Starlite Drive-In

1899 W. Burnside Street,
Sioux Falls, SD 57104

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Jaywm830
Jaywm830 on October 6, 2025 at 2:23 am

Correction: This theater was located at 1899 W Burnside St, Sioux Falls, SD 57104. The address above is for the bowling alley next door which opened before the drive in closed.

Please update.

Denny Pine
Denny Pine on March 3, 2024 at 1:15 pm

I verified from the Argus-Leader archives in Newspapers.com that the Starlite Drive-In’s final night was actually July 7, 1985 with the following features: Screen 1: “Just One Of The Guys” and “No Small Affair”, Screen 2: “2010” and “Cat’s Eye”

davidcoppock
davidcoppock on December 16, 2020 at 6:43 am

Closed on 5/7/1985 with “Just one of the guys” and “2010”.

davidcoppock
davidcoppock on December 16, 2020 at 6:40 am

The second screen opened on 19/5/1979 with “Grease”.

davidcoppock
davidcoppock on December 16, 2020 at 6:33 am

Opened on 16/9/1948 with “Relentless”.

MichaelKilgore
MichaelKilgore on September 25, 2018 at 11:15 am

Sioux Falls historian Eric Renshaw wrote an extensive history of the “Star-Lite Drive-in” for the Sept. 14, 2018 Argus Leader. If that link is alive when you read this, you should check it out.

Otherwise, here are a few summary details from that article:

  • It was built by Joe Floyd and his company, Welworth Theatres. The work was done by Roy Runyeon.
  • The original 38 by 56-foot screen was "the largest theater screen in South Dakota" at the time.
  • Original capacity was 650 cars with expansion room for 200 more.
  • After the East Park Drive-In closed in 1978 (K-Mart), a second screen at the Star-Lite opened May 16, 1979. It featured radio sound.
  • The drive-in's final active night was July 5, 1985.
rivest266
rivest266 on December 11, 2016 at 8:18 am

This opened on September 16th, 1948. Grand opening ad in the photo section.

zogh
zogh on December 10, 2012 at 10:52 pm

the marquee is still standing. the entrance & the sign are two blocks down on the photo above, & to the left.

roger
roger on May 22, 2006 at 8:46 am

It was operated by Midcontinent theaters and had a capacity of over 600 cars when I worked there in 1975, I was projectionist and checked every one of the 600+ speakers each week. the original 40'x60' screen blew down in 1967 and was replaced by a 50x110 screen. A second screen was added in the early 1980’s

rheus
rheus on April 9, 2006 at 2:55 pm

The marquee was indeed saved and in the spirit of maintaining reference to it’s former drive-in purpose, all the streets in the mobile home community with the exception of the main entrance street which maintains the name Starlite Place are named after motion picture companies of the era like Paramount, Warner Bros, MGM, Republic, Universal and RKO