Starlite Drive-In
2400 Midland Road,
Bay City,
MI
48706
2400 Midland Road,
Bay City,
MI
48706
1 person
favorited this theater
Opened on June 27, 1950 with Shirley Temple in “The Adventures of Sea Biscuit”. It was originally owned by Ashmun Theatres and opened as a 650-car single screen, with a second later added. Later operated by Mid-States Theatres. Car capacity listed at 700 with two screens. The drive-in closed in July of 1987.
Information for this drive-in obtained from www.michigandriveins.com
Contributed by
Chuck
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
Great website about Michigan and some Ohio drive-in theaters.www.winterwonderland.com
I’ve uploaded several Kodachrome images taken during the construction of Bay City’s Starlight Drive-In. This was the fourth Michigan drive-in built by my grandfather Al Johnson, and he shot these slides in June 1950. The drive-in opened later that month.
My dad (Doug Gray) and his dad (Robie Gray) worked on and superintended several of these projects for Johnson Construction Co. One image shows Doug, Al’s son-in-law, standing at the base of the screen tower as it was being built.
The next three slides show workers connecting the vertical trusses to each other with horizontal timbers, and attaching plywood to the outside of the completed tower frame. Perhaps some drive-in towers were built with prefabricated wooden trusses, but all of the drive-ins built by my grandfather for which we have slides of the tower construction were site-built out of timber.
It’s interesting to note in one of the images that a scaffold at least eleven levels high has been erected on the screen side of the tower, and no apparent safety lines are used by any of the workers.
Although Al’s slides don’t show any views of the finishing process, Ron Gross, administrator of the Michigan Drive-Ins.com Facebook page, says that asbestos panels typically made up the outermost layer on towers of this era.
Great pictures graymatters!!
opened on June 27th, 1950. Grand opening ad posted.
2nd screen opened on June 4th, 1982. Another ad posted.
Last season: 1987.