#STARLIGHT DRIVE IN MOVIE#

Drive-in historian and expert Susan Sanders has said that drive-in theaters in the South were likely more welcoming to black audiences than their indoor counterparts.

#STARLIGHT DRIVE IN MOVIE#

In their Southern Spaces project on drive-ins across the South, Robin Conner and Paul Johnson note that, “ Despite many studies of discrimination in other entertainment venues, scholarship on segregation at the drive-in is almost nonexistent,” though they go on to say that “there are indications that such segregation may have been the norm in Dixie.”Įven still, the racism and de facto segregation that surely existed in Southern drive-ins was likely a vast improvement from the codified, legislated segregation of the indoor movie theaters of the day. Look no further than the Starlight’s current website to see the sticking power of this imagery.Īs with all 1950s mythology, however, reality was a lot more complex and diverse than these images suggest. The drive-in boom of the 1950s would produce the iconography of drive-in culture for generations to come: milkshakes, poodle skirts, James Dean-esque teen rebels and white families in Ford Thunderbirds.

By 1958, drive-ins accounted for about one-third of all theaters operating in the country. The drive-in became a go-to form of entertainment, with over 4,000 in operation by 1956, the same year the Atlanta Journal-Constitution announced the “Twins are born!” after the Starlight added its additional screen. While drive-ins struggled during the Depression and war years, the concept took off post-war, dovetailing with the skyrocketing birth rate, new notions of leisure and family time, an emergence of a new teen culture and the growth of the automobile business. People could eat, drink, smoke and make out in peace while watching their movies in the comfort of their own vehicle - all for a lower price than tickets to a baseball game or the theater. “The whole family is welcome, regardless of how noisy the children are,” read its first marketing slogan. This is the same argument used to advertise the first drive-in theater, patented by Richard Hollingshead in Camden, New Jersey, in 1933. The Starlight Drive-In was previously named the Starlight Twin after adding an additional screen in 1956. The “Starlight Twin,” as it was known back then, was the only double drive-in in Georgia at the time, and one of the biggest theaters in the South, marketed as a cheap and comfortable entertainment option for baby-booming families. The answer is about as ATLien as you can get.Ītlanta’s Starlight shared in the drive-in’s nationwide heyday of the 1950s, opening as a single screen in 1949, then adding another screen in 1956. The Starlight is one of only about 330 drive-ins left in the country, one of only five left in Georgia and the last drive-in in Atlanta - all of which beg the question: What’s kept the Starlight going the past seven decades?

providing 70 continuous years of affordable entertainment.” He describes three generations of his family going to the theater. “Starlight was a place he and his family would go to while he was growing up in Atlanta.”įormer manager and current Starlight enthusiast Jim Stacey can relate. “Donald personally chose the Starlight Drive-In as the venue,” a spokesperson for the show said. In addition to the daily grind of putting up movies on three screens every night, as well as an expansive flea market every weekend, the Starlight held the most recent premiere for Atlanta, the FX show produced by and starring hometown hero Donald Glover. This year marks the 70th anniversary of Atlanta’s famous drive-in. For the Starlight, that means close to 2,000 cars and between 5,000 and 8,000 people. “With one of the big blockbusters - Black Panther, Straight Outta Compton - we’ll sell out, especially in the summer,” says night manager Shawn Culver. “We’ll probably get, I dunno, 100 cars here tonight.” On this Friday night, it’s still chilly out, the spring temps not yet making it past sundown. “It all depends on the weather,” says employee Simone Robleto. The Starlight’s employees, fueled by Baja Blast Mountain Dew, jump at the chance to help folks navigate the drive-in’s dark lanes and undulating, concrete humps.

Next, a pickup truck with a couple on an anxiety-ridden date, followed by a Jeep with three teenagers who giggle through the ticket-buying process and smell like weed.

On a recent Friday night at the Starlight Six Drive-In, a weathered minivan rolls up to the ticketing window with eight kids bouncing in the back seat, one exhausted woman in the front.

Starlight drive in