This photo by B. A. Lang, date unknown, is part of the collection entitled: Rescuing Texas History, 2007 and was provided by the Heritage House Museum to The Portal to Texas History, a digital repository hosted by the UNT Libraries. It was donated by the Orange Chamber of Commerce, and its copyright status is undetermined.
This 1955 photo is part of the collection entitled: Abilene Photograph Collection and was provided by the Hardin-Simmons University Library to The Portal to Texas History, a digital repository hosted by the UNT Libraries.
This 1982 photo by John Margolies is part of the John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive at the Library of Congress, and is effectively in the public domain.
This beautiful 1949 postcard is part of the Curt Teich Postcard Archives at the University of Illinois. Since it was published before 1964 without a copyright notice, it appears to be in the public domain.
This postcard photo is from the Curt Teich Postcard Archives Collection at the University of Illinois. Since it was published before 1964 without a copyright notice, it is apparently in the public domain.
There’s a larger, sharper version of this photo on Flickr, posted by Orange County Archives. It says it’s from the OC Parks Collection, and “There are no known copyright restrictions on this image. All future uses of this photo should include the courtesy line, "Photo courtesy Orange County Archives.” "
That photo was printed in the April 29, 1948 issue of the Amarillo Globe-Times. The original caption:
Amarillo’s new drive-in theater, the Trail, opens tonight on Highways 60 and 66 near the “Y.” Owner and operator W. O. Bearden said the first show will begin at 7:45 o'clock tonight, but the gates will be open an hour before showtime. The picture for the opening is “Gunfighters” starring Randolph Scott. The sign in the foreground is at the highway entrance to the drive-in. In the background is the back of the screentower on which Artist Tex Merrick of Tri-State Advertisers is finishing a huge mural of a covered wagon going down a canyon trail.
“Drive-In Theatre” opened on Saturday, Sept. 11, 1948, with the movie “There Goes My Heart”. By Sept. 12, its ads in the El Reno Daily Tribune had changed to “El Reno Drive-In Theatre”.
Kennerado is absolutely right about the Grande’s soft opening night. Here are a couple of other notes:
A “baby tornado” hit the Grande the afternoon of Oct. 8, 1959. The west wall was blown down, plenty of neon was wrecked, and the concession stand roof was “extensively damaged”. Yet “the show went on a usual” that night under the direction of 20-year-old owner-manager Tommy Shaffer.
Four years later, in October 1963, Shaffer was beaten and killed, his body found in roadside brush. A suspect was arrested in Kentucky, where he had been already wanted for an unrelated kidnapping case, and he was later tried on an unrelated murder of a St. Louis man.
Ted Siebenman managed the Grande in early 1965, and Myron Woodcock took over on July 1 that year.
I also found that photo, with a softer focus and a fuzzier “circa 1940: date, at the St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri St. Louis. That page said that it’s a St. Louis Globe-Democrat photo, and UMSL would be happy to sell you reproduction rights.
This 1947 photo by Brooks Crummett can be found in the Joseph K. Redmond, Jr. Collection at the UMKC Digital Special Collections. A notice on that page suggests that LaBudde Special Collections licenses its rights.
Based on the stories and ads in the weekly Warrenton Banner, the Moto-Vu (hyphenated) opened Tuesday, Aug. 8, 1950. Its first movie was “Duchess of Idaho” starring Esther Williams.
In October 1958, Mr. & Mrs. Zimmerman leased the Moto-Vu to David Meyer of Salem MO. The lease was to be for five years. (Meyer had been running the West Quincy Drive-In.)
In March 1962, Eugene Tacke bought the indoor Vita and the Moto-Vu equipment from the Zimmermans and signed “a very long term lease on the land now occupied by the Moto-Vu Drive-In”. (Sounds like it hadn’t been completely dismantled.) Tacke reopened on May 10. “One major improvement was to widen the screen, now making the face 32' by 60' which now ranks third largest in the state.”
The Moto-Vu lasted until at least 1966, finishing its season on Oct 23 that year.
It looks like the Paul Bunyon opened a little before 1955, probably 1954. This note in the April 7, 1955 edition of the Warrenton (MO) Banner implied that the drive-in was already in operation:
“Mr. and Mrs. Gene Tacke left Sunday for St. Paul, Minn. … They own and operate a Drive-In Theater at Ericsburg during the summer months and own a four room cottage on the banks of Rainy Lake. Ericsburg is three miles from International Falls, Minn. Mr. and Mrs. Tacke expect to return to their home in Warrenton on October 1.”
The Paul Bunyon debuted in the Motion Picture Almanac in the 1955 edition, published early that year, in International Falls with an owner named “E. Tacke”.
The Dispatch of Moline IL reported on April 3, 1956 that earlier that day, high winds had blown down “an addition to the movie screen at the Bel-Air Drive-In Theater,” causing minor injury to 5-year-old Bradley Zoeckler, son of Bel-Air employee Richard Zoeckler.
The Dispatch of Moline IL reported on April 3, 1956, that high winds pushed the Corral’s screen forward into its playground area that afternoon, destroying the screen.
According the Berwyn IL newspaper The Life, the Bel-Air’s final movies were shown on Sunday, Sept. 17, 2000.
One screen had “Backstage” followed by “Highlander: Endgame.” Another had “Original Kings of Comedy” then “Bless the Child.” The last double-header started with “Turn It Up,” and the Bel-Air’s final movie, based on scheduled start time, was “The Cell.”
Boxoffice, Jan. 20, 1951: “DRAPER, UTAH - A fire of unknown origin swept through the Draper Theatre building early Tuesday and left the structure a complete loss. Besides the theatre, the building housed a drug store and doctor’s office. The entire operation was managed by Lloyd Iams, who had not totaled an estimate of losses. The 277-seat showhouse was beyond saving when fire apparatus reached the scene, according to firemen.”
Looks like the Lassen opened in 1950, accounting for its presence on the 1951 Film Daily Year Book list. The July 15, 1950 issue of Boxoffice had a long list of open and under construction drive-ins; it included Susanville’s among the open. Then the Sept. 16, 1950 issue said that George Robinson was the manager “of the new Lassen Auto Movie.”
The Norwood Star reported on May 17, 1951, that 231 children and 50 adults watched a matinee of “Cinderella” at the Mesa. Many preschoolers sat on other patrons' laps, and the theater “was well filled.”
This photo by B. A. Lang, date unknown, is part of the collection entitled: Rescuing Texas History, 2007 and was provided by the Heritage House Museum to The Portal to Texas History, a digital repository hosted by the UNT Libraries. It was donated by the Orange Chamber of Commerce, and its copyright status is undetermined.
This 1955 photo is part of the collection entitled: Abilene Photograph Collection and was provided by the Hardin-Simmons University Library to The Portal to Texas History, a digital repository hosted by the UNT Libraries.
This 2009 photo by Matt H. Wade was published to Wikimedia Commons with a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
This 1982 photo by John Margolies is part of the John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive at the Library of Congress, and is effectively in the public domain.
This beautiful 1949 postcard is part of the Curt Teich Postcard Archives at the University of Illinois. Since it was published before 1964 without a copyright notice, it appears to be in the public domain.
This postcard photo is from the Curt Teich Postcard Archives Collection at the University of Illinois. Since it was published before 1964 without a copyright notice, it is apparently in the public domain.
This photo is also in the Wikimedia Commons, which believes that it’s in the public domain.
There’s a larger, sharper version of this photo on Flickr, posted by Orange County Archives. It says it’s from the OC Parks Collection, and “There are no known copyright restrictions on this image. All future uses of this photo should include the courtesy line, "Photo courtesy Orange County Archives.” "
That photo was printed in the April 29, 1948 issue of the Amarillo Globe-Times. The original caption:
Amarillo’s new drive-in theater, the Trail, opens tonight on Highways 60 and 66 near the “Y.” Owner and operator W. O. Bearden said the first show will begin at 7:45 o'clock tonight, but the gates will be open an hour before showtime. The picture for the opening is “Gunfighters” starring Randolph Scott. The sign in the foreground is at the highway entrance to the drive-in. In the background is the back of the screentower on which Artist Tex Merrick of Tri-State Advertisers is finishing a huge mural of a covered wagon going down a canyon trail.
“Drive-In Theatre” opened on Saturday, Sept. 11, 1948, with the movie “There Goes My Heart”. By Sept. 12, its ads in the El Reno Daily Tribune had changed to “El Reno Drive-In Theatre”.
Kennerado is absolutely right about the Grande’s soft opening night. Here are a couple of other notes:
A “baby tornado” hit the Grande the afternoon of Oct. 8, 1959. The west wall was blown down, plenty of neon was wrecked, and the concession stand roof was “extensively damaged”. Yet “the show went on a usual” that night under the direction of 20-year-old owner-manager Tommy Shaffer.
Four years later, in October 1963, Shaffer was beaten and killed, his body found in roadside brush. A suspect was arrested in Kentucky, where he had been already wanted for an unrelated kidnapping case, and he was later tried on an unrelated murder of a St. Louis man.
Ted Siebenman managed the Grande in early 1965, and Myron Woodcock took over on July 1 that year.
I also found that photo, with a softer focus and a fuzzier “circa 1940: date, at the St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri St. Louis. That page said that it’s a St. Louis Globe-Democrat photo, and UMSL would be happy to sell you reproduction rights.
This 1947 photo by Brooks Crummett can be found in the Joseph K. Redmond, Jr. Collection at the UMKC Digital Special Collections. A notice on that page suggests that LaBudde Special Collections licenses its rights.
Based on the stories and ads in the weekly Warrenton Banner, the Moto-Vu (hyphenated) opened Tuesday, Aug. 8, 1950. Its first movie was “Duchess of Idaho” starring Esther Williams.
In October 1958, Mr. & Mrs. Zimmerman leased the Moto-Vu to David Meyer of Salem MO. The lease was to be for five years. (Meyer had been running the West Quincy Drive-In.)
In March 1962, Eugene Tacke bought the indoor Vita and the Moto-Vu equipment from the Zimmermans and signed “a very long term lease on the land now occupied by the Moto-Vu Drive-In”. (Sounds like it hadn’t been completely dismantled.) Tacke reopened on May 10. “One major improvement was to widen the screen, now making the face 32' by 60' which now ranks third largest in the state.”
The Moto-Vu lasted until at least 1966, finishing its season on Oct 23 that year.
It looks like the Paul Bunyon opened a little before 1955, probably 1954. This note in the April 7, 1955 edition of the Warrenton (MO) Banner implied that the drive-in was already in operation:
“Mr. and Mrs. Gene Tacke left Sunday for St. Paul, Minn. … They own and operate a Drive-In Theater at Ericsburg during the summer months and own a four room cottage on the banks of Rainy Lake. Ericsburg is three miles from International Falls, Minn. Mr. and Mrs. Tacke expect to return to their home in Warrenton on October 1.”
The Paul Bunyon debuted in the Motion Picture Almanac in the 1955 edition, published early that year, in International Falls with an owner named “E. Tacke”.
Boxoffice, May 3, 1976: “TYLER, MINN. - Charles R. Bendler has sold his Lincoln Drive-In to Ronald Jacobson.”
The Dispatch of Moline IL reported on April 3, 1956 that earlier that day, high winds had blown down “an addition to the movie screen at the Bel-Air Drive-In Theater,” causing minor injury to 5-year-old Bradley Zoeckler, son of Bel-Air employee Richard Zoeckler.
The Dispatch of Moline IL reported on April 3, 1956, that high winds pushed the Corral’s screen forward into its playground area that afternoon, destroying the screen.
According the Berwyn IL newspaper The Life, the Bel-Air’s final movies were shown on Sunday, Sept. 17, 2000.
One screen had “Backstage” followed by “Highlander: Endgame.” Another had “Original Kings of Comedy” then “Bless the Child.” The last double-header started with “Turn It Up,” and the Bel-Air’s final movie, based on scheduled start time, was “The Cell.”
Boxoffice, Jan. 20, 1951: “DRAPER, UTAH - A fire of unknown origin swept through the Draper Theatre building early Tuesday and left the structure a complete loss. Besides the theatre, the building housed a drug store and doctor’s office. The entire operation was managed by Lloyd Iams, who had not totaled an estimate of losses. The 277-seat showhouse was beyond saving when fire apparatus reached the scene, according to firemen.”
Google Maps says that the old East Trent site at 11201 E. Trent Avenue is in Spokane Valley, Spokane’s largest suburb.
Looks like the Lassen opened in 1950, accounting for its presence on the 1951 Film Daily Year Book list. The July 15, 1950 issue of Boxoffice had a long list of open and under construction drive-ins; it included Susanville’s among the open. Then the Sept. 16, 1950 issue said that George Robinson was the manager “of the new Lassen Auto Movie.”
Boxoffice, Aug. 19, 1950: “William Padgett has sold his Mode Theatre in Cottonwood, Ida., to C. A. Ulharn, who will take over October 1.”
The Norwood Star reported on May 17, 1951, that 231 children and 50 adults watched a matinee of “Cinderella” at the Mesa. Many preschoolers sat on other patrons' laps, and the theater “was well filled.”
Boxoffice, July 20, 1959: “The Saturday Only Automovies in Salinas … has been closed by the National Theatres”