Category Archives: Missouri

April 7: Starlite Drive-In Theatre, Cadet MO

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Starlite Drive-in marquee

photo by Darren Snow, from the Carload Flickr pool

It’s Day 97 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. I took the shortest route along twisty state highways, and it took just over an hour to drive from the 19 Drive-In in Cuba MO to the Starlite Drive-In Theatre west of Cadet.

According to an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Starlite opened in 1952. Sixteen years later, Terry Mercille bought the place from Henry and Dorothy Blunt. By 1984, it had added a second screen, and in 2009, Mercille’s sons inherited the business. According to Cinema Treasures, the Starlite may have closed for a season around then. It reopened by 2010, and won one of the coveted digital projection systems during Honda’s Project Drive-In in 2014.

I was so happy to have two active screens to choose from, both of which were showing movies I hadn’t seen yet. I hadn’t even noticed that another Smurfs movie had come out, so I took the one-week-older choice of The Boss Baby. And I finally returned to a working concession stand, home of funnel cake stix, corn dogs, and other upright munchies.

Miles Today / Total:  50 / 10696 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: The Boss Baby / 47

Nearby Restaurant: The Starlite is remote, and the closest restaurants and just south in Potosi. The Bearfoot Cafe serves huge portions at low prices. Anyplace with a good rainbow trout meal will get me in a good mood.

Where I Virtually Stayed: There are a fair number of Super 8s in these small towns, and I stayed at the one in Potosi. (There’s another in Bonne Terre, in case you’re attracted to the mine in the next paragraph.) This one was middle-of-the-road Super 8, with coffee in the lobby, a mini-fridge in the room, and a decent breakfast in the morning.

Only in Cadet: About 15 miles east of the Starlite is the Bonne Terre Mine, a monument to creative reuse. Some folks might have seen it as an abandoned lead mine that had mostly flooded with natural groundwater. At least one imaginative soul saw it as an underground “billion gallon lake” with clear water, perfect for scuba divers. There are also boat and walking tours of the old mine.

Next stop: Twenty One Drive In, Van Buren MO.

April 6: 19 Drive-In, Cuba MO

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It’s Day 96 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. I looped around St. Louis as I stuck to the interstates driving an hour and a half from Belleville IL to the 19 Drive-In in Cuba MO.

It had been over 20 years since I had visited the 19. I find that when I’ve only visited a drive-in once or twice, some of my strongest memories of the place are what I saw there, and then it’s easy to look up what year that was. In this case, I remember sitting through the full two hours of John Travolta in Phenomenon waiting for the Farrelly brothers’ comedy Kingpin, so I know it was 1996.

The 19 marks my first intersection of the old Route 66 and a drive-in since I was in Oklahoma, and the connection feels tighter here for some reason. Maybe it’s because the Route 66 is more obvious in Cuba than Tulsa, which has a wider variety of distractions.

The 19 first opened in 1950. The place still charges just $1.16 (probably $1.25 with tax) for a small popcorn. Of the top of my head, I can’t think of any drive-in with a lower price for popcorn.

Unfortunately, the 19 isn’t going to open for the 2017 season until April 14. Oh well.

Miles Today / Total:  97 / 10743 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 46

Nearby Restaurant: To stay on theme, I just had to eat at Shelly’s Route 66 Cafe. It’s convenient to the Wagon Wheel Motel, so that’s a plus. Blueberry pancakes? Great! Homemade biscuits and gravy? Sure! You’ve got to get there before they close after lunch, but if you can find a seat, it’s worth it.

Where I Virtually Stayed: Not only is it listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the Wagon Wheel Motel is still a great place to stay for a night. When it started in 1936, it offered Route 66 drivers a roadside cafe and gas station backed by three stone lodging buildings in Tudor Revival style. In 1947, John and Winifred Mathis bought the place and added more buildings and its distinctive neon signage. Oh yes, the rooms are clean, if a bit small, the wifi works fine, and the price is right, especially considering that you’re sleeping in such a historic site.

Only in Cuba: From a really big fake shoe in Belleville IL to the world’s largest real shoes. According to Roadside America, the Hayes Family Shoe Store displays the 37AA shoes of Robert Wadlow, the World’s Tallest Man, in its front window. Wadlow left it behind during a 1938 tour of shoe stores.

Next stop: Starlite Drive-In Theatre, Cadet MO.

MO’s 66 Drive-In Gets New Ownership

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There’s a great article in today’s Carthage (MO) Press about the changing of the guard at the 66 Drive-In Theatre there. After restoring the 66 and running it for 30 years, Mark and Dixie Goodman have sold it to Nathan McDonald, his wife, Amy, and three children.

McDonald, a former Jasper County Sheriff’s Deputy, had worked for the 66 for 10 years, starting as security. He said, “Every time I would sit here on a nice Sunday evening in the warm sunset, I wanted to be a bigger part of it. I’ve been given an amazing opportunity, it’s something that the more you hear, the more you want to be here.”

But this article is much more than a simple transaction notice. It includes a nice history of the 66 and its sister Webb City Drive-In. Goodman bought the 66 shortly after it closed in 1985 and used the lot for a used auto-parts business. Then in the 1990s, cars got too complicated to fix as easily and drive-ins started getting popular again. Goodman restored the 66 and reopened it in 1997. For more details and a photo of the happy new owners, you should go read that article!