Starlite Drive-In
2864 East Court Street,
Kankakee,
IL
60901
2864 East Court Street,
Kankakee,
IL
60901
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Located just east of Kankakee, Illinois on the south side of the main east-west route, East Court Street/Illinois State Route 17. The Starlite Drive-In was open from around 1955 untill 1986. The drive-in held 600 cars. It was twined in the early-1980’s. The Starlite Drive-In was owned by Alliance Amusement Company till about 1969.
Any further information on the Starlite Drive-In would be appreciated.
Contributed by
Bob Jensen
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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
If you go to the Google Map, the Satellite Photo and enlarge it as large as posible you get a good view of the drive-in. You can see the entrance road still exists and the outline of the drive-in The dark shape at the botton is the shade caused by one of the screens that is still standing as of March 28, 2010, the other screen is gone.
The mess all over the drive-in lot?
The City of Kankakee, Public Works Department, now uses it for landscape/yard waste material which is seperated into sections for composting, mulch, chip, brush, large logs. Therefore the mess.
THE FILM DAILY YEAR BOOK OF MOTION PICTURES, of 1967 shows the Starlite Drive-In, 54 Drive-In and Luna Theater (all in Kankakee) all under the Theater Circuit of L & M Management Company, Incoroporated, (with 15 theaters)120 South La Salle Street, Chicago, J. R. Gottlieb, President.
I’ve driven by it countless times and the screen is still intact. I actually think they could revive it if they chose.
My fondest memories of the Starlite was Buck night. You pile as many people as you could into a car and you would all get in for a dollar. We even stuffed people in the trunk of the 48 Plymouth just for the hell of it. Of course, you spent much more than a buck on concessions (Let’s all go to the lobby…to get ourselves a treat!) There was a playground under the main screen at one time. On hot nights, everyone sat on the hoods of the cars for the usual triple features.
The missing screen is In Gibson City IL at the Harvest Moon Drive In…. it is Screen #2 there .. it was in Clinton IL for a while .. than it was moved to Gibson .. I was the last “film” projectionist in the 2012 season at Harvest Moon … My father was the 1st when harvest moon opened… Matt
The last season for the Starlie was 1986.