Category Archives: Florida

Jan. 1: Blue Starlite, Miami FL

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On Day One of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey, I chose the US’s southernmost drive-in, the Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive-In, which recently declared that its Florida “full time location” is in Miami.

Since I want to catch as many drive-ins on nights when they’re showing movies, that means that I’ll start 2017 with a drive across the southern states. Since I don’t want a lot of wasted miles, I’m starting in south Florida and working my way north before I turn west.

Although the Blue Starlite was dark tonight (its next film is Jurassic Park on Jan. 14), I love its location – by the beach at David T. Kennedy Park in the Coconut Grove neighborhood.

Miles Today / Total: 0 / 0 (I just got here.)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 0

Nearby Restaurant: Berries, less than a mile away. The perfect place for a healthy, relaxing Sunday brunch.

Where I Virtually Stayed: Hampton Inn Coconut Grove. Rated one of the best hotels in Miami, yet one of the least expensive within two miles of the drive-in.

Only in Miami: In 2011, NPR ran a story about the invasion of house-eating giant African land snails. Four years later, the Miami Herald wrote that detector dog teams were making a dent in the problem, resulting in 156,253 snail casualties.

Next Stop: Thunderbird Drive-in Theatres, Fort Lauderdale FL

Enjoy Sarasota FL’s drive-in history

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Old photo of Trail Drive-In Theatre screen

Photo from the Sarasota Department of Historical Resources, via the Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Jeff Lahurd gave us all a present in the Sunday edition of the Sarasota (FL) Herald-Tribune. Lahurd outlined what might be the full history of the five drive-in theaters in Sarasota and the three in nearby Bradenton.

Although the article often veers into explanations for those poor souls who have never experienced a drive-in, it contains a lot of great information. For example, the Trail Drive-In “served fried shrimp and chicken dinners, pizza and sandwiches, while the Siesta had a cafeteria styled restaurant and a snack bar ‘to keep you wonderfully refreshed.’”

Hugh Thomas, owner of the Trail and the Siesta, prided himself on keeping his theaters modern, clean, and inviting to families. He claimed that each of his projectors cost $14,000 and were “precision-made, like watches”.

According to Lahurd, the Bee Ridge was the last drive-in to open in Sarasota, in 1969. “To maintain the comfort factor, the theater offered individual (air conditioning) units, with the added benefit that it kept the mosquitoes out — mostly,” he wrote. I wonder how car-unit air conditioners worked.

One thing that Lahurd didn’t mention is that Sarasota residents can still visit the four-screen Fun Lan Drive-In about an hour’s drive away in Tampa. Anyway, I hope you’ve figured out by now that to experience all this fun nostalgia and a few nice photos, you really ought to go read it!

Meet the final (?) four winners of Project Drive-In

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiKS6k6LOvw
Today, Honda announced four more winners of its Project Drive-In contest to award digital projection systems. The latest lucky drive-ins include:

Ocala Drive-In, Ocala FL, the only Florida entrant in the contest.

Starlite Drive-In, Cadet MO, which somehow escaped our seemingly exhaustive four-part list of news stories about the candidates.

Monetta Drive-In, Monetta SC, The Big MO.

StateLine Drive-In, Elizabethton TN, sorry that I misspelled StateLine as two words during the project round-up.

So far Honda hasn’t taken my forwarded suggestion to finance the 140+ other drive-ins that still need digital equipment, but it is extending its fundraiser through the end of 2013. I think that local fundraisers stand a lot better chance of success than this national effort, but what do I know?

Here’s one more way to help. Honda has donated a 2014 Odyssey Touring Elite as an incentive on the Project Drive-In fundraising page. (You’ll need to scroll way down to the bottom of the page to see it.) If you make a $50,000 donation, you get the brand new Odyssey minivan, and you get the warm feeling of knowing that you help fund an additional digital projector to save another drive-in from closing. Plus you get your name in Honda’s next drive-in video. If you were planning on buying one of these anyway, why not do it here?