According to visual evidence from the Historic Aerials website, the Northwest Highway Drive-In was still in existence as late as 1958. By 1972, there was no trace of the theatre left, as it was razed and developed over. Would anyone know when it closed?
It looks EXACTLY like the Chalk Hill and Fort Worth’s Bowie Boulevard. I wonder if they all shared the same roadside marquee design as well. I’m betting on “yes”.
According to the Don and Susan Sanders book ‘The Great American Drive-In Theatre’, Dallas’s second drive-in, the Chalk Hill, opened on July 4, 1941. It’s possible the Northwest Highway opened earlier in the year. Anyone have more concrete info on this? Thanks!
From the information I have, it originally opened in 1950 as the Mansfield Highway Drive-In, and was a single screen theatre. It quite possibly was constructed in the “old style”, that is, with living quarters/storage at the base of the screen, and that it closed sometime around 1969 or 1970 to be converted to a twin-screen theatre. The original (east) screen was replaced with the metal frame-style construction.
Too bad AOL Hometown was shut down, as it had a pic of the Fort Worth Twin’s original west screen, not the screen we’re more familiar with. Hopefully, someone has it. If so, post the link here. Thanks!
Here’s a bit of trivia: there’s a fairly worn east-west street in Haltom City, about half a block in length, that sits between Denton Highway (U.S. Highway 377) and Melbourne Street (which bordered the western edge of the Belknap Drive-In). It’s named Ezell Street, and I’m presuming it was named after Claude C. Ezell, half owner of the theatre.
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!
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!
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:
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?
Thank you very much, Mike. I look forward to seeing it.
Here’s a much larger picture of the South Loop’s original screen tower:
View link
According to visual evidence from the Historic Aerials website, the Northwest Highway Drive-In was still in existence as late as 1958. By 1972, there was no trace of the theatre left, as it was razed and developed over. Would anyone know when it closed?
EUREKA! I found it!
View link
It looks EXACTLY like the Chalk Hill and Fort Worth’s Bowie Boulevard. I wonder if they all shared the same roadside marquee design as well. I’m betting on “yes”.
Well done, Mike! I compliment you on your newspaper clip collection. Thank you very much for sharing.
According to the Don and Susan Sanders book ‘The Great American Drive-In Theatre’, Dallas’s second drive-in, the Chalk Hill, opened on July 4, 1941. It’s possible the Northwest Highway opened earlier in the year. Anyone have more concrete info on this? Thanks!
From the information I have, it originally opened in 1950 as the Mansfield Highway Drive-In, and was a single screen theatre. It quite possibly was constructed in the “old style”, that is, with living quarters/storage at the base of the screen, and that it closed sometime around 1969 or 1970 to be converted to a twin-screen theatre. The original (east) screen was replaced with the metal frame-style construction.
Too bad AOL Hometown was shut down, as it had a pic of the Fort Worth Twin’s original west screen, not the screen we’re more familiar with. Hopefully, someone has it. If so, post the link here. Thanks!
Here’s a bit of trivia: there’s a fairly worn east-west street in Haltom City, about half a block in length, that sits between Denton Highway (U.S. Highway 377) and Melbourne Street (which bordered the western edge of the Belknap Drive-In). It’s named Ezell Street, and I’m presuming it was named after Claude C. Ezell, half owner of the theatre.
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!
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!
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.
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:
View link
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?