Author Archives: mrdrivein

Wichita’s Starlite gets more time

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screen grab from a KWCH news video

Here’s more good news from the continuing saga of the Starlite Drive-In Theatre in Wichita KS. Owner Blake Smith, who also owns the Admiral Twin Drive-In in Tulsa OK, received an extension on the loan that the city of Wichita gave him to buy the Starlite’s digital projectors. The full story is available, with a bit of video that I can’t embed here, at KWCH, Wichita’s News Leader.

The Starlite began its life as the single-screen Rainbow in 1953. The drive-in underwent extensive renovation in 1974, including a large new projection and concession building and a second screen, and became the Landmark Twin. In the intervening years, the name morphed into the Landmark Starlite and then to just the Starlite that it is today.

The struggles began in 2016. After longtime owner Jim Goble passed away, Chuck Bucinski bought the Starlite, but soon began saying the drive-in was in financial trouble. In the summer of 2018, he pursuaded Wichita to change the Starlite’s zoning to allow for industrial uses, “strictly for estate-planning purposes”, but announced its permanent closure in October that year. The community rallied, and Smith was able to buy the drive-in to keep it running.

The Starlite did well in 2019. Smith said he was considering selling season passes for 2020. Uh oh. The Covid pandemic tamped down the Starlite’s business that summer, and audiences have been slow to return in the years since.

Part of the package deal that Smith got in 2018 was a loan from the city to buy new digital projectors to replace the pair that were no longer there after Bucinski’s departure. That $200,000 was a heavy burden considering the covid-initiated drop in attendance. From KWCH’s report, the city council was delighted to help keep the Starlite open, extending the loan till 2031. It’s always nice when local officials recognize a drive-in’s value to the community.

Winter Strategies for Drive-In Theaters: Fundraiser Events

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from the Calvert City Drive-In Facebook page

I’m always on the lookout for good ideas for drive-in owners, and this is one of them. The Calvert Drive In in Calvert City KY has found a way to help community groups and add a bit of profit during the slow weeknights of winter.

As reported last week by the Marshall County Tribune-Courier, Calvert owner Seth Manea was trying to find a way to support local groups looking for donations. He’s been keeping the Calvert open on weekends during the winter, but the weekdays were probably too slow to justify seven days a week.

Manea invited these groups to help choose a suitable movie (such as a baseball-related flick for the local baseball team), then commit to work the box office for what would have been a dark weeknight. The groups will prevail on their customers to visit the Calvert for a good time instead of buying chocolate bars or whatever else fundraisers are hawking these days.

“Manea said there have already been approximately 30 dates booked, and considers the availability sold out,” the Trib reported. He said he’ll pay the distributors for the movie, then provide a percentage of the gate profit to the fundraisers.

What a great no-lose proposition for any drive-in owner! No need to worry if next Wednesday’s weather will entice a large crowd to drive in to watch some classic film. Instead, bring on a local charitable partner to sell the tickets in advance, provide some volunteer labor, and leave the drive-in with more cash that it would have had by staying dark. And it doesn’t hurt that the process leaves the drive-in owner looking like a hero.

Carload is back for 2025

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Master of Science diploma from the University of Colorado
How I spent my summers (and springs and autumns and winters) the past two years.


Hello again! How are you doing? I want to apologize for being gone so long here. The last two years, I’ve been spending most of my time working toward a master’s degree in data science. The virtual certificate arrived last week, and the paper diploma is supposed to show up in February.

After decades of working with computers using self-taught skills, I wanted to get some validation of what I can do. Data science sounded like the perfect field. It combines computer programming, which I used to do for a living; clear communication, which I also used to do for a living (and still trying to do here); and statistics. No problem, I thought. I can whip up an earned run average or a shooting percentage with the best of them.

They weren’t that kind of statistics.

What I had to learn involved stuff such as how to plot regression, how to compute confidence levels, and what the heck are random variables, which are neither random nor variables. Thank goodness for the Khan Academy, whose free online classes brought me up to a base level so I could start learning more. Long story short, the statistics component was the source of the missing 0.1 in my 3.9 grade point average.

During my longest semester break, I finished Drive-Ins of New Mexico. (Find out more including the free epub download here.) I chose that state because of all the helpful, friendly people I ran into while doing research there for Drive-Ins of Route 66. They were so friendly in Farmington that they repeatedly requested that I come give a talk there. That finally happened last August. I had a great time; my only disappointment was having to cut my visit short because of a change in one of my school assignments.

Anyway, that’s all behind me now. My goal is to get Carload back to regular updates. While I also research California drive-ins for a future book (got any photos for me?), I’ll be catching up on some of the general drive-in news that I missed. At least I’ve still got plenty to work with. Stick around, won’t you?