Apollo Drive-In
3159 S. Garland Avenue,
Garland,
TX
75041
3159 S. Garland Avenue,
Garland,
TX
75041
1 person
favorited this theater
This was one of the very first victims of Wal-Mart back in the 1980’s. This lengendary drive in had been there long before I was born in 1975. Just like the ones from the 1950’s and 1960’s. This place was the best. I saw many great movies here as a youngster and always loved the experience. Miss it to this very day.
Contributed by
Matt Griffith
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
This was a McClendon Theatre, like all the others with “outer-space” type names which opened in the late 60’s in the Dallas area (Gemimi, Saturn, Astro, etc.). I had friends working the box-offices (two sisters) who used to let me and some of my other friends in free if I would call ahead of time to find out which entrance (Garland Rd. or Jupiter Rd.) one of them would be working that night. This was where I first saw trailers advocating contacting state representatives to keep Texas from having Daylight Savings Time, which began in the spring of 1967—my senior year in high-school. I really think that had more to do with the demise of not only the Apollo but all the drive-ins than Wal-Mart or any other factor; just my opinion.
Car capacity was 1,800.
Hyper-mart came in to take over the land. THen, I guess it couldn’t make it so Wal-Mart stepped in. Now, the Wal-Mart has closed. THe building at this time is still vacant. I did a walk around for some photos about a month ago. What a place to NOW put back a Drive In Theatre! RAC
www.flickr.com/photos/racphotography
Here is a 1979 aerial view. The 1956 view shows the drive-in when it was one screen.
http://tinyurl.com/y9nzgm5
Change ZIP in map link in the title to 75041 so that it maps correctly.
HyperMart was a brainchild of Wal-Mart to combine a Wal Mart with a grocery chain (Cullum Companies – AKA Tom Thumb stores) to make a large combination grocery and crap store. I didn’t last long at all. They just started calling them Wal-Mart SuperCenters.
I used to take my favorite girl friend here in the late 70’s / this is where I lost my heart to my first love :–)
Address is still wrong – Apollo’s south screen stood very close to where the single screen tower of the old Garland Rd. Drive-In stood – the address for that theatre (3159 Garland Rd. – at the southern apex of the triangle formed by Garland, Shiloh, and W. Kingsley) is correct; the Apollo’s north screen was way up on Kingsley.