Twilight Drive-In
3511 Christoval Road,
San Angelo,
TX
76903
3511 Christoval Road,
San Angelo,
TX
76903
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Newspaper listings ended in 1955 for this drive-in.
The Twilight Drive-In opened on March 30th, 1946, as the first drive-in in the area. Grand opening ad posted.
This origin story in the June 4, 1949 issue of BoxOffice may explain some of the confusion about the early San Angelo drive-ins:
R. S. Starling, a gasoline distributor and retailer of San Angelo, Tex., says he got into the drive-in business by accident. It happened like this:
About five years ago, in an attempt to sell more gasoline he put up a big screen on the back roof of one of his filling stations and gave purchasers of five gallons of gas a free ticket to the show. The idea clicked. Cars came in droves; filling station attendants couldn’t even get to the pumps.
The oil man decided there must be something to the drive-in business. He started enhancing and improving the place, called it the Twilite Drive-In and charged a regular admission. Gas sales continued to boom as a result of many cars on the lot.
As materials eased up and costs leveled off, Starling was set to put in a real drive-in and the Starlite was the result. He has since also enlarged and improved his Twilite Drive-In.