Buckner Boulevard Drive-In

I don't know when this drive-in closed but it is listed in the 1980 IMPA with a capacity for 400 cars. Circuit is listed as Sitco Theatres.

1950s double feature movie ad from the Buckner Drive In featuring Gene Autry in "Gene Autry and the Mounties" and Johnny Mack Brown in "West of Wyoming".

Here's a pic I took when the screen was left standing. Didn't last much longer after this was taken. Don't have an exact date, but certainly early 80's

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h200/siliconsam/Miscellaneous/BucknerDriveIn2.jpg

You also see signs of a fire on the front right side of structure.

A classic catch on this one SS!!


Don...

Great picture, SiliconSam! In the meantime, everyone please take a look at the following links. Compare SiliconSam's picture with the following drive-in theatres:

The Shepherd, in Houston:
http://www.drive-intheatremuseum.org/DriveIn%20Photos/shepherdtx.jpg

The Circle, in Beaumont:
http://randywelborn.com/015.shtml

The Belknap, in Fort Worth:
http://www.fortworthyesterday.com/belknap_di.jpg

Notice the shared design of the screen towers and, in the cases of the Shepherd and Circle, the marquee? I wonder who the architect was for them? Any ideas?

By the way, you can better access the picture of the Belknap at the following link:

http://www.fortworthyesterday.com/

Scroll down to the sixth picture from the top, and click onto it.

I've updated my picture size as well. My 2/19/09 post should read I took the pic while the screen was the only thing left standing. I had just moved to Dallas, and never saw the theater open.

Very cool, SiliconSam. Thanks for resizing it!

I'm glad you took a color picture of the old screen tower, so that the colors can be ascertained. It should help with roughly determining the colors of the circus clown murals at other area drive-in theatres, namely the Chalk Hill and the Jacksboro/Corral. You have a piece of Dallas history in your posession, Sam. Take care of it, and thanks again for sharing!

The Buckner Boulevard Drive-In was opened June 4, 1948. It had a capacity of 664 cars. Owners were W.G. Underwood and Claude Ezell. Boxoffice Magazine of June 12, 1948, said "Underwood, Ezell, and other associates own 25 outdoor theatres in the state and are building more."

There's a possibility the Buckner was designed by Dallas architect Jack Corgan, but I'll have to do some digging to see if I can come up with any confirmation. He did design other drive-ins for Underwood and Ezell, apparently including the Shepherd in Houston.

Very good info, Joe.

By the way, the Belknap and the Circle in Beaumont were also operated by Underwood and Ezell. Also, while checking out an online back issue of Boxoffice, from 1965, I ran across the name another drive-in architect: Harvey A. Jordan, of Arlington, TX. His ad shows an illustration of a screen tower that looks very similar to the Buckner, Belknap, etc.

Good luck on your research, Joe. Looking forward to your results!

An item about Underwood and Ezell in the September 22, 1945, issue of Boxoffice (issuu misidentifies it as September 15, 1945) indicates that Jack Corgan designed all of the circuit's early drive-ins, including the Circle in Waco, the Shepherd, and an unnamed theater on Military Drive in San Antonio. The item also says that plans were underway for drive-ins in Pharr, San Antonio, and at two locations in Houston.

The only clue I can find connecting Corgan with the Buckner is an item in the July 17, 1948, issue of Boxoffice, which is about a Dave Callahan whose company was about to open a drive-in in Little Rock called the Ascher, which was "...patterned after the Buckner Boulevard drive-in in Dallas."

The next paragraph says "Callahan was in Dallas conferring...with architect Jack Corgan who designed the big airer." It's not perfectly clear from that wording whether Corgan designed the Ascher, the Buckner, or both, but that he designed both does seem likely.

Don Sanders's book "The American Drive-In Movie Theatre" (previewable at Google Books) has a brief biography of Jack Corgan, and says that by the time he retired in 1980 he had designed over 75 drive-ins. He also designed many indoor theaters. So far, his Cinema Treasures list contains only fourteen.

An old movie theater ad from 1949 for the Buckner Boulevard Drive In.

Vintage B/W picture of the screen about halfway down this page:

http://www.americandrivein.com/states/tx.htm