Denver Post, May 22, 1949: “Heralded as a new and novel medium of presenting an all-western first run screen program, the Roundup theater on Curtis street, formerly known as the Plaza, re-opened Friday (May 20) and judging from the enthusiasm displayed by movie fans it is evident the Wolfberg theater’s new policy will meet with hearty approval.”
As many drive-ins did in the 1950s, the Vegas filed a federal anti-monopoly lawsuit because it couldn’t get first-run movies. That was reported in the Denver Post on Nov. 23, 1958, when the drive-in was owned by Las Vegas man Gus Daskalos and Green River WY’s Steve Nitse.
George R. Armstrong of Cortez, deputy district attorney in the 6th judicial district for Montezuma and Dolores counties, still owned the Chief on June 18, 1957, when his name hit the Denver Post because of the way he settled an apparently unrelated tax issue.
More evidence that the Palms opened: An ad in the July 27, 1952 Denver Post for the re-release of King Kong said that it would be playing at the Palms in Truth or Consequences on Aug. 22.
Same drive-in? Denver Post, June 16, 1952: “Near O'Neill, Neb., Sunday night (June 15), a freak twister destroyed a drive-in theater at an estimated loss of $8,000. The structure had been completed only two weeks ago.”
Thanks to HistoricAerials.com’s easy-to-use tools, we know that the East’s ramps persisted on the south side of Colfax through a 2011 aerial photo, but became a surface parking lot by 2013. The lot it became appears perfectly rectangular in my eyes, both in overall shape and in its rows of parking spaces. The fan-shaped lot is much closer to the hospital, on the other side of Colfax.
Let me look at my Cortez Sentinel scans again. On Aug. 5, 1950, a cable snapped as workers were lifting the wooden screen tower into place, with the tower’s fall “splintering” the pre-fab structure. Local theater manager Owen Maxey couldn’t predict how long the opening would be delayed. A few more notes from the Sentinel article a few days later are that it correctly spelled the Arroyo, which was being built by John Survant, who owned the Cortez indoor theatres, and it was “at the junction of the Lebanon road and highway 160” on the north_west_ side of town. (Oops, my mistake earlier.)
A grand-opening front-page story two weeks later misspelled the name “Arroya,” as did a huge ad within, inaccurately promising to show the movie “Albuquerque” that night. The following week included a smaller ad apologizing for that delay and getting the grand opening date right this time. Two weeks after opening, the ad spelling was finally corrected to “Arroyo”.
When I look at Google Street View of the former site on Lebanon Road just north of then-US 160, now-US 491, the steep hills on the other side of the highway look a little like an arroyo created by the highway department instead of by a fast-moving stream. If I squint.
Years later, under different ownership, it happened again. On Feb. 17, 1955, the Eagle Valley Enterprise ran a huge, far-ranging supplement called “Colorado Plateau – Fabulous Treasure House of Energy,” which included pages on communities all over western Colorado. In the Cortez section, Terenzio Gai had a display ad touting the T. Gai Warehouse in Yellow Jacket and the Gai Theaters in Cortez, which included the Anle and the “Arroya Drive-In”. If I hadn’t seen a photo of its old sign, I’d really start to wonder how they spelled their name.
I was just a little surprised that no one here has yet asked about this drive-in’s original name, the 47. It was chosen by owner James Petersen after a contest in the Douglas County News attracted 329 submissions. Rather than a highway number, which doesn’t match anything around Castle Rock, 47 (no #) “embodies the Douglas county automobile license number,” and Petersen thought that it would show he wanted to attract patrons from the whole county.
To get pedantic about every name change, a two-sentence note in the June 8, 1967 News said “Old "47” Drive-In to be known under new name “C. R. Drive-In”. Grand reopening Friday, June 9th.“ An end-of-season wrap-up article called it "the Castle Rock 47 Drive-In Theater”.
Boxoffice, June 30, 1969: “The 47 Drive-In has been leased by Richard Pedersen, Bob Olds and Bill Pence. Its name has been changed to the Castle Rock Cinema. … Pedersen, who will manage the airer, has a film industry background that includes New York and the midwest. Olds and Pence also own the Flick Theatre in Colorado Springs.”
Boxoffice, June 22, 1970: “The Castle Rock Cinema opened Thursday, May 28, for the 1970 season under the management of Eugene S. Ptak. All employees are local people and look forward to serving the moviegoing public, Ptak said. Castle Rock Cinema is operated by The Flick, the same company which managed it last season. The Flick operates a theatre in Colorado Springs and is building two theatres in Denver.”
The Douglas County News reported on July 26, 1956 that the tentative opening for Jim Petersen’s 47 was Wed., Aug. 9. “Giant screen will be erected and put in place by the end of next week according to present schedule,” said the note.
The 47 actually opened on Sunday, Aug. 12, 1956, based on a two-page ad in the previous Thursday’s News. The opening program was Martin & Lewis in “Artists and Models,” plus selected shorts and “always a color cartoon.” The drive-in ran a special ad the following week thanking the community for its warm reception.
Boxoffice, April 2, 1949: “Garland West, veteran exhibitor in Buckhannon, W. Va., isn’t afraid of the wind blowing over the screen tower at his new West Drive-In because the pictures will be projected onto one side of the concrete block building illustrated here. … This area will be painted white and used without plaster or other surfacing.”
I am so confused. Topo maps show that the 71 Drive-In about one mile north of Fayetteville, but they also show a drive-in about three miles north of Springdale. That matches a front-page report in the Feb. 25, 1949 edition of the Northwest Arkansas Times, which said that a drive-in three miles north of Springdale was to built by a corporation headed by Bob Fellers of Neosho MO. A 1980 aerial photo showed a drive-in still intact at about 4876 N Thompson St. By 1994, the screen was still up, but the site was being used to park trucks.
The 1952 Theatre Catalog listed the 71 under Springdale, but the 1953-54 Theatre Catalog listed the 71 under Fayetteville “(Springdale)” with the same capacity and owner. I couldn’t find any other mention of a north-of-Springdale drive-in in the NW AR Times even though it was published only about 15 miles away. So what happened?
Update: That northern drive-in became the Grove, whose location CT erroneously maps south of Springdale as I type. Its CT profile says that (also?) opened as the 71 and was later renamed.
As noted in the Grand Opening ad that dallasmovietheaters uploaded, the Biltmore opened on March 18, 1949. A front-page story in the Feb. 21, 1949 Tucson Daily Citizen added some details: “The Biltmore Motor-Vue, Tucson’s new $125,000 drive-in theater, will open in mid-March, according to E. B. Pegram, Bozeman, Mont., owner of the new enterprise. Located directly behind the Tucson Biltmore motel on Oracle road, the drive-in will have a capacity of 450 to 500 cars … Architects and contractors on the job are the Utah firm of Cartwright & Wilson, specialists in drive-in theater construction.”
The 71 opened one mile north of Fayetteville on Thursday, Aug. 18, 1949, based on its grand opening ad the day before in the Northwest Arkansas Times. The first show was a Glenn Ford film, “The Man From Colorado,” plus two cartoons, “Two Gophers from Texas” and “Nothing But the Truth.”
The front-page story of the opening said that several Commonwealth Theaters officials would attend to witness their first drive-in in the state.
Boxoffice, March 19, 1949: “BAKERSFIELD, CALIF. – A new 700-car drive-in, to be known as "9” was to open at Highway 99 and Pierce road near here next week. Built for Lloyd Miller, Joe and Bill Gannon and Owen Clark, the open-air project will costs $200,000 and will have in-car speakers, commodious restrooms and a large concession bar with bottle warming facilities."
Maybe the Pioneer had a different projected name during construction? Boxoffice, March 12, 1949: “A new Garfield Anderson drive-in is being built on the Tempe-Mesa highway at an approximate cost of $150,000. The airer will be named the Valley Drive-In and will accommodate 800 cars. It is being built on a 20-acre site and will have an elaborate electrical display featuring a western desert theme.”
Boxoffice, March 12, 1949: “Construction of a 1,150-car drive-in theater has been started as a site on West Whittier boulevard in Pico by Ernest M. Pellkofer, local businessman. In-car speakers and individual heaters are to be installed in the new open air theatre, which is expected to cost approximately $400,000.”
Denver Post, May 22, 1949: “Heralded as a new and novel medium of presenting an all-western first run screen program, the Roundup theater on Curtis street, formerly known as the Plaza, re-opened Friday (May 20) and judging from the enthusiasm displayed by movie fans it is evident the Wolfberg theater’s new policy will meet with hearty approval.”
As many drive-ins did in the 1950s, the Vegas filed a federal anti-monopoly lawsuit because it couldn’t get first-run movies. That was reported in the Denver Post on Nov. 23, 1958, when the drive-in was owned by Las Vegas man Gus Daskalos and Green River WY’s Steve Nitse.
George R. Armstrong of Cortez, deputy district attorney in the 6th judicial district for Montezuma and Dolores counties, still owned the Chief on June 18, 1957, when his name hit the Denver Post because of the way he settled an apparently unrelated tax issue.
More evidence that the Palms opened: An ad in the July 27, 1952 Denver Post for the re-release of King Kong said that it would be playing at the Palms in Truth or Consequences on Aug. 22.
Same drive-in? Denver Post, June 16, 1952: “Near O'Neill, Neb., Sunday night (June 15), a freak twister destroyed a drive-in theater at an estimated loss of $8,000. The structure had been completed only two weeks ago.”
Thanks to HistoricAerials.com’s easy-to-use tools, we know that the East’s ramps persisted on the south side of Colfax through a 2011 aerial photo, but became a surface parking lot by 2013. The lot it became appears perfectly rectangular in my eyes, both in overall shape and in its rows of parking spaces. The fan-shaped lot is much closer to the hospital, on the other side of Colfax.
Let me look at my Cortez Sentinel scans again. On Aug. 5, 1950, a cable snapped as workers were lifting the wooden screen tower into place, with the tower’s fall “splintering” the pre-fab structure. Local theater manager Owen Maxey couldn’t predict how long the opening would be delayed. A few more notes from the Sentinel article a few days later are that it correctly spelled the Arroyo, which was being built by John Survant, who owned the Cortez indoor theatres, and it was “at the junction of the Lebanon road and highway 160” on the north_west_ side of town. (Oops, my mistake earlier.)
A grand-opening front-page story two weeks later misspelled the name “Arroya,” as did a huge ad within, inaccurately promising to show the movie “Albuquerque” that night. The following week included a smaller ad apologizing for that delay and getting the grand opening date right this time. Two weeks after opening, the ad spelling was finally corrected to “Arroyo”.
When I look at Google Street View of the former site on Lebanon Road just north of then-US 160, now-US 491, the steep hills on the other side of the highway look a little like an arroyo created by the highway department instead of by a fast-moving stream. If I squint.
Years later, under different ownership, it happened again. On Feb. 17, 1955, the Eagle Valley Enterprise ran a huge, far-ranging supplement called “Colorado Plateau – Fabulous Treasure House of Energy,” which included pages on communities all over western Colorado. In the Cortez section, Terenzio Gai had a display ad touting the T. Gai Warehouse in Yellow Jacket and the Gai Theaters in Cortez, which included the Anle and the “Arroya Drive-In”. If I hadn’t seen a photo of its old sign, I’d really start to wonder how they spelled their name.
I was just a little surprised that no one here has yet asked about this drive-in’s original name, the 47. It was chosen by owner James Petersen after a contest in the Douglas County News attracted 329 submissions. Rather than a highway number, which doesn’t match anything around Castle Rock, 47 (no #) “embodies the Douglas county automobile license number,” and Petersen thought that it would show he wanted to attract patrons from the whole county.
To get pedantic about every name change, a two-sentence note in the June 8, 1967 News said “Old "47” Drive-In to be known under new name “C. R. Drive-In”. Grand reopening Friday, June 9th.“ An end-of-season wrap-up article called it "the Castle Rock 47 Drive-In Theater”.
Boxoffice, June 30, 1969: “The 47 Drive-In has been leased by Richard Pedersen, Bob Olds and Bill Pence. Its name has been changed to the Castle Rock Cinema. … Pedersen, who will manage the airer, has a film industry background that includes New York and the midwest. Olds and Pence also own the Flick Theatre in Colorado Springs.”
Boxoffice, June 22, 1970: “The Castle Rock Cinema opened Thursday, May 28, for the 1970 season under the management of Eugene S. Ptak. All employees are local people and look forward to serving the moviegoing public, Ptak said. Castle Rock Cinema is operated by The Flick, the same company which managed it last season. The Flick operates a theatre in Colorado Springs and is building two theatres in Denver.”
The Douglas County News reported on July 26, 1956 that the tentative opening for Jim Petersen’s 47 was Wed., Aug. 9. “Giant screen will be erected and put in place by the end of next week according to present schedule,” said the note.
The 47 actually opened on Sunday, Aug. 12, 1956, based on a two-page ad in the previous Thursday’s News. The opening program was Martin & Lewis in “Artists and Models,” plus selected shorts and “always a color cartoon.” The drive-in ran a special ad the following week thanking the community for its warm reception.
I found this 1922 photo by Charles M. Smyth at the Denver Public Library web site.
I found this photo, by the Rocky Mountain Photo Company, at the Denver Public Library web site.
I found this 1968 photo, from Benjamin Draper’s doctoral dissertation on Colorado Theaters, at the Denver Public Library web site.
This gorgeous photo was taken Sept. 6, 1929 by the Rocky Mountain Photo Company, according to information on the Denver Public Library web site.
I found this picture by the Mile High Photo Company in the Denver Public Library collection, dated “1930-1940?”
Boxoffice, April 2, 1949: “Garland West, veteran exhibitor in Buckhannon, W. Va., isn’t afraid of the wind blowing over the screen tower at his new West Drive-In because the pictures will be projected onto one side of the concrete block building illustrated here. … This area will be painted white and used without plaster or other surfacing.”
The Grove held its Grand Opening on June 7, 1963 and ran a rare ad in Fayetteville’s Northwest Arkansas Times to mark the occasion.
I am so confused. Topo maps show that the 71 Drive-In about one mile north of Fayetteville, but they also show a drive-in about three miles north of Springdale. That matches a front-page report in the Feb. 25, 1949 edition of the Northwest Arkansas Times, which said that a drive-in three miles north of Springdale was to built by a corporation headed by Bob Fellers of Neosho MO. A 1980 aerial photo showed a drive-in still intact at about 4876 N Thompson St. By 1994, the screen was still up, but the site was being used to park trucks.
The 1952 Theatre Catalog listed the 71 under Springdale, but the 1953-54 Theatre Catalog listed the 71 under Fayetteville “(Springdale)” with the same capacity and owner. I couldn’t find any other mention of a north-of-Springdale drive-in in the NW AR Times even though it was published only about 15 miles away. So what happened?
Update: That northern drive-in became the Grove, whose location CT erroneously maps south of Springdale as I type. Its CT profile says that (also?) opened as the 71 and was later renamed.
As noted in the Grand Opening ad that dallasmovietheaters uploaded, the Biltmore opened on March 18, 1949. A front-page story in the Feb. 21, 1949 Tucson Daily Citizen added some details: “The Biltmore Motor-Vue, Tucson’s new $125,000 drive-in theater, will open in mid-March, according to E. B. Pegram, Bozeman, Mont., owner of the new enterprise. Located directly behind the Tucson Biltmore motel on Oracle road, the drive-in will have a capacity of 450 to 500 cars … Architects and contractors on the job are the Utah firm of Cartwright & Wilson, specialists in drive-in theater construction.”
The 71 opened one mile north of Fayetteville on Thursday, Aug. 18, 1949, based on its grand opening ad the day before in the Northwest Arkansas Times. The first show was a Glenn Ford film, “The Man From Colorado,” plus two cartoons, “Two Gophers from Texas” and “Nothing But the Truth.”
The front-page story of the opening said that several Commonwealth Theaters officials would attend to witness their first drive-in in the state.
Boxoffice, March 19, 1949: “BAKERSFIELD, CALIF. – A new 700-car drive-in, to be known as "9” was to open at Highway 99 and Pierce road near here next week. Built for Lloyd Miller, Joe and Bill Gannon and Owen Clark, the open-air project will costs $200,000 and will have in-car speakers, commodious restrooms and a large concession bar with bottle warming facilities."
Maybe the Pioneer had a different projected name during construction? Boxoffice, March 12, 1949: “A new Garfield Anderson drive-in is being built on the Tempe-Mesa highway at an approximate cost of $150,000. The airer will be named the Valley Drive-In and will accommodate 800 cars. It is being built on a 20-acre site and will have an elaborate electrical display featuring a western desert theme.”
Boxoffice, March 12, 1949: “Construction of a 1,150-car drive-in theater has been started as a site on West Whittier boulevard in Pico by Ernest M. Pellkofer, local businessman. In-car speakers and individual heaters are to be installed in the new open air theatre, which is expected to cost approximately $400,000.”
Adding a name, Boxoffice, Feb. 12, 1949: “Paul Glick of the Canoga in Canoga Park plans an early opening for his new Reseda Drive-In”