Category Archives: Texas

The Tyler TX drive-in that no one talks about

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There’s a drive-in east of Tyler TX that doesn’t seem to engender much civic pride. It’s one drive-in that doesn’t need to worry about converting to digital projection because it apparently dumped film a long time ago. I’ve never been there, but according to two reports, the Apache Drive-In now shows adult-rated movies, and business is pretty good. According to Google Maps, as of April 2013, the place looks pretty much the way it did when Captain Chicken and someone from filmmaker Lucid, Inc. visited, separately.

Captain Chicken, aka Terry Moore, runs (ran?) a Texas Drive-In page. His report from 2002 is the more extensive of the two, including more photos. He determined that the reason the image on the screen was so dim was that the movie was being delivered by a home theater-type projection system in a box a short distance from the large, damaged screen. That’s what he saw, and we’ll have to take his word for it. As he wrote, “The duty manager was less than cooperative. He refused to discuss the projection source. In fact, he was unwilling to discuss anything related to the theater.”




The page at Lucid, Inc. is undated, but Archive.org first noticed it in 2012, so that’s likely to be the year it was written. It includes a few photos suggesting that the Apache didn’t change much for 10 years. The “bite” at the upper-right corner of the screen had widened, validating Captain Chicken’s theory that nearby trees had grown to knock down that piece. The projection box, entrance sign, and ticket booth looked pretty much the same as they had a decade earlier. And the folks there were just as uncooperative. “On the porch sits a husky, overall-clad man fiddling nervously with a large diamond stud in one ear,” the Lucid-eer wrote. “He has very little to say about who owns the still up and running XXX drive-in theater – except that she is a private person who is quite happy to remain unknown. ‘This is East Texas, honey. The big shiny buckle of the bible belt. Ain’t nobody gonna talk to you about what they do here.’ ”

I don’t know what else to say. The 1955 Theatre Catalog showed three drive-ins in Tyler, the Crest, Rose Garden, and Starlite, but it’s unclear if any were what would become the Apache. This spring, I had the opportunity to snap a picture of an allegedly similar drive-in near El Paso, but I routed my Arizona-New Mexico trip through Alamogordo NM instead. I’d rather see another family-oriented drive-in near Tyler, but if that’s what the locals want, I guess that’s their business. Still looks kinda creepy to me.

Update: On March 9, 2023, the Apache Drive-In Facebook page, the apparently official account posted “Sad to announce the Apache Drive-In Theatre is permanently closed and the property has been sold.”

Tyler drive-in asks for conversion help

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According to KLTV, Tyler TX’s news leader, the Sky Vue Drive-In there is asking for help in converting from its vintage film projector to new digital equipment. Skyvue is offering future advertising space and long-term passes to earn the remaining $64,000 it needs for the conversion. Ominously, the Sky Vue’s web page features a clock counting down to August 31.

As you’ll see in the embedded video, the Phillips family opened the Sky Vue in 2006. “My husband’s the guy in the ticket booth, my son does the projection, Tracey does the cash register, and I’m back in the kitchen making pizza,” said Rhonda Phillips, one of the owners.

As KLTV’s Summer Dashe put it, the conversion process would mean the drive-in’s “five foot tall film player will be replaced by a server about the size of a small box.” I’d never heard it described that way, but it makes perfect sense. Servers are the size of a small box, as long as your idea of a small box matches the size of a server. And coining the term “film player” is a great advancement; I hope they also call pay phones “standup corded money phones” in Tyler.

One interesting part of the story is what KLTV didn’t mention: Tyler has a second drive-in. That drive-in stopped using film a long time ago, and it’s unlikely to ask the community for help. I’ll tell you the story of that second Tyler drive-in tomorrow.

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!