Category Archives: Florida

Project Drive-In roundup 3: Dark of the screen

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I warned you that it might come to this. With less than a week left in Honda’s Project Drive-In voting period, I’ve found media reports about a few more of the candidates.

Here’s something confusing: Some of those media reports only partially duplicate other reports. That is, if a new story lists drive-ins A, B, and C, but a story from one of my first two round-ups already mentioned A and C, then I’ve added B as a new candidate in this third round-up. If you click through to the story, it’ll mention all three, but we know that B is the only one that’s new to this list. Okay?

With that in mind, let’s go through a few more:

And that should hold us on Project Drive-In news until they start talking about winners. Wouldn’t it be nice if Honda chose more than five?

Blue Starlite concept about to spead

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A few months ago, I had to admit that I wasn’t sure whether the Blue Starlite in Austin TX is a real drive-in. I’m still sure that “drive-in nights” in the park with temporary screens and no cars definitely aren’t drive-ins. The Blue Starlite’s screen still looks pretty temporary, but they play movies every week in season and folks really drive in to watch them, so I guess I’ll have to say that it qualifies.

Which is important, because now there’s a report that the Blue Starlite’s founder, Josh Frank, has moved to Miami and plans to start another “mini urban drive-in” there. The Miami New Times has the story of what Frank did in Austin and what he hopes to do in Miami. I hadn’t realized that he bought real drive-in speakers and restored them to use at the Blue Starlite. Cool!

This is a very intimate experience,” Frank explained to the New Times. “Having a drive-in that catered to so few people, where each car feels like it’s their night, that was a big lightbulb.”

There’s no opening date yet, but Frank said he wanted it ready by October. He’s hoping for a location in the Wynwood Art District, but hasn’t zeroed in on any one in particular. For more details if and when they arrive, check out the Blue Starlite Miami web site. For much more story about Frank’s reasons for spreading his vision to Miami, go read it!

Joy-Lan shows you can’t be too old to go digital

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Joy-Lan Drive-In marquee

photo by Earl Leatherberry, used by permission

The Tampa (FL) Tribune gave us a piece of good news this week. The Joy-Lan Drive-In of Dade City has made the conversion to digital projection thanks to its owner, 83-year-old Harold Spears.

You really should read the article for its full collection of quotes and wisdom from Spears, who’s been in the drive-in industry for almost 60 years. For example, he recognizes that the appeal of the drive-in is its general relaxed atmosphere. He also notes that the Joy-Lan used to attract more teenagers than it does now.

Spears, who also owns the Silver Moon Drive-In (Lakeland), recognized that his only choices were converting to digital or closing. “The business that we do really didn’t justify the investment, but I like this business,” he said. “I enjoy this business. I would certainly hate to have to close it up.” Let’s offer our thanks to Spears for keeping his drive-ins alive and to the Tribune for writing about it.