The Midway Drive In, just outside the city limits of Sweetwater, Texas, was owned by Jack Wallace back in the fifties. His son, J. D., and his wife, Dorothy, ran the theater, and the projectionist at the time was Billy Faught. My father was an avid movie goer, and we were there seventy five percent of the time in the summer. The ticket office was several yards from the the snack bar, and you could stop on the way in and be served from the drive through window, and J.D. could walk out the door if he suspected someone sneaking in with a trunk load of teenagers. A large playground and outdoor seating area was a parents dream. They could sit on the front row and watch the movie, and keep an eye on the kids at the same time. I can vividly recall the layout of the drive in, and
miss those days where I played on the swings with my friend Jamie, the Wallaces daughter.
Jack also owned an indoor theater in Roscoe in the early fifties, called the Joy. The building is no longer there. My niece and her husband own the old Midway Drive In lot, where they moved in a trailer house, and live there.
My husband, Robert Henley, was a member of the Projectionist’s Union in Ft. Worth, and worked at the Berry Theater in 1972. At that time he was showing Spanish pictures on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, and I was sitting in the little free standing ticket booth selling tickets, while he also kept our 18 month old son with him upstairs, until I closed the box office. We worked for Basil Huckabee, who also had rented the Marine Theater from a man from Dallas. Some Saturdays after the Matinee, the theater would be rented out for a stage show, with well known Spanish stars such as Tony Aguilar, who would sing to the crowd. Robert worked in nearly every movie theater and drive in in Ft. Worth, and also in Waco. Those were the good old days.
The Midway Drive In, just outside the city limits of Sweetwater, Texas, was owned by Jack Wallace back in the fifties. His son, J. D., and his wife, Dorothy, ran the theater, and the projectionist at the time was Billy Faught. My father was an avid movie goer, and we were there seventy five percent of the time in the summer. The ticket office was several yards from the the snack bar, and you could stop on the way in and be served from the drive through window, and J.D. could walk out the door if he suspected someone sneaking in with a trunk load of teenagers. A large playground and outdoor seating area was a parents dream. They could sit on the front row and watch the movie, and keep an eye on the kids at the same time. I can vividly recall the layout of the drive in, and
miss those days where I played on the swings with my friend Jamie, the Wallaces daughter.
Jack also owned an indoor theater in Roscoe in the early fifties, called the Joy. The building is no longer there. My niece and her husband own the old Midway Drive In lot, where they moved in a trailer house, and live there.
My husband, Robert Henley, was a member of the Projectionist’s Union in Ft. Worth, and worked at the Berry Theater in 1972. At that time he was showing Spanish pictures on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, and I was sitting in the little free standing ticket booth selling tickets, while he also kept our 18 month old son with him upstairs, until I closed the box office. We worked for Basil Huckabee, who also had rented the Marine Theater from a man from Dallas. Some Saturdays after the Matinee, the theater would be rented out for a stage show, with well known Spanish stars such as Tony Aguilar, who would sing to the crowd. Robert worked in nearly every movie theater and drive in in Ft. Worth, and also in Waco. Those were the good old days.