Plains Drive-In

Ranch to Market 2020 and N. County Road W,
Odessa, TX 79764

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Plains Drive In...Odessa Texas

The Plains Drive-In opened Wednesday June 21, 1950 with “Montana”. It was the brainchild of Phil Isley who owned a dozen Dallas theaters and three in California. He was best known as the father of the gorgeous, Academy Award winning actress, Jennifer Jones.

The venture was joined by the Scott Family and within a couple months Isley was gone making the Plains Drive-In a part of the Scott Theater firm. It was in operation until the 1970’s, but became ignored by fans and closed without fanfare nor a whimper from historians.

No one seemed to mind when bulldozers moved in crushing it into oblivion. Today the site is covered by all kinds of businesses, but a few people remember it and were touched by its passing.

Contributed by Billy Holcomb / Billy Smith / Don Lewis

Recent comments (view all 12 comments)

Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers on April 12, 2010 at 7:56 pm

In 1956 the PLAINS DRIVE-IN parked 800 cars making it the largest Drive-in in Odessa it was owned by Mrs.Maggie Scott.

TLSLOEWS
TLSLOEWS on April 12, 2010 at 8:26 pm

Nice vintage photo Don.

NYozoner
NYozoner on December 26, 2010 at 5:38 pm

Ranch to Market 2020 & N County Rd W, Odessa, TX 79764

The above address will map to the proper location of the drive-in.

Below is a 1963 aerial photo for this drive-in, courtesy of Earth Explorer and USGS:

http://flic.kr/p/94Qgtr

NYozoner
NYozoner on December 26, 2010 at 10:52 pm

It should read “N. COUNTY Road W.” Not “Country.”

Country = bad mapping.

Someone needs to update the prescription on there glasses…lol :)

NYozoner
NYozoner on December 27, 2010 at 7:39 am

Oh, I can imagine. I was just pointing out that it should map with the correct spelling. That is why these comment boxes are here, to add information and point out mistakes.

I was just kidding around about the glasses, the eyes start to fail after too many hours in front of the computer. Whoever manages the updates is doing a fantastic job, a little mistake here and there is inevitable.

jwmovies
jwmovies on November 10, 2012 at 1:53 am

Approx. address for this drive-in was 1220 West University Boulevard. The entrance is now Westview Clinic.

robboehm
robboehm on June 13, 2015 at 9:24 pm

Uploaded a picture of the completed Plains Drive in from the Texas Tech University Special Collections.

davidcoppock
davidcoppock on May 1, 2020 at 10:10 am

Opened with 30 minutes of cartoons and comedies(not named) and “Montana”.

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