Highway 65 Drive-In
Autoscope Drive,
Buffalo,
MO
65622
Autoscope Drive,
Buffalo,
MO
65622
3 people
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Thanks for the update, stereo3d. Here is a clickable link to the October 23, 1954 issue of Boxoffice.
Joe’s links to the Oct. 23, 1954 issue of Boxoffice are no longer working. The article starts on page 16 of “The Modern Theatre Section” and the magazine is available online at https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/27007049/boxoffice-october231954
Boxoffice, April 29, 1974: “BUFFALO, MO. - The Autoscope Drive-In on U.S. 65 north of here, recently acquired by Mr. and Mrs. Robert DeJarnette from Mr. and Mrs. Bert Croley, opened Friday (5) on a weekends-only policy. The Croleys had been associated with the airer since it started operation approximately 20 years ago. The DeJarnettes have moved to Buffalo from Minneapolis, where Bob was a distributor for United Artists for more than 17 years. The Autoscope Drive-In will be open to moviegoers ever night during summer.”
To re-emphasize Joe Vogel’s excellent post, in the Modern Theatre Buyers' Directory section of the Oct. 23, 1954 issue of Boxoffice, there was a three-page article about the Autoscope. It included plenty of photos including an aerial view (uploaded here), closeups of the projection setup, and a shot of the central concession / projection building.
a closer address is Autoscope Rd Buffalo, Missouri
The address for this theater is now 1600 North Ash Street, Buffalo, MO 65622. This points directly to the entrance and exit roads which are still there.
Please update.
i just uploaded a very very cool aerial of ir from 1959 from historic aerials.com
When it reopened as Highway 65 Drive-in, it had 250 cars.
My grandpa, Elza Jackson was third owner with Bert Croley and Tom Smith. My dad, Jim Jackson,said he worked there and helped build and maintain it.
The October 23, 1954, Boxoffice article about the Buffalo Autoscope Drive-In that I linked to in an earlier comment has been moved. Here are current links:
First page
Second page
Third page
The drive-in was located on the NE corner of Ash Street and Autoscope Road (how appropriate). You can still see the unique circular outline of the drive in, the ramps from its conversion and the entrance/exit roads as well. https://goo.gl/maps/SR0kx
if you need more info on the buffalo autoscope you can contact us tom smith neice could tell you more and has a lot more pictures of the theater
That’s a great article. Thanks for sharing. Tom Smith was still alive in the late 90’s, and I heard a lot of interesting stories about him. He was more intersted in creating the system than the business end of running theaters. He started at the Dallas Theatre in Urbana before he built the autoscopes. He may still be alive. I think at one time there were maybe 20 or 30 autoscopes across the country, mostly in very small towns, so they are hard to document. By the way, the big screen from the Highway 65 Drive In was moved to the Shooting Star Drive In in Urbana, and though it is now closed, the screen is still standing and in good shape, though it is on private property that is not used for a drive in now.
Thanks for the info. I think it must have been the one in Buffalo. I was old enough to know how a conventional drive-in theater worked, but not old enough to figure out “how all those little screens worked”, although I knew it was supposed to be a drive-in theater.
I just stumbled upon the mention of the Autoscope HERE earlier this evening. Otherwise, I don’t know that I’d every have remembered it on my own.
Annie, The Buffalo Autoscope operated as an autoscope up through the mid 70’s. It was probably those screens thay you saw. They were actually in operation until it was converted to a conventional drive in. I’m not sure how long the Urbana screens stood after it closed in the mid 50’s. If you can remember which side of the highway they were on, the Urbana Autoscope was on your right as you drove from Warsaw to Springfield, while the Buffalo Autoscope was on your left. Also the Buffalo Autoscope was much larger than the Urbana Autoscope.
Can anyone tell me how long the single-car screens were left standing at either the Buffalo or Urbana autoscope. I grew up a few towns to the north (Warsaw) and believe I remember seeing the screens of one or the other when we would drive to Springfield. Not in operation, but still standing. That would have been in the very late 60s, the 70s and very early 80s. Am I really remembering them, or am I “projecting” a memory?
A three-page article about this drive-in starts on this page of Boxoffice, October 23, 1954. There are several photos, most of them depicting the unusual projection equipment.
The Buffalo Autoscope had 122 44-inch wide screens on its five acre plot, and the theater could be operated by three people. The article mentions the Smith brothers' smaller prototype Autoscope operation in Urbana, opened the previous year and accommodating a mere fifty cars.
You can see a postcard of the Buffalo Autoscope from 1957 below:
http://www.drive-ins.com/pictures/mothigh006.jpg