Star-Lite Drive-In
8301 South Tacoma Way,
Tacoma,
WA
98409
8301 South Tacoma Way,
Tacoma,
WA
98409
1 person
favorited this theater
Star-Lite Park-In Theatre was built in 1948 by E. Chester and Sue Nilsson and Charles L. and Cora Theuerkauf. It was the second drive-in theater built in Tacoma. Its original screen measured 39 feet by 54 feet. A newer, larger screen went up later.
The theater opened May 26, 1948, showing “Golden Earrings” with Ray Milland and Marlene Dietrich and “Adventure Island” with Rory Calhoun and Rhonda Fleming.
It closed as a drive-in theater in 1996 and operates as a swap meet site … for now. The giant screen still stands, but it looks like the whole site will be razed to make room for development. Someone is anxious to pay the hefty price for open land like that (three acres) in Tacoma.
Contributed by
KatieMac
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
nice photos here:
http://www.drive-ins.com/theater/watstar
There are great photos to look at if you go to http://search.tpl.lib.wa.us/images/, and then type Star-Lite in the search line.
great find! the hyperlink won’t work as typed due to the ending comma which needs to be removed. Here is the corrected link:
http://search.tpl.lib.wa.us/images/
About a month ago, Channel 7 (KIRO-tv) did a news story about the City of Tacoma shutting down the swap meet for a while. Seems the business owners had no business license to operate a swap meet. Also sellers are required to buy an individual swap meet license too!
2009 photo of the Star Lite Marqee.
View link
Thanks for the pictures, I have it being owned by William Forman.he owned Several drive-ins in this state and it parked 550 cars.
ABOVE ADDRESS IS INCORRECT. THE ADDRESS IS 8327 South Tacoma Way.
DRIVE-IN STATUS SHOULD BE CLOSED. THIS IS JUST A SWAP MEET. IT DOES NOT PLAY MOVIES.
The address in the header maps right to the drive-In.