Category Archives: Video

Video: El Rancho Keeps Rolling Near Reno

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This month, the Reno Gazette Journal ran a nice retrospective of the El Rancho Drive-In in neighboring Sparks NV. It was a clear step above the typical “Hey, did you notice that there’s a drive-in theater in town?” quickie, and it included a nice video to boot.

The El Rancho was founded by Tony Pecetti, “a bigger-than-life accordionist and entertainment entrepreneur in town,” on Aug. 19, 1950. It had a single screen and room for 580 cars. Pecetti would sometimes play his accordion between features. He passed away in 1969, and Syufy Enterprises bought the place in 1973. Syufy added two more screens that year and a fourth in 1974. The Gazette Journal wrote that those four screens have remained intact ever since.

In 1973, a complaint about The Last Tango In Paris led to the El Rancho dropping X-rated movies. In 1993, according to the Gazette Journal, the drive-in “was scheduled to be torn down and turned into a flea market and indoor theater complex.” The article didn’t provide any more details, including how the El Rancho dodged that fate.

The drive-in is currently run by General Manager Diego Maldonado, who lives on-site at with his family. He started 11 years ago working the churro cart as a summer job. “I’d never even seen a drive-in before I walked in here,” he said. “I thought that they were extinct.”

My favorite quote came from one of the patrons: “When I first came here, I thought I was being sneaky staying for the second feature, then I learned that’s part of it!” There’s much more to the article, including some nice photos, so you really should go read it!

Video: New Drive-In Sprouts In Buda TX

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We’ve had too much bad news lately, so it’s great to be able to share something good: A new two-screen drive-in held its grand opening last Friday in Buda TX, and there’s a great video of the place from KXAN, Austin’s News Leader.

The screens at Doc’s Drive In Theatre are small, made of stacked shipping containers. Each parallel viewing field holds 43 cars. Owners Chris and Sarah Denny had founded the company last year and had previously planned to open in February. Now that it’s up and running, Chris told KXAN that he plans to offer an underground speakeasy bar between the screens and movie-themed tiny homes on the property to rent overnight for patrons who hit the speakeasy hard enough to avoid driving home.

That’s pretty much the whole happy story here. You should drop by the Doc’s web site, which shows that the Dennys have a great attitude about their new offering. “Doc’s Drive-In does so much more than just show your favorite films – it’s a family-friendly, classic drive-in theater experience that expands the boundaries of imagination.”

Video: Wichita’s Starlite Has Closed

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Bad news from the Wichita Eagle, which reported today that the Starlite Drive-In Theatre has turned off its projectors for the last time. That came on the heels of this morning’s email from the Starlite which said, “This was a difficult decision many years in the making with declining attendance and rapidly rising costs of maintenance and technology.”

The Eagle wrote that owner Chuck Bucinski told his employees that “the theater has been in financial trouble since the digital projectors were installed.” Which seems odd considering that those projectors should have been at least subsidized by the community fundraising the Starlite mounted at the time, when it was still owned by Jim Goble. That’s all according to the article, which said Bucinski bought the place in 2016.

Just a few months ago, Bucinski filed to change the Starlite’s zoning to allow for industrial and commercial uses for the drive-in land. At the time, he said the move was “strictly for estate-planning purposes”.

It’s a darned shame that Wichita is going to lose its only drive-in to ozoners’ eternal enemy – a landowner with more profitable plans for his property. Since that email suggested that the decision had been made a long time ago, it’s doubly sad that that loyal viewers were denied the opportunity to say goodbye in a farewell season, which would have boosted attendance and possibly boosted some sympathy for Bucinski. Instead, if he’s remembered at all, he’ll be known as the guy who turned out the lights at the Starlite.