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Welcome to Starlight Drive-In
Title:
Welcome to Starlight Drive-In
NFSA ID
58827
Year
1960
Before video killed the drive-in star, Canberra’s Starlight Drive-In was the perfect Friday night at the movies. Although made in 1960, this pre-show information clip with its Streamline Moderne illustrations and newsreel-style voice-over conjures the glamour of an earlier era.
Located in the northern suburb of Watson, the Starlight operated from 1957 to 1993. The 1950s, with its new emphasis on youth entertainment and car culture, was the drive-in's heyday, but the Starlight was still glimmering in the 1980s, when patrons would bring utes, couches and picnics along.
After its closure the site was turned into apartments, but the Starlight’s sign – the first neon sign in Canberra – still stands.
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.