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Update: The Starlite drive-in in Holland and Saugatuck are one in the same. Best that I can tell, it opened on July 4, 1948.
I could not find any other listings of it after 1987. A construction company seems to have taken over the site, with the
snack bar/projection booth only remaining. (Jeff Raterink 1/31/00)
Update: Snack bar remains in the middle of what is now a heavy equipment storage lot, screen and marquee are gone.
(Michigandriveins.com 1/13/01)
Update: After building the Quad 31 indoor theatre in Holland in 1984 (now the Holland 7), Bob Goodrich of Goodrich
Theaters purchased the nearby Starlight Drive In in 1984, or 1985. (Joe Sibley 10/9/06)
Update: I began working at the Starlight as a concession attendant in 1966, and projectionist from 1967-74, working my way through college
and beginning a long career with the company that included managing the Vista Drive-in in Grand Rapids and then later becoming District
Manager for Concessions with Butterfield. To the best of my knowlege the theatre was built by Robert Carley who also owned and operated
at least one of the downtown Holland theatres and built the drive-in to evade the Sunday ''Blue Laws'' then in effect which outlawed the operation
of a theatre in Holland on Sundays. W.S. Butterfield bought out Carley Amusement company sometime in the 1950's and made the company
one of its many subsidiaries. Butterfield subsequently sold the Starlight Drive-in as well as the Park and Holland Theatres to Goodrich Theatres
in 1983, just prior to the sale of the rest of the company to Kerasotes Theatres in early 1985. The Theatre provided not only great entertainment
but employment for much of my family which, over time, included my uncle and mother who managed the facility throughout the 1960's and much
of the 70's, but also my brother, sister, aunts and cousins who put in journeyman work at the facility. During my time at the Starlight we played
many first-run films, including many Elvis Presley pictures, westerns, comedies and, in the 1960's motorcycle films. I remember many a weekend
where we would nearly pack the 400 car house with these kinds of films, providing entertainment to the community. It was a grand old place,
which I''m sure has given a whole generation of local citizens fond memories of a time when you could go out and have fun under the stars.
(Joe Camfield/Waterwinterwonderland.com 5/6/08)
Update: The Starlight Drive-In's snack bar had been demolished, as shown in the
Live.com Birds Eye Aerial.
(Michigandriveins.com 3/28/09)
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