El Dorado Drive-in Stands Empty While Wichita One Thrives

April 02, 2010

By Megan Strader (EL DORADO, Kan.)

"Growing up, I never missed a movie, till I was probably 25." The Star-Vu Drive-in may have the best view in all of El Dorado, standing high above the town for more than 60 years.

And Fred Kropf has been there for virtually all of them. "They come from all around. They come from Augusta, Eureka and Potwin and all around, anywhere from 30 miles around to come to it, but it's not like it used to be."

His family has owned the land the drive-in is on since the theater's start. But this season it sits empty, without anyone to lease it and run it.

"I hate to see it close."

Because there's only about a half dozen drive-in's left in the state and the ones that are open are successful. Wichita's Starlite Drive-in had their best year of the decade last year and they say, depending on the whether on a Friday or Saturday night, they can still pull in big crowds.

Since putting a for sale sign up on the marque in El Dorado Kropf has had some interest. "I've had 12 calls and I've got five people that are really interested in renting it."

But whether the Star-Vu opens this season or any season, depends on just how interested those people really are. "If somebody had it, and ran it right, they could make a go of it."

Keeping one of the few drive-ins left in the state, from fading to black.