Starlite Drive-In

MichaelKilgore on March 6, 2023 at 4:13 pm

Sacramento Bee, Oct. 8, 1949: “A drivein theater, estimated to cost $20,000, was under construction today at South Fourteenth Street, Arden Way and the North Sacramento Freeway. A permit to build the theater was issued by the county board of supervisors last month to Wilbur B. Baptist of 4425 Franklin Boulevard, representing the Allied Theaters Corporation. The show house will be named Starlite Drivein Theater and will be managed by a San Francisco firm which operates similar theaters in San Francisco and Belmont.”

The grand opening, almost a year later, featured Jack Carson in “The Good Humor Man” and Jon Hall in “(On) The Isle of Samoa.”

After the grand opening (posted above), every ad I’ve seen spelled it Starlite. By the following week, it was packaged with the El Rancho and Fruitridge drive-ins.

MichaelKilgore on January 19, 2020 at 6:48 pm

Boxoffice, March 31, 1958: “A $60,000 fire that destroyed the screen at the Starlite Drive-In March 12 may have been started by three boys, according to deputy sheriffs. A 13-year-old boy has admitted that he and two other boys, both 14, set fire to a fence running alongside the theatre the day of the screen fire. The boys said they tried to put out the fence fire with sand, then fled when this method failed to work.”

davidcoppock on October 6, 2018 at 7:27 am

Second screen added in 1973. Closed in 1979. 975 cars.