed.
The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported the opposite sequence. “One of the theaters demolished was an abandoned one … The twister crossed U. S. Hwy. 60 and slammed into the Elk Drive-In Theater, scattering the pink theater as far as the eye could see. Only a few scattered steel speaker poles were left standing at the theater. Both the projector house and snack bar were destroyed.”
The 1977 Motion Picture Almanac’s drive-in list included just one active drive-in for Friona, the Elk, which stayed on the list through 1982 before dropping off in the 1983 edition.
An automotive center is on the site today, address 1665 US-60, Friona, TX.
On June 8, 1950, the Shamrock Texan ran a front-page story on the opening of the Pioneer later that week. It said there was space for 285 cars pointed at the 47½-foot wide screen, and that the drive-in’s name was selected in a contest several months earlier. “Many improvements are contemplated for the future, including a playground for children which has already been started.”
The Wheaton Journal said on Aug. 21, 1952 that the Monett’s screen had been damaged, apparently in a storm.
The Aug. 30, 1952 Monett Times reported, “Mrs. Georgia Kelley, manager of the Monett Drive-In Theatre, announced that the theatre will re-open tonight as the new screen has been installed.” (per a 50 years ago note in 2002)
The drive-in looked intact in a 1955 aerial photo but was long gone by 1970. A good modern-day address would be 621 State Hwy 37, Monett, MO.
Kenmore’s description pointed me to the site, about three miles east of Memphis. These days, Google likes the address of 22999 US Hwy 136, Memphis, MO.
An Associated Press story, carried in the Sedalia Democrat on Dec. 19, 1966, said that two of the theaters that Kerasotes Theatres of Springfield IL had purchased from Rodgers Theatres of Cairo IL were the Rodgers indoor and Rodgers Drive-In in Poplar Bluff.
A 1967 topo map showed the screen facing northwest on the northwest corner of the intersection. Already gone by a 1974 topo map.
Commonwealth still included it in its circuit entry in the 1972 Motion Picture Almanac. By the 1974 MPA, the Goodland was gone.
A note on March 4, 2013 in the San Mateo Daily Journal gave us the opening date: “On May 10, 1966, the Spruce Drive-In opened behind the South San Francisco Lumber Co. at 55 Spruce Ave. The South San Francisco Fire Department has a facility there now.”
An article by historian Darold Fredricks in the Feb. 14, 2011 issue of the San Mateo Daily Journal added more details. “In 1948, the San Francisco Theater Corp. struck upon the idea of providing outdoor movies and immediately obtained 14 acres of flat land along the present Spruce Avenue, south of South Canal Street. Joseph Van Arkel was hired as a resident manager and the Starlite Drive-in opened Aug. 19, 1948. The first movie was a comedy, Abbott and Costello in “The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap.” The entrance was from Linden Avenue as Spruce and Canal streets were not developed at this time. … Facing southeast, this huge majestic screen was designed to broadcast the pictures to the 850 automobiles in semicircular rows facing west.”
The Sky Vue’s first appearance in the Motion Picture Almanac’s drive-in lists was the 1957 edition. The 1955-56 Theatre Catalog omitted the Sky Vue. The photo kennerado mentioned was taken on Nov. 2, 1955, and I wonder whether the drive-in was still under construction. The back two rows (as shown in later aerials) are unfinished and there’s an odd split just south of the concession building.
On the other hand the Shasta Historical Society’s “Covered Wagon,” published in 2005, quotes De Wayne Smith as saying it opened in 1955 and had a 40x60-foot screen. Aubrey DeWayne Smith’s obituary (May 12, 2011) said, “In 1955 his family moved from Medford, OR and together they opened Redding’s first (sic) drive in theater, the Skyvue Drive-In.” (Overlooking the Starlight, which opened years earlier.) And we know for sure that it was open by November 1956, when it was buglarized per a note reprinted 50 years later in the Redding Record Searchlight.
Boxoffice, March 22, 1965: “The Robert Lippert organization is in the midst of remodeling a number of its properties (including) … the Sky-Vue Drive-In, Redding”
In March 1981, the town approved a lot-split to ease the sale of the drive-in. The Sky Vue’s last appearance in the MPA drive-in list was in 1984.
Boxoffice, May 14, 1949: “REDDING, CALIF. – Merit Espy and Arthur Perkins will open a new 600-car drive-in here sometime in June.”
Boxoffice, June 18, 1949: “REDDING, CALIF. – July 1 is the date planned for the opening of the Starlight Drive-In, now under construction in north Redding. Space will be provided for 450, instead of 400 cars. Shortly following the opening the capacity will be increased to 600. Work was started last fall but was halted twice, first because of bad weather and later because of legal difficulties. Cost estimates have increased from $50,000 to $85,000. The screen is 66x60 feet and is mounted on a 67-foot tower. … Arthur O. Perkins and Merit L. Espy are now the sole owners, having bought out the interest of the third partner, Nordell Huffaker.”
By August 1949, there were brief notes of Perkins and Espy of the Starlight visiting San Francisco Film Row, so it must have opened.
The 1983 Motion Picture Almanac had this drive-in renamed as the Redding Drive-In, which continued through the final MPA list in 1988.
The Redding Record Searchlight ran an article on July 19, 1993 about the likely final season of the Redding, the last drive-in “still operating in Shasta, Siskiyou, Trinity and Tehama counties. One in Mount Shasta closed a few years back.” The McConnell Foundation, which had recently purchased the property, did not plan to continue to lease it to the drive-in.
A later blog post in the Record Searchlight said that after closing in 1993, the drive-in was dismantled in February 1998.
kennerado is right about the 1966 aerial, but it must have been a remodeling project because the Citrus Heights was still active in 1977 at least. The Motion Picture Almanac did a fresh survey that year and included the Citrus Heights under Roseville, and the drive-in was still intact in the 1978 aerial I posted here. Topo maps included it through 1984, and the MPA continued to include the Citrus Heights through its last drive-in list in 1988. By a 1993 aerial, it was long gone.
A USGS aerial photo taken April 10, 1960 showed the drive-in almost in the middle of town, southeast of the corner of Highway 33 (Elgin Avenue) and Almond Street. The modern-day equivalent would be 1624 Alleyne Ave, give or take a house or two. A 1981 aerial photo showed no trace of the drive-in.
As the ad above indicated, Roy Cheverton was one of the owners of the new Sunset. (His wife ran the snack bar.) In a political ad in the May 31, 1960 Humboldt Standard, Geo R. Cheverton wrote, “With the help of Ted and Vada Jennings and Mrs. Nelson, we built the Sunset Drive-In Theatre at Myers Flat. They have since purchased our interest”
The Jan. 16, 1965 issue of the Standard ran a lengthy tour of flood damage along the Eel River, which encircles the town. “The Morrison-Jackson lumber mill is deep in silt. To the west, a beautiful new house lies under a leaning torrent of trees, sticks, and somebody else’s household. The Sunset drive-in theatre has set in a muddy Pacific.”
The Sunset opened on June 22, 1957, per an ad in the Humboldt Standard of Eureka CA the day before.
An article above the ad noted that the screen was 40x80 feet, made of half-inch marine plywood, and erected on a welded steel framework. It held 250 cars on five acres “furnished by Mrs. Mattie Myers Nelson,” and its concession / projection building included a room with indoor seating.
We know that there wasn’t a 1970s drive-in at 3848 McHenry Avenue, because a 1967 aerial photo showed that a big-box store was already there. (Though it wasn’t a Walmart yet, since the company hadn’t expanded into California yet.)
There is a drive-in west of the intersection of then-Briggsmore Avenue and Prescott Road (now about 2200 Plaza Pkwy) that was a single screen in 1967 but a three-screen drive-in in 1982. Looking all along Briggsmore Avenue in that 1967 aerial, I can’t find any others. Could I have another hint?
Although the Valley was advertising and showing movies weeks earlier, it held its formal Grand Opening on Thursday, June 25, 1953. The program that night was “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” plus free candy for the children, flowers for the ladies, and cigarettes for the men.
An aerial photo from 1955 shows a completed drive-in on US 51 about a mile and a half south of Canton, so perhaps the Starlite’s May 2, 1957 program of “Attack” and “Star of India” was just the season opener?
The site was still outlined in a 1975 topo map, but it was completely gone in a 1982 aerial photo. (That didn’t stop a 1987 topo map from continuing to include its outline, which shows that you can only trust topo maps so far.)
That 1982 aerial looks like some business chopped off the north half of the drive-in’s viewing field, and the topo map from the same year shows pretty much the same thing. The booth is near the northern edge of the drive-in. Weird-looking!
An Associated Press story, run on the front page of the Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph on May 8, 1967, included in a tornado roundup: “Seven homes were destroyed Saturday night [May 6] at Clay, Ky., by high winds that hit a corner of the community. Trees were felled and a drive-in theater screen was toppled as an audience watched. There were no serious injuries.”