Starview Drive-In
18000 Big Basin Highway,
Boulder Creek,
CA
95006
18000 Big Basin Highway,
Boulder Creek,
CA
95006
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Starview Drive-In was located on Big Basin Highway midway between Big Basin State Park and Boulder Creek, CA. Opened on October 3, 1947, it was a single standard screen theatre with space for 375 cars.
In 1954, my parents managed the theatre and I was the projectionist. I was 14 years old at the time. The theatre was open during the summer tourist season as it relied upon the visitors to the State Park for customers. It closed on August 24, 1956 with William Holden in “Escape from Fort Bravo” & Sterling Hayden in “Naked Alibi”. It was shortly thereafter demolished.
Contributed by
Gordon Epperly
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
Thanks for the photos Chuck.
Address…Big Basin Hwy and Moon Dr Boulder Creek, CA 95006
I think in closed in 1957.
This was such a nice to visit when I was a kid. They closed in the mid 50’s and never put in a wide CinemaScope® screen. Same owners I think as the old Burl Theatre in Boulder Creek, that building is still around but no longer a movie theatre.
The address for this Drive-in was 18000 Big Basin Hwy, Boulder Creek, CA 95006.
Please update.
375 cars.
The Starview Drive-In was opened in 1947, and was the first drive-in theater in Santa Cruz County. The owners were Frank Paone and John Forde who, in 1949, would open the much larger Encina Drive-In in Santa Cruz. They operated the Encina in partnership with a regional chain called Trans-California Theaters, but I’ve been unable to discover if the same arrangement was in effect at the Starview.
The Starview opened on Oct. 3, 1947, based on its grand opening ad in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. No mention of its opening program, but its ads soon added that there was “Never a foggy night at the Starview Drive-In Theatre.”
The Starview (“No Fog!”) continued to advertise in the Sentinel through August 24, 1956. Its movies on that Friday were “Escape From Fort Bravo” and “Naked Alibi.”
A note in January 1958 mentioned new houses going up “on the site of the old Starview drive-in theater”.