Two things that go together: Route 66 and drive-in theaters. The Santa Monica Pier seems to have accidentally noticed this. They’re holding a pop-up drive-in on Thursday, Jan. 15 in the upper-deck parking area of the pier, according to the Santa Monica Daily News and MSN. Although it’s the sort-of-official end point (with signs) of Route 66, and even though 2026 is its very official centennial year, the pier mentioned nothing about that for this event.
Folks who want to attend will need to sign up through Eventbrite, and the cost is free. Cars can start getting into place around 3:30 pm for the showing of “Grease.” The movie starts at 6:30, and cars won’t be allowed to leave until after 8. I hope someone points out the centennial to the organizers. Someone needs to set up a booth to sell copies of Drive-Ins of Route 66 there.
First the Bad News: KB Home, which bought the South El Monte CA site of the old Starlite Drive-In in the last year or two, has taken down the old marquee, as shown in a January 2025 Google Street View.
Now the Good News: KB Home announced this week that it’s building “Astaire and Harlow at Starlite” and will restore the marquee to its former glory to “serve as a beautiful entrance monument.” If you enjoy such things, you can read the press release.
The Starlite had a historic pedigree. It was built in 1950 by Ford Bratcher, his brother Carl, and Byron Congdon, who already ran the Mount Vernon Drive-In in San Bernardino. The architect was J. Arthur Drielsma, who designed a lot of the better drive-ins in California. The Pacific drive-in chain got at least a piece of the action in 1951, although a 1953 Boxoffice note mentioned that a Bratcher was still there too. Those drive-in ownership structures are often beyond me.
When exactly did the Starlite close? I haven’t nailed down that date yet. CinemaTreasures says the screen was demolished in 1997, so it had to be by then. But the sign and the concession stand remained, the better to hold weekend flea markets. The Google Street View camera caught an active day in 2018, then a 2021 image showed the property for sale. Maybe the flea market was another victim of the pandemic.
I flipped through a few photos to try to provide some idea of what the old marquee was like. The black and white picture I chose (below) shows how interesting that sign was when the Starlite opened. For a better look at its recent state, as well as a sense of its scale, I added the YouTube video at the top of this post. I hope that soon we can add the new, restored version to this set of images.
As I work my way through drive-in events that happened while I was occupied, that includes sad milestones such as this one. The Santee Drive-In Theatre, which opened in 1958, ran its final movies on Dec. 31, 2023. The Times of San Diego reminded me this week that I need to note the Santee’s passing.
As I wrote during my 2017 Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey, the Santee’s neon letters and star looked great after dark. What I uncharacteristically overlooked was the drive-in’s history. The Times wrote that John Forte and Walt Long opened the place in 1958. “With experience operating drive-ins in Stockton and La Verne, the duo built the original 50×100-foot screen by hand, hammering it together with wood and nails.” The Times claimed the Santee’s capacity was over 1000 cars, but the Motion Picture Almanac reported it at the time as 700.
Based on aerial photos, I can say that the Santee added a second, smaller screen between 1971 and 1978. The Times wrote that it was 1972. The drive-in also ran a popular swap meet, or flea market, or whatever you want to call it, that operated for decades and continued for a few months after the Santee stopped showing films.
Although the drive-in was profitable (probably), there’s usually a more lucrative use for a big chunk of land like that. It sure is a shame when we lose another historic drive-in to economic progress.
