Star Drive-In

4571 Lake Avenue,
Blasdell, NY 14219

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Star Drive-In

The Star Drive-In was opened on October 25, 1947 with Barbara Britton in “The Fabulous Suzanne” & Roy Rogers in “Bells of Rosarita”. It initially had a capacity for 500-cars. On June 12, 1967 it reopened with an increased car capacity of 1,250. It was closed in 1978.

Contributed by Robert Lackemeyer

Recent comments (view all 7 comments)

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on January 27, 2011 at 2:28 am

The Star Drive-In opened June 12, 1957, and was the subject of this single-page article in Boxoffice of May 5, 1958. It was the eighth drive-in for the Blatt Brothers circuit, a regional circuit operating in New York and Pennsylvania. Among its features was an outdoor dance floor.

Boxoffice gave the car capacity as 1,250. The projector required an enormous throw of 610 feet to reach the 152-foot wide screen, advertised by the theater as the world’s largest.

NYozoner
NYozoner on January 27, 2011 at 3:04 am

Joe,

The Star Drive-in opened on October 25, 1947. The Boxoffice Magazine article mentioned in the post above was from a grand reopening, after operations were taken over by Blatt Brothers and they conducted extensive remodeling in 1957. The article was not very specific about those types of details.

This website contains details about the opening of the Star in 1947.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on January 27, 2011 at 3:32 am

Thanks for the correction, NYozoner. Boxoffice did sometimes leave out important details. I think the layout editors, working under tight deadlines, sometimes clipped sections out of articles to make them fit the space available on the page. That still happens a lot with weekly and daily publications.

From the aerial images on the page you linked to, it looks as though Blatt Brothers expansion of the operation amounted to almost a complete rebuilding of the original theater.

NYozoner
NYozoner on January 27, 2011 at 3:58 am

It was most definitely an extensive rebuild, and more than a remodeling. The entire concession stand was demolished and relocated to the back of the lot, the original tower was rebuilt for Cinemascope, and a new ticket booth was built further back from the road.

An interesting fact about the Star, the manager mentioned in the article was Jake Stefanon, who left Blatt Brothers in the mid 1960s to purchase his own small-town drive-in near Perry, New York. The Silver Lake Twin Drive-In is still run by the Stefanon family, and has evolved into one of the finest drive-in operations in the country.

jwmovies
jwmovies on December 5, 2012 at 12:16 pm

Above address is incorrect. It should be 4271. 4571 is east of the freeway.

Rite Aid now stands where the drive-in was located.

davidcoppock
davidcoppock on October 1, 2020 at 10:08 am

Opened on 25/10/1947 witn “Fabolous Suzanne” and “Bells of Rosarita”. 500 cars in 1947. Reopened on 12/6/1957. 1250 cars in 1957. Closed in 1978. Demolished(date unknown?). The site is now Lake Avenue Plaza. The entrance road is still there.

rivest266
rivest266 on September 7, 2022 at 11:49 pm

Grand opening ad posted.

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