The Starlight | Trunk Monkeys

Before streaming, Netflix, Hulu and Amazon there were movie theaters.  NBC introduced “Saturday Night At The Movies” to television in 1961, but the movies aired were usually five or six years old and well past their run in the theaters, re-runs included.  If you wanted to see a movie, you went to the theater.  Or, the drive-in theater.  In South DeKalb, we were lucky.  We had a drive-in theater right around the corner.  The Starlight Drive-In, located on Moreland Avenue.  Drive-in theaters were plentiful in the second part of the twentieth century, and really did not begin to disappear until the late Eighties or early Nineties.  Some of the ones in the Atlanta area that I remember were the Thunderbird Drive-In on Jonesboro Road in Forest Park,  The Glenwood Drive-In on Glenwood Road, The North 85 Twin Drive-In at I-85 and Shallowford Road, and the Northeast Expressway Drive-In, located down in a hole at the intersection of I-285 and I-85 North.  The Thunderbird was under a landing pattern and, since the Atlanta airport was only a couple of miles to the west, the planes were regularly passing overhead on their final approach, engines roaring.    All of these drive-ins are now all dead and gone the way of the dodo.  All, that is, except for The Starlight.

Built in 1949, the Starlight is still thriving today, sporting six screens.  I know people who drive all the way from Paulding County and beyond to the Starlight to take their kids to the drive-in.  In the summer the theater hosts a “Drive-In Invasion” featuring live music, classic cars and B-movies from the Fifties and early Sixties.  The “Rock and Roll Monster Bash” is also featured each year showcasing local artists, organizations, vendors and, of course, horror movies.

I remember going to the Starlight with my parents when I was a kid.  My mother would pop a big container of popcorn.  We would take that along with Cokes, iced tea and my father’s thermos of coffee.  I remember seeing a Doris Day and Rock Hudson movie with them where he drives a convertible into a swimming pool full of soap suds.  They also took my cousin and I to see “The Blue Max” in 1966.  By then we were becoming much too cool to sit in the car with my parents, so we sat in the folding wooden movie seats on the patio outside the snack bar.  The sound was piped over speakers, and you didn’t have near as far to walk to the snack bar or the restroom.

Then came the teenage years and, along with them, mild juvenile delinquency.  The big thing was to try to sneak into the Starlight for free.  I really don’t know why, seeing as that most of us had part time jobs and could easily afford to pay for a ticket.  Drive-in tickets were about half the price of a conventional theater ticket.  We did not think twice about going to a movie theater and paying full admission for both ourselves and a date.  Maybe it was just the challenge, the thrill of the conquest, the wanting to see if we could pull it off.  Whatever it was, it wasn’t limited to my general neighborhood.  I went to the drive-in with my cousin in Fort Pierce, Florida once and we went through the same ritual.

The Starlight had secondary exits for both the North and South theaters, so one of the tricks was turning off your lights and driving in through them and sliding into a space.  This was dicey, at best.  It would work if you came in about halfway through the first movie and were able to find a parking place immediately. If you had to ride around and look for a space, you were making yourself conspicuous.  It also helped if you were driving your parents sleek black Ford sedan that was quiet as a mouse.  When you tried to do it in a jacked up yellow Fairlane with glass packs, sneaking in quietly and stealthily was not an option.  Especially after the owners got smart and began stationing a DeKalb County cop car at each exit.

Of course, the age old tried and true method was to put one or two guys in the trunk.  Notice I said “guys.”  Sneaking into the drive-in was strictly a male activity.  You never, NEVER asked a girl to get in the trunk.  If there was a group of guys and girls and one or two guys got in the trunk, that was okay as long as they didn’t have dates.  I would hazard a guess that if you went to the drive-in with a girl and either asked her to get in the trunk or got in the trunk yourself, that would be your last (or only) date with her.   And probably your last date with any other girl, once the word got out.

On paper, the Get In The Trunk Technique seemed pretty foolproof.  Until you got into the drive-in, and then the next step was the Getting Out Of The Trunk Technique.  If it was still dusk, things were considerably more difficult.  Trying to hide behind the snack bar and do it was dangerous, because there was generally too much foot traffic.  The easiest way was to park away from cars where you were kind of isolated.  The driver would then get out, discreetly unlock the trunk and head for the snack bar.  The refugee(s) inside would hold the latch to keep the trunk from popping wide open, then open it slowly and just enough to slide out.  Then they would stay low and go around the car and slide into the back seat.  If you popped the trunk, jumped out, high fived and yelled ,”Hey, man, we did it!” you might as well have blown an air horn and lit up sparklers.

The last time I went to the Starlight was in 1989.  A bunch of us from the neighborhood took the kids to see “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” and “Batman.”  We took a grill and lounge chairs.  We backed our S-10 Blazer into our spot and opened the rear hatch.  We folded down the rear seats and spread out sleeping bags for the kids to lay on and watch the movie.  We cooked hamburgers and hot dogs.  It was fun, a lot of fun, but it wasn’t the same.  It may sound crazy, but it seemed too luxurious.  It didn’t seem like the drive-in.

The last time I went to the drive-in was in 2005.  It was in Blue Ridge, Georgia.  We had friends who owned a cabin there.  The Swan Drive-In is in downtown Blue Ridge.  Built in 1955, it too is functional and thriving.  They have strict rules, though.  No grills, and all hatchbacks have to be tied down.  It was a double feature.  A mountain fog rolled in and we could hardly see the screen throughout either movie.  The movies we saw?  “War Of The Worlds” and “Batman Begins.”  The last two trips to the drive-in, two Batman movies.  Holy Popcorn!  Still Cruisin’!  –J.