Starlite Twin Drive-In
1300 Stanford Road,
Grand Forks,
ND
58203
1300 Stanford Road,
Grand Forks,
ND
58203
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Starlite Drive-In
Nearby Theaters
The Starlite Drive In opened in 1950 by Eddie Rubin & Joe Floyd. It had a capacity for 500-cars. It was located at 1300 Stanford Road and operating into the late-1960’s.
It was moved to a new location at 4400 S. Washington Street and a second screen was added in July 1974. It was closed in September 1985. Surprisingly it reopened for one night only on August 11, 1990 screening Richard Dreyfuss in “American Graffiti” & James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause”.
In 1991 the property was bought by a golfer who used the space for a driving range. He left one of the screens standing to give the patrons a target to aim at. It was closed and demolished in the late-1990’s and a medical facility now stands on the site.
Contributed by
Ken McIntyre
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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
I don’t know why I entered single screen when the name says twin. There had to be two screens at the end. In 1963, the name was Starlight Drive-In, probably a single. Car capacity was 500. Owners were J. Rubin and E. Floyd, who also owned the Starlite Drve-In in Fargo.
Approx. address for this drive-in was 1300 Stanford Rd, Grand Forks, ND 58203. Now part of University of North Dakota.
I remember a theater out on Highway 81 but what can anyone tell me about the theater on Stanford Rd?
The theatre was moved from just off Gateway Drive, just east of the old Hansen Ford building, to south on Southwashington Street. I would guess in the early 1970s
I grew up on 7th avenue North in the late 60’s and early 70’s. I went to Lake Agassi Elementary that was at the end of our street. 7th ended at Boyd Dr. that stopped at the Star-Lite Drive-in. My friends and I would ride out bikes through the grounds. The English Coulee ran aside the theater. There was a trail that we accessed the western side of the river from the drive-in on our bikes. I remember collecting bottle caps as a kid from the Star-Lite mostly beer caps I’m sure. Unfortunately my Mom didn’t see the value in my efforts and sent the whole collection( a very loose definition of the actual thing) to the landfill. Anyone who knows the drive-in screen up close knows of the rung ladder on the backside that accessed the screen. My friends and I used to challenge each other to climb up it trying to best each other. Grand Forks then was a very different place than today. We used to play ball on a field that Engelstad Arena now sits on, hang out at the “Highway Host”, and fall asleep to the sounds of the Friday night races at Rivers Cities Speedway that thank goodness is still around today. I loved that theater because of all the fun it gave me and my friends and of a time that has long since disappeared when parents didn’t worry about their kids being MIA for the entire day. I live in the Detroit area now and there are a few surviving drive-ins that have adapted and have a loyal following. The hey day may be gone, what with surround sound, IMAX theaters and lounge chair seating, but the charm of the drive-in still lingers for this movie-goer, and the Star-Lite is still my first choice. I’m glad to see others feel the same.
So, just to be clear. The Starlite started off at 1300 Stanford Street where it existed as a single screen drive-in until at least the late 1960s.
The property was sold and the drive-in moved to roughly 4400 South Washington Street. It was twinned and remained open until 1985, save for one night in 1990.
The 4400 South Washington Street address became a driving range by 1991 and remained that way until the construction of the Aurora Clinic sometime in the late 1990s/early 2000s.
Today, the property is known as South Washington Medical Park with no trace of the drive-in remaining.
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