Prentiss Drive-In
428 MS-145,
Booneville,
MS
38829
428 MS-145,
Booneville,
MS
38829
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Scenic Drive-In, 45 Drive-In, Jrs Princess Drive-In
Nearby Theaters
Booneville MS has seen a lot of names on its local drive-in(s), but I’m not sure how many there were or their location(s).
Boxoffice’s drive-in construction roundup article on April 12, 1952 included the 45 Drive-In in Booneville, announced capacity 300, owned by W. H. Brown and E. O. Roden. On June 13, 1953, the magazine wrote that Brown bought out Roden to become the sole owner.
The 45 was also included in the 1952 Theatre Catalog, capacity 180 cars, owner Ham-Kirk Th. Serv. (The 1952-53 Motion Picture Almanac called the owners Hamkirk Theatre Services.) The 1953-54 edition changed the owner to W. H. Brown, and that’s how it stayed through 1961.
Boxoffice noted on April 2, 1962 that “R. V. Reagin opened his Scenic Drive-In at Boonville, Miss., March 29”. The 1962-76 MPAs included the 180-car Scenic Drive-In, owned by R. V. Reagin. (As late as 1970, Boxoffice occasionally mentioned that Reagin owned the Scenic Drive-In) After rebooting its drive-in list for the 1977 edition, the MPA showed the Scenic as owned by “Wallace & Ba”, through 1979. There were no Booneville drive-ins included in the MPA’s 1980-82 editions.
The 1983 MPA showed the Jrs Princess Drive-In, owned by F. McCuiston. (Mrs. Marvin McCuiston once owned the town’s indoor Princess Theatre.) The listing for that one-screen drive-in continued through the MPA’s final list in 1988.
Somewhere in the middle of all that was a February 17, 1975 note in Boxoffice that “Frank Heard has assumed operation of Prentiss Drive-In in Booneville, Miss.” That was followed on Dec. 1, 1975 by an article saying that J. Frank Heard had been elected president of the state theater owners. “His son Rick Heard, owner and operator of the Prentiss Drive-In, Booneville,” was elected president of the Tri-State theater owners. The Prentiss Drive-In was still there in 1985 (whether open or closed in not know. It had been demolished by 1996.
Contributed by
Michael Kilgore
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Recent comments (view all 1 comments)
A closer address is 428 MS-145, Booneville, MS.
The drive-in was located a couple miles north of Booneville on what was then HWY-45. The drive-in fits the description in the header and it remained intact up to a 1985 aerial. By 1996, the drive-in had been demolished.
Today, the property is now occupied by Mike Posey’s Automotive Specialists LLC. What appears to be a combination auto repair and salvage yard. There is no trace of the drive-in remaining, save for the old entrance/exit road which is still intact, but is no longer the main entrance to the site.
https://tinyurl.com/2v83989y