Star-Lite Drive-In
918 6th Street,
Socorro,
NM
87801
918 6th Street,
Socorro,
NM
87801
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Sunset Drive-In
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The tiny Sunset Drive-In was built by Edsel Cavasos, who opened it with 100 in-car speakers and promised to add more when needed, according to a note in the March 26, 1949 issue of Boxoffice.
Just 11 weeks later, Cavasos was advertising the Sunset Drive-In for sale in a Boxoffice classified advertisement. “100-car drive-in with in-car speakers. Up and coming town of 6,000. Only one small theatre in town. New Mexico School of Mines located in town; 600x600 ft. plot on which theatre is built is leased with good, long lease.”
On October 8, 1949, Boxoffice reported that “Owner Jack Wills says that weather conditions and construction difficulty have made it impossible to reopen the local drive-in this season. Three attempts have been made previously to complete remodeling of the theatre.” Wills owned the indoor Loma Theatre in Socorro.
In July 22, 1950, Boxoffice wrote about a projection booth fire at the “Star-Lite Drive-In” in Socorro, “owned and operated by Edsell Casavos.“ (sic) Three weeks later, the magazine said that Cavasos had "rebuilt the projection booth, replaced missing speakers, and installed new projectors.” That’s the last note I could find about this drive-in. Cavasos opened a radio/TV repair shop in Hatch but passed away in 1957 at the age of 36.
An October 1950 USGS aerial photo showed an unusual circle driveway at present-day 918 6th Street leading to a long drive which looped around a square, cleared, mostly empty lot. A blurrier 1952 USGS photo showed the driveways intact and a possible screen at the southeast corner of the lot. A 1955 aerial showed the same circle drive leading to a auto junkyard. No trace of the drive-in remains today.
Contributed by
Michael Kilgore
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Recent comments (view all 9 comments)
The October 1950 aerial shows no screen or projection booth/concession stand at that site. And yet the article you cite states that the projection booth had been rebuilt reportedly by August of that year, so both should be there, right?
The circle driveway seems to have more to do with connecting the house seen on the north side to the stable/shed just to the south. With the connecting road leading to what looks like a barn on the NE corner of the property.
Is there any other evidence to suggest this is the site? Otherwise, this looks like private property to me.
You may be right, Kenmore. My evidence is weak - the size is right for 100 cars, it became an auto junkyard at about the right time, and somebody cleared this fenced square for something. For all I know, Cavasos might have been living at that house. The concession stand could have been either corner building, and the screen might have been makeshift and temporary.
You’re better at scanning photos than I am. Maybe you could download the 1950 aerials from EarthExplorer and help me find a more satisfying candidate for this mystery drive-in.
There’s clearly no projection booth on this site nor is there a screen. If he had rebuilt the projection booth in August 1950, you think he wouldn’t have torn it down by October and totally cleared the property, especially if he hadn’t sold the land by that time.
And perhaps even more telling, no evidence of tire marks, tracks, or other indications that cars had ever been on the property. So, I don’t think this is it.
I will try to search Earth Explorer for any evidence of a drive-in.
MichaelKilgore I’m not seeing another drive-in close to the town so far. But, I’m suspecting that the Star-Lite and Sierra Vista were the same.
You mentioned in your June 9, 2019 post on the Sierra Vista page in the first sentence, “I wonder whether this drive-in opened as the Sunset, which is listed in the 1950 & 1951 Film Daily Year Books as the only one in Socorro.
In addition, you mentioned in the description of this page, “100-car drive-in with in-car speakers. Up and coming town of 6,000. Only one small theatre in town. New Mexico School of Mines located in town; 600x600 ft. plot on which theatre is built is leased with good, long lease.”
That “one small theater” would most likely be the Loma Theater. And yet the Sierra Vista (under another name) was operating in 1949. Why wasn’t it mentioned? Unless perhaps it is the same theater.
If the Star-Lite was sold and closed for even a short time, it would make sense that under new ownership it would be re-opened as a “new” theater, especially if it had been expanded.
I’ve seen on more than one occasion theater advertisements that do not mentioned any previous ownership.
Hi Kenmore. Sorry to be late with this reply. I wish you were right, but a couple of data points get in my way.
The Sierra (which would become the Sierra Vista) opened on April 24, 1952. Earlier Socorro drive-in notes are all consistent with Edsel Cavasos' Sunset/Star-Lite. Aerial photos from 1950 clearly showed that the future Sierra site was still unimproved land. It’s one of the few places that I know for sure wasn’t where the Sunset was. :)
There is so very much that I don’t know about this drive-in. I hope that one day some Socorro historian will be motivated to check it out.
At this point, I’m not sure what to think.
All I can say is that the 918 6th Street address is really problematic to be a drive-in. Aerial photos are time and date stamped and I’ve yet to run into one that has been proven to be wrong.
If I accept the 1949 aerial as fact, then that’s not the location of any drive-in that opened on March 26th of that year. Even if I assume the photo was taken in January, there is no evidence of any screen, booth, or construction which had to be there.
And in all likelihood, the aerial photo was taken after March 26th. Which means we would see the drive-in which was apparently still standing in July of the following year. And would certainly still be there in October of 1950, but according to your description it was not.
So, that’s not it. Unless it was the fastest construction and demolition job ever of which there is no evidence of that since the property became an auto salvage yard. Which means no need to demolish anything.
Do you use USGS' EarthExplorer? https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ It’s nowhere near as friendly and easy as HistoricAerials, but it can fill in a lot of gaps. HistoricAerials often uses those same USGS maps as its starting point.
In particular, I can see that Socorro’s 1949 photos were taken on Sept. 29 and Oct. 1. The latter set is unusually well detailed. You’re better at spotting these drive-ins, so maybe you could look them over.
I’m thinking of the drive-in at Hatch NM, about 100 miles down the highway. Its outline looked almost nothing like the typical clamshell drive-in site, but it could have influenced Cavasos, who had a Hatch connection. After his drive-in closed, Cavasos opened a radio/TV repair shop in Hatch.
So if you could look at some EarthExplorer TIF files with an eye toward an unconventional setup, maybe you’ll fill this longstanding hole in my knowledge.
I found the Hatch Drive-In. And while its setup is a little unusual, the screen and projection booth stuck out like a sore thumb. No matter the shape of the ramps or if there are no ramps, there should be a line and a box that signifies a screen and projection booth respectively.
If the information is correct, then the October, 1949 aerial would show Star-Lite with a standing screen and most likely be located on the edge of town where it has room to add more ramps. The difficulty with rebuilding suggests farmland that holds water close to the surface (like where I live).
The 1949 aerial on NETR is probably the same as EarthExplorer, which means that a drive-in should be visible, but I do not see anything resembling a screen at all, let alone one with a projection booth anywhere in or around the town.
That’s not to say it isn’t there. But what I can say is the 918 6th Street address has no screen, no projection booth, and no ramps, tracks, or any indication that cars have been parked on it recently. Apart from that, it sorta fits the general description in terms of size and location. But then again, so do a lot of areas around the town.
I’m getting out some twine to connect pushpins on a corkboard. I’m starting to guess that the 100 speakers that Cavasos used in Socorro came from Hatch.
The Hatch drive-in, capacity 100, closed after the 1948 season. The Starlite opened with 100 speakers the following spring. It makes a kind of sense.
I agree that the HistoricAerials (NETR) version for 1949 looks like the high-res Oct. 1 set. Maybe we’ll figure it out some day.