![]() ![]() In a deed signed August 28, 1951, Sarah was granted a lifetime lease on a 20-acre parcel of a family dairy farm for $15,000. Yet, Sarah did well in the theatre business and acquired land east of Richland Center to build the area’s first drive-in. Their marriage was by all accounts a tumultuous one and Sarah was granted the divorce on the grounds of cruelty. Local lore suggests Jacob granted Sarah the theatres as an attempt to overwhelm her rather than as an equal splitting of assets. Photo courtesy Richland County History Room The Eskin Theatre, designed by Sarah and Jacob Eskin, opened in Richland Center in the late 1930s. ![]() The couple divorced that same year, and Sarah received the two theatres as part of the settlement. It was designed and built by Sarah and Jacob Eskin, who’d previously purchased another downtown theatre in Richland Center after relocating from Milwaukee. The Center Theatre opened Maas the Eskin Theatre. First, let’s dive into the history of these two Richland Center, Wisconsin theatres It provides enough drama to script a drive-in double feature! In 2019, Bill and Lisa finally took a much-deserved retirement and listed the Center and Starlite 14 theatres for sale – more on that soon. “But we only took two family vacations in the 31 years we owned the theatres!” “Every summer we’d get 20 to 25 different state license plates on cars coming through,” Bill says with pride. While the theatres always did pay for themselves, I worked at Rockwell Automation for 43 years at the same time.”Īnd when you own a popular regional – and seasonal – tourist attraction, it’s hard to get away with your own family for a break. “The money you made at the drive-in in the summer paid for heating the Center Theatre during the winter,” he explains. In 1988, Bill and his wife, Lisa, purchased Richland Center’s downtown indoor theatre, the Center Theatre, and the Starlite 14 Drive-In as a package deal. “Once I got hooked,” he says, “it was hard to get away.” “No matter what comes along, the theatre always comes back,” says longtime Starlite 14 Drive-In owner, turned-employee, Bill Muth. Bill “caught the bug” in 1974 after he started working as a projectionist at the Starlite 14. The Starlite 14, though, managed to hang on through the decades. It was the affordable option for families to attend the movies and the perfect way for teens and young adults to explore their newfound freedoms within the privacy of the automobile.īut as moviegoing options of the 1970s through 2000s evolved – through VHS, DVDs, and home streaming services – the drive-in’s popularity waned. In the 1950s and 60s, as American car culture took hold, over 5,000 drive-in movie theatres were built nationwide. He wondered: What if you could enjoy the big screen from the comfort of your personal automobile? His mother had complained about the uncomfortable wooden indoor theatre seats of the day. ![]() Old newspaper clippings show a handful of movies from the past at both the indoor and outdoor theatres in Richland Center. / Photos courtesy Cindy Herbeck: “After my dad saw Smokey and the Bandit, he went out and bought a brand new black 1977 Trans Am with the eagle on it, just like the one in the show,” she says on Facebook.Īuto parts professional Richard Hollingshead opened the very first American drive-in theatre in Camden, New Jersey, in 1933. ![]()
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