Category Archives: Video

Nov. 22: Starlight Drive-In Theatre, Atlanta GA

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It’s Day 326 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. Driving from Elizabethton TN near the northeast tip of that state all the way down to the Starlight Drive-In Theatre in Atlanta GA took almost five hours. But making it to a drive-in showing a new release on the night before Thanksgiving was worth it.

When I first drew up this year-long odyssey, I had planned to finish at the Starlight, the southernmost drive-in (among the ones I didn’t visit in January) that shows movies pretty much every day of the year. Instead, I decided to use this week to sweep through the mostly weekend-only drive-ins that are left in the South, then return north to a December of mostly closed theaters.

The Starlight was opened by the Georgia Theater Company (the Oldknow family) as a single-screen theater in 1947. In 1956, when it added a second screen, it became the Starlight Twin. Four more screens came in 1983, turning it into the Starlight Six.

The Starlight survived in an urban area because of its unusual location. Like most other drive-ins, it was built on what was the outskirts of town. As residential and commercial expanded, most drive-ins fell victim to (as their owners cashed in on) rising property values. As described by Southern Spaces, “The Starlight Six did not suffer this fate because its location — adjacent to the Dekalb County Landfill, a trucking company, a cemetery, (and other undesirable neighbors) — made it unattractive to developers.”

According to the April 2004 issue of Atlanta magazine, managing partner Teri Oldknow said that many drive-ins were built without longevity in mind. “The whole concept of the drive-in was to develop it as cheaply as you could,” he said. “After 25 or 30 years, when everything is run down, you just sell it. It was a land bank, really.”

United Artists bought the Georgia Theater Company in 1985, but Teri’s father chose to keep the Starlight. But when it came time to buy digital projectors, the Starlight only employed four, so there are only four active screens out of the six still standing.

The south set of three screens, of which one is active, has become the event space for the Starlight’s festivals such as the Drive-In Invasion and Rock and Roll Monster Bash, which offer local artists, food trucks, live music, on-site camping, and classic movies in various combinations. On this night, it was just movies, and I was very happy to see the colorful new Pixar release, Coco.

The embedded YouTube video of the day is from 2009, when the Starlight still had six active screens.

Miles Today / Total: 270 / 37441 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: Coco / 195

Nearby Restaurant: This long odyssey blurs together a bit, but as I looked around my hotel for dinner, I couldn’t remember previously eating at a Waffle House, even though I’ve talked about them often enough. The last time I stayed over at an Atlanta airport hotel, I remember seeing it out the window, so this was my chance to fill that old yearning. There aren’t too many places where you can get a good, yet inexpensive steak plus a bowl of grits. This is one of them.

Where I Virtually Stayed: Another sign of the Starlight’s location is the paucity of hotels nearby. Of the alternatives, the best combination of proximity and good reviews was the Drury Inn near the airport. The evening reception of snacks and drinks got me ready for the drive-in, my room had all the modern amenities, and the typically solid Drury standard breakfast would prepare me well for another day’s drive.

Only in Atlanta: In the Skylight’s corner of Atlanta, Doll’s Head Trail at Constitution Lakes Park is part wildlife refuge, part hiking trail, part snake pit, and part art exhibit. As described by History Atlanta, “It’s called Doll’s Head Trail because of the in situ artwork created with trash, many of it doll heads, that is left over after the South River floods.” Check out the photos, and if you walk the trail, “watch out for copperheads and deer ticks. Seriously.”

Next stop: Jesup Twin Drive-In Theatre, Jesup GA.

Nov. 21: Stateline Drive-in, Elizabethton TN

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It’s Day 325 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. Driving through the forests of North Carolina, it took a little over two hours to go from the Sunset Drive In Theatre just west of Shelby NC to the Stateline Drive-in in Elizabethton TN near the northeast tip of the state.

I first want to address that name. The marquee is written as StateLine, and TripAdvisor (among many others) calls it the two-word State Line. But the drive-in’s About Us page and its Facebook page both call it Stateline, so that’s what I’m going with.

Now that one minor mystery is mostly resolved, there’s another one. Everyone seems to agree that the Stateline opened in 1947, but I’m not sure who owned it then. The slow-to-change Motion Picture Almanac listed “R. D. Dunn” as the owner in its 1952-66 editions. Thanks to an Elizabethton Star article (PDF), we’ve got a history from 1952 forward. “Earl Bolling, who owned it from 1952 until the 1970s, and again from 1980 to 1995.” Did this Dunn own the drive-in before Bolling?

On the other hand, the MPA said the owner between the Bolling eras was R. Glover, probably Ray Glover, who was in some other theater transactions of the period.

The Star wrote that Andrew “Andy” Wetzel purchased the theater from Bolling or his estate after he passed away. I also saw a mention online that Wetsel is married to the daughter of Bolling’s widow, and that’s how he acquired the Stateline. However it happened, Wetzel was the owner in 2000 and is still there this year.

He caught a serious break in 2013 during Honda’s Project Drive-In contest. It had announced that it would award five free digital projectors but later decided to add a second round of four more. The Stateline was one of the four winners in that second and final round.

“I realized then that this was going to be probably my only chance to stay open,” Wetzel told Film Journal International. “We don’t have the kind of operating costs to be able to take on that kind of [digital] upgrade… If we didn’t do something with Project Drive-In, we were going to have to end up closing the door.”

The embedded YouTube video of the day is from the last film that the Stateline showed, a free performance of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 as part of the celebration of the Honda award.

When the Stateline opened this spring, Wetzel was quoted in another Elizabethton Star article. “The new projector really brought us out of the dark age,” he said. “We were running the same projectors that were original to the theater in 1947. They were great pieces of equipment, but they were mechanical. The new stuff is all computer based. It’s given us the opportunity to different things like show DVDs, computer, anything with an output.”

Of course, the Stateline isn’t showing anything now; it’s closed for the season. It’s just another dark night in November for me.

Miles Today / Total: 104 / 37171 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 194

Nearby Restaurant: I had to eat at Jiggy Ray’s Downtown Pizzeria after reading that it had bid on the classic Bonnie Kate indoor theater here. (It lost out to the City of Elizabethton.) It’s a great old, casual place for some home-cooked pizza and a surprisingly good salad bar. I enjoyed The Dalai Lama, which was one with everything, of course.

Where I Virtually Stayed: The best place to stay in Elizabethton, and definitely the closest to the Stateline, might be the Americourt Hotel. My room was quite inexpensive, but it had a mini-fridge and solid wifi. Breakfast had sausage and eggs and well as the continental regulars. I’m glad this was here.

Only in Elizabethton: Less than 10 miles north “out in the middle of absolute nowhere” is Backyard Terrors Dinosaur Park. As described by Roadside America, Chris Kastner built an array of life-size (though not all adult) dinosaurs in his backyard. The self-guided tour ends with an animatronic velociraptor display, and donations are voluntary.

Next stop: Starlight Drive-In Theatre, Atlanta GA.

Nov. 19: Raleigh Road Outdoor Theatre (Part 2), Henderson NC

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It’s Day 323 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. This day marked what I hope will be a singular oddity this year – I’m returning to a drive-in because its digital projector was on the fritz on my first visit. Which is why I drove 3½ hours from Hound’s Drive-In in Kings Mountain NC back to the Raleigh Road Outdoor Theatre in Henderson NC.

If you’ll recall, the Raleigh Road opened as the Moon-Glo in 1949 and changed its name after it was bought in 1977 by N.T. “Tinker” Lyles. (I now notice the Warren Record says the name change was at the insistence of the former owner, Sonny Stevenson.) When we last left our story, Mark and Jennifer Frank had purchased the drive-in in late 2011 from Megan and Jim Kopp, who we’ve since met again as the current owner of the Family Drive-In.

The Fayetteville Observer wrote in 2015 that the Franks had owned and operated the Keysville Drive-In in Keysville VA, which reopened for a few years beginning in 2009, but sold it to focus on the Raleigh Road. “I just got this cockamamie idea I was going to resurrect a drive-in movie theater,” he said of entering the outdoor business.

The Raleigh Road’s 80×60 foot screen is made of roofing materials, and the concessions building, now including a digital projector as well as the kitchen, looks much as it did in 1949. “I call it a bunker,” Mark said with a laugh.

The Observer also noted that the Raleigh Road’s capacity is 265 cars, are there have nights where they’ve had to turn away cars 45 minutes before showtime. “Most Fridays or Saturdays,” Mark said, “you better get there early or you might not get in.”

IndyWeek ran a story in 2014 in advance of the drive-in’s conversion to digital projection. “We’ve done some of the work already,” Mark said. “We had to redo the electrical; the building is from 1949. We’re basically going from a 1957 Chevy, very simple to work on, to the world’s biggest iPad.”

For a really nice story of what the drive-in is like these days, you should read the article / review written just two months ago by Kay Whatley at the Grey Area News. “Being outside under the sky, later all the stars, was cool as heck,” she wrote. There are also a half-dozen photos, so you really should go read it!

The embedded video of the day is from Vimeo, a short with the Franks when they were still using film. I like the way it shows off the “bunker” concession stand and other parts of the Raleigh Road. You might also want to check out the Facebook Live videos that the staff whipped up this season.

This was my third viewing of Justice League in four days. Thor: Ragnarok, which I’ve also seen three times, was better. Just sayin’.

Miles Today / Total: 221 / 37067 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: Justice League / 194

Nearby Restaurant: It was time for another regional chain, Ribeyes Steakhouse. It delivered what the name promised, a fine ribeye steak, and it came with a baked potato and a very nice salad bar in a casual setting. I can see why other towns would want one of these.

Where I Virtually Stayed: Last time I was here, I chose a different hotel to save money. This visit, I ponied up for the Hampton Inn. There were all the great Hampton touches such as coffee and cookies waiting at check-in, my comfortable room had all the modern amenities, and the solid buffet included in the Hampton breakfast. It was a nice place to relax after a long drive.

Only in Henderson (again): Less than 20 minutes up the highway from Henderson is Soul City, a planned community first proposed in 1969 by Floyd McKissick, a civil rights leader and director of the Congress of Racial Equality. Soul City was to be a mixed-use town, with houses, factories, and stores in one convenient location, populated by people of all races. The city never came close to its lofty projections, and its only industrial building, Soultech 1, was purchased by the adjoining Warren County Correctional Institution for expansion.

Next stop: Sunset Drive In Theatre, Shelby NC.