The Starlite Drive-In opened in 1947. The car capacity was listed at 400 cars. It was initially operated by Anderson Theatres and finally by Malco Theatres. At one time, Malco Theatres dominated the market in Owensboro. The drive-in closed in 1988 when the screen was set on fire by vandals.
Aerials below are 1950 and 2021.
Comments 1
Okay, a friend from Owensboro sent me your link and I guess this is going to be a day of nostalgia for me so I’ll have to comment on this picture too. I went to a lot of drive-in movies during the 50s and 60s and I remember Owensboro having 3 drive-ins but my memory may be a little faulty. One was The Cardinal drive-in and one was called The Owensboro drive-in and then the third was The Starlite drive-in. I grew up off Frederica over by Texas Gas and remember one of the drive-ins was a little further out Frederica just outside of town. Another was going out of town on Triplett. And then the other was just out of town on the west side going towards Sorgho and the airport. And The Starlite outlasted them all. I couldn’t remember exactly where it was though until I saw your present-day aerial photo and recognized the Moonlite Bar-B-Q building on its expanded site. I remember Moonlite when it was just a small restaurant facing the highway with a few diner-like tables to eat at. In high school, I used to go there on Saturdays on my lunch break from Wyndall’s. I also remember The Big Dipper in the photo which is just next door to Moonlite. Back growing up, my uncle was a friend of the owner, and he would always take his family over there on Friday evenings for their dinner meal. That was a big treat back in my day! I tried to plan it to be at their house at the appointed time so I could go too. Hey, when you are 10 years old you can get away with that kind of thing. As for the Starlite drive-in, I remember watching a lot of movies there on a blanket beside our car or in the playground just below the screen. Now, I can’t believe I would ever want to be outside that long being miserable in the heat and humidity. Back in my youth that was not a problem.