Nov. 15: Sunset Drive-In Theater, Shinnston WV

It’s Day 319 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. Driving through the hills and forest of West Virginia, it took me 2½ hours to drive from Warner’s Drive-In in Franklin to the Sunset Drive-In Theater just south of Shinnston in the unincorporated area called Meadowbrook.

When the Sunset opened in 1947, it was owned by Alex Sidan and Steve Medue, Jr., who together owned several other theaters in the region. According to a story on the West Virginia Historic Theatre Trail web site, it has been owned by the Ellis family since 1955, along with the adjacent Sunset Ellis Restaurant.

According to the book Around Shinnston by Robert P. Bice III, when John Ellis bought the Sunset, the concession stand / restaurant was an old streetcar. (There’s a great photo of that converted streetcar and another of the old sign behind the screen at WeHeartWV.com.) The Ellis family remodeled it into a real building in 1960.

The year-round restaurant and the drive-in have stayed in the family ever since. “My family leased it out for about 20 years, but my Uncle John took over after that and has run it for the past 16 years,” Antoinette Ellis-Casto told the Shinnston News last year. That lease was to Jim Henderson, who later bought the Grafton Drive-In, which closed in 2014. Unlike the Grafton, the Sunset converted to digital projection.

Although some of the in-car speakers on the grounds still work, the Sunset uses FM radio sound. Looking back at the screen, a full residence is there at its base and three stories’ worth of windows on the other side, as seen in the photos at the Eccentric Roadside blog. And that screen is so close to US Highway 19 that its marquee is on the opposite side.

The Sunset celebrated its 70th anniversary this year, and it was one of the inspirations for the embedded YouTube video of the day. RoganRadio has posted several videos about the Sunset, including some very nice drone footage, and this one is from August.

Too bad the night I was virtually there was in mid-November, when the drive-in was closed for the season.

Miles Today / Total: 126 / 36135 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 190

Nearby Restaurant: Well of course I had to have dinner at the Ellis Restaurant at the drive-in. Although I was tempted by the all-day breakfast, I took advantage of the daily special because it had been a long time since I’d eaten spaghetti. It came with the salad bar and garlic bread, and the price was great. I can see how this place stays open all year long.

Where I Virtually Stayed: There’s a Hampton Inn less than six miles from the Sunset in Bridgeport. That was easy. There were cookies and coffee waiting at check-in. My room had the full set of modern amenities. Breakfast was solid Hampton with chunks of sausage in the biscuit gravy. I was glad that this night’s lodging was such a no-brainer.

Only in Shinnston: There’s a large scrap metal statue of a coal miner named Charlie standing 21 feet tall in Shinnston. According to Eccentric Roadside, Charlie was commissioned in 1999 by Phil Southern as a tribute to his father who was killed in a coal mine in 1951.

Next stop: Dependable Drive-In, Moon PA.

Nov. 14: Warner’s Drive-In, Franklin WV

It’s Day 318 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. Driving up I-81 most of the way, it took me just a little over three hours to drive from the Starlite Drive-In in Christiansburg VA to Warner’s Drive-In in Franklin WV.

According to a lengthy story on the West Virginia Historic Theatre Trail web site, Charlie Warner and his son Harold opened Warner’s Drive-In in April 1952. It held about 250 cars and had in-car speakers for decades before they were replaced by FM sound.

WOWK checked in on Warner’s in late 2013. By then, the Franklin Oil Company had acquired the drive-in and its land. James and Nancy Hess were the managers, and they showed movies on Friday and Saturday nights. Hess said the former owners found that 90 percent of people attending left after the first movie. The projection equipment and the concrete screen, built to be someone’s house, were still the originals.

After the 2014 season, movies on film dried up, and Warner’s closed. Franklin Oil Company tried to sell the drive-in to the West Virginia Department of Highways, but the deal fell through. A group of locals formed the Warner Drive-In Cultural & Resource Center, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, to raise money for equipment and operate the drive-in.

Warner’s reopened in September 2016, and 2017 was its first full season with the new equipment. The non-profit has plans to add a performance stage in front of the screen, repair and refurbish the screen’s interior, and eventually buy the land.

The embedded video of the day is from WHSV, Harrisonburg VA’s News Leader. It’s a fun celebration of the new community spirit that runs Warner’s as well as the fun of watching a show there. Too bad the night I was virtually there was in mid-November, when the drive-in was closed for the season.

Miles Today / Total: 174 / 36009 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 190

Nearby Restaurant: The Korner Shop Cafe is just three doors down from my hotel (see below) in downtown Franklin. It looks like the kind of small-town diner where I like to go for comfort food after visiting a closed drive-in, but the cafe had a nice selection of full dinners. I enjoyed a half-pound ribeye steak with a salad and green beans, followed by a slice of homemade cake. On a chilly November night, it was very comforting.

Where I Virtually Stayed: There aren’t very many places to stay in Franklin, and the one in the middle of downtown is the Star Hotel & Restaurant. It’s been around longer than Warner’s, but when I walked up to my room, it was clean and comfortable. It’s always nice to have a bar on the premises. With the restaurant part, I could order a full breakfast before I set out in the morning. Quaint!

Only in Franklin: Every September Franklin holds its Treasure Mountain Festival. This year’s event included the Gigantic Pumpkin Contest (winners typically over 1000 pounds), a parade, a muzzleload shooting contest, a beard and mustache contest, a watermelon seed spitting contest, and owl hooting.

Next stop: Sunset Drive-In Theater, Shinnston WV.

Nov. 13: Starlite Drive-In, Christiansburg VA

It’s Day 317 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. Time to get back to some of the drive-ins that are closed for the season. Starting from Henderson NC, it took me 3½ hours to drive to the Starlite Drive-In in Christiansburg VA.

There are drive-ins with vague pasts, multiple ownership transactions and name changes. This is none of these. As Collegiate Times wrote in 2012, the “Starlite was opened in 1953 by Richard and Dorothy Beasley. The two ‘built, owned, and operated the Starlite Theater together for all those years’ before Richard passed away in July of 2009.” A few Starlite signs now say “since 1952,” so maybe that opener is just a little vague.

A July 2011 story in The Washington Post included a look in at the Starlite. “The Starlite’s parking area slopes steeply downhill toward the screen, which makes it easier to see over the vehicles in front of you. There’s no playground here, but there is plenty of open space where the kids enjoy burning off energy before the movie.” It was being run by Dorothy Beasley then and still offered “tinny” in-car speakers as well as radio sound.

The next year, for that Collegiate Times article, the owner was Peggy Beasley, and she’s still the owner in 2017. Over the past couple of years, she’s been in the news probably more than she’d prefer.

Her nicest coverage came from Virginia Living in 2013. “Known for its colorful star-dotted signpost and the Beasley family’s famous chili, the Starlite is now owned by daughter Peggy,” it wrote, noting that Richard Beasley built the screen frame in 1953, and it survives to this day.

The problem started in 2016 when Peggy Beasley gave up on replacing lost or stolen in-car speakers and switched to large outdoor speakers. As I wrote at the time, that’s the way the original drive-ins handled sound, and there’s a reason they don’t do it any more – neighbors. The Starlite is surrounded by housing, and some of the neighbors complained to the town, as reported in The Roanoke Times.

The situation continued to June 2017, when Peggy Beasley was summoned to Montgomery County General District Court on July 11 to face a misdemeanor noise disturbance charge, as documented in another story in The Roanoke Times. Her lawyer countered by filing an injunction claiming that her rights of due process have been violated, and that the Starlite is exempt from the town’s noise ordinance.

“I just look forward to it being over with,” Peggy said. “Daddy told me to keep it running when he passed away, because there would be a lot of disappointed people.”

The Radford News Journal wrote that she is considering renting radios, which I mentioned last year and of which I’ve seen dozens of examples in my virtual travels this year. Let’s hope that solves the problem.

The embedded video of the day is from WDBJ, Roanoke’s News Leader, and it includes plenty of nice shots of the Starlite as it discusses the sound / noise controversy. And the drive-in has been closed for the season for weeks, so on this night it was quiet as well as dark.

Miles Today / Total: 177 / 35835 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 190

Nearby Restaurant: When a restaurant promises all you can eat, I pay attention. That was the Monday special at Fatback Soul Shack – all the popcorn shrimp I wanted, plus corn on the cob, hush puppies, baked barbecue beans and so much more. Add a nice selection of beers, and I had all I needed for the night.

Where I Virtually Stayed: Not only is there a Hampton Inn in Christiansburg, but its rates for November suggest that this is the bargain time of year. It was so wonderfully predictable – coffee and cookies waiting for me at check-in, a comfortable room with all the modern amenities, and the solid Hampton-level free breakfast in the morning. But I’ve been to so many I’m starting to see that wide Hampton hexagon in my sleep.

Only in Christiansburg: This town has been around since the 18th century when it was “a concentration of taverns and rest stops along the Great Wilderness Road,” according to Wikipedia. Notable early residents included Daniel Boone, who once had an arrest warrant in Christiansburg for a debt, later repaid; Davy Crockett, who served as an apprentice to a local newspaper printer; and William Clark, of the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition, who lived downtown.

Next stop: Warner’s Drive-In, Franklin WV.