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OAK HILL — A byproduct of the Covid-19 pandemic is a renewed emphasis on open-air entertainment options, including what was once Americana’s staple drive-in movie theater.
Three Fayette County men ran for it and opened Starlite Drive-In on Lochgelly Road. It joins the long-running Meadow Bridge Drive-In in Fayette County.
The Oak Hill Theatre opens in mid-June with screenings of “Jurassic World: Reign” and “Ambulance.”
“It’s been a lifelong dream for about 25 years,” said Chuck Miller, who owns the theater, along with his partners, his brothers Tom Miller and Teddy Gray, Tom Miller’s brother-in-law. He said the three discussed the fact that the property was available and speculated that a drive-in would be a good project. “We all agreed, and the rest is history. Fourteen months later, it became a reality.”
“What really made it happen was Covid,” Tom Miller explained. “Since it started, we’ve definitely been looking for things that people can do, and we pulled together, and that’s (they thought) ‘it’s time to do this.'”
The 10 acres of land were previously used to store equipment such as road equipment and scrapers. Then a company bought it as a warehouse before officials decided to move out of the state.
“It’s been 14 months in a row,” Chuck Miller said. “We did all the dirt work, all the excavation. We built the screen (40 feet tall and 100 feet wide). We built the cone. We kept adding to it.”
The theatergoer’s menu includes hot wings, pizza, Philly cheesesteak, grill and ice cream. The main course of the menu features a selection of feature films that include current offerings.
They recently added a swing to the venue so some customers can enjoy a movie outside their car. “We’re trying a car show and a flea market right now to see how it goes,” Chuck Miller said. “As long as people continue to support it, we will continue to increase it.”
Auto shows and flea markets are likely to be a specific event situation rather than recurring. “In the future, we want to do more special events like concerts or something,” Chuck Miller said. He noted that the facility could eventually evolve into a year-round event center. The property is large enough to “open up more opportunities for further expansion”.
The theatre is open every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The expected start date of each year will be around mid-March. “We want to get as deep into the year as possible,” Tom Miller said.
Admission is $8 per person, and children 5 and under are admitted free. “But you have two functions,” Chuck Miller emphasized.
The theater can accommodate 450 cars, and there is a smaller area that can accommodate about 25 cars side-by-side. With the property setup, drainage “isn’t an issue,” Chuck Miller said. “The next day, you don’t even know where (the vehicle) went.”
According to Tom Miller, these people have put “substantial” money into the project. These include a $130,000 Christie laser projector and an FM transmitter that transmits over a car stereo, he noted with annoyance. Starlite is sent a cartridge containing the movie, which is ingested into the projector. “The keys are sent to email and then loaded onto a thumb drive,” Chuck Miller said. “What it does is lock and unlock movies for a certain amount of time.”
Starlite has about 10 employees.
“Everyone in the community was like, ‘Hey, we have nothing to do,’ so we went out and we did something for Fayette County, Oak Hill, and we just wanted someone to support it,” Chuck Miller Say. “The response was very good.”
For more information about the theatre at 3948 Lochgelly Road, visit Starlite Drive-In on Facebook or the company website: Starlight Network.
e-mail: skeenan@register-herald.com or follow on Twitter @gb_scribe
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