Video: Starlite 14 May Close Permanently

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WMTV, Madison WI’s News Leader, reported some sad news last night. The Starlite 14 Drive In in Richland Center may showing movies for just a couple more weeks, according to an announcement by its owners, Lisa and Bill Muth.

In a post on the drive-in’s Facebook page, Bill Muth wrote, “We have decided to retire from the theater business. … The Starlite 14 Drive-In will close permanently after the completion of the 2019 season on September 1, 2019.” He added that he would soon attempt to sell the Starlite and his indoor Center Cinema.

Muth’s description of the situation in the WMTV video sounded just a bit more positive. “If nobody buys the theater, and they don’t buy it and reopen it next year, it will be permanently closed, and it will be gone.”

Personally, I see a lot of room for optimism. The Starlite 14 has digital projection (already paid off, Muth wrote), and it’s still mostly surrounded by farm land. While it’s true that it won’t reopen if no one ever buys it, the site doesn’t look attractive for warehouses or apartments, so I’d say its best use is still as a drive-in theater. Here’s hoping some buyer agrees with me some time this off-season.

Video: Kingston Family FunWorld Sold

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CKWS, Kingston ON’s News Leader, reported some sad news yesterday evening. The Kingston Family FunWorld, which includes a three-screen drive-in, has been sold, and the story sounds like the new buyer isn’t interested in the place for its amusement facilities.

The drive-in has been around for “almost five decades,” according to the CKWS story, owned and operated by the Wannemacher family. Under Dan Wannemacher’s guidance, they added a go-kart track, batting cages, and mini golf. But Dan passed away suddenly three years ago, and the family says it’s time to move on.

The drive-in will stay open through Sept. 1. “The best thing for me is knowing how much this place impacted a lot of Kingstonians and I think we’ll always be in peoples’ hearts,” said Trish Wannemacher.

I wish I could link to the video, which shows a few glimpses of what might be the FunWorld’s final days, but you can watch it here. If you want to see the whole article, then you know you need to go read it!

Blue Fox Celebrates 60th Anniversary

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The Blue Fox Drive-In Theater in Oak Harbor WA turned 60 years old this year, and KIRO radio’s MyNorthwest ran a nice story this week about the achievement.

Blue Fox Drive-In box office, sign and screen
Photo by atucker294 via CinemaTreasures

As I wrote in my Drive-In-A-Day Odyssey in 2017, Woodrow “Woody” Cecil and his wife Charlotte built the Blue Fox in 1959. What I didn’t know then was the great naming story offered by current co-owner Darrell Bratt.

“The reason it’s called the Blue Fox, from what I understand from the original owner, was when he built the place in ’59 he didn’t have a name for it,” Bratt told MyNorthwest. “He contacted a sign company to build a sign for him. The maker of the sign says, ‘I’ve got a deal for you if you’re not picky on your name.’ He had a sign that was the Blue Fox Drive-In, you know the old drive-in restaurants. He goes, ‘It’s a repossessed sign, so if you call it that I can make you a heck of a deal on a sign!’ That’s how it got the name of the Blue Fox drive-in.”

Bratt and his wife bought the Blue Fox in 1988 and have run it ever since. They added a go-cart track. A few years ago, they raised the money for a digital projector by selling t-shirts and sweatshirts from its screen printing shop.

There’s so much more to see in the MyNorthwest article, including a fine photo of a woman holding a popcorn bucket, so you just know you need to go read it!