Page 22 - CinemaRecord #81

By Kim Hopper
CTheatre in the remote Central-Australian
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onstruction of the Pioneer Drive-In
township of Alice Springs (NT) began in
1964 by local entertainment entrepreneur, L.J
“Snowy” Kenna.
Snowy was born in Rockhampton (QLD) in
1897 and arrived in Alice Springs in 1934 where
he started showing movies for war-time troops,
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picture-show, Underdown’s open-air Capitol
Theatre on Gregory Terrace. In 1942 he built
Pioneer Walk-In Theatre in Parsons Street.
His Pioneer Drive-In was located 7kms out
of town on the Stuart Highway and opened
on January 28, 1965 with a screening of the
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attraction.
Sadly Snow passed away in August of the same
year, his theatre interests changed hands a few
times until eventually acquired by the Greater
Union chain.
Both venues continued to operate successfully
in tandem for many years, but ultimately, the
drive-in proved to be the survivor. Under GU
control, the drive-in was revamped and renamed
the Starline in November 1974.
In 1984 the Starline was bought by a
consortium who proposed to change the zoning
so that a petrol station could be built on a section
of it, retaining but reducing the capacity of the
theatre.
The development did not proceed and sadly, a
lack of patronage brought about the closure of
the drive-in on Sunday, Nov. 28, 1988 with the
double bill of Masquerade and A New Life.