Riviera Drive In, Oklahoma City OK 1994

whorton on October 2, 2011 at 8:12 am

I worked there as a projectionist back in 1985 and 86. After the owner George Caporal died, the drive in became the property of his son, Sam Caporal. While Sam was a fine person, he never really had any interest in running the drive in. After the screen fell over (it’s base rusted out and fell over in a storm in 97) it just sat until it was vandalized heavily and never reopened.

To see some excellent pics of the vandalism and end, look here:

http://www.abandonedok.com/riviera-drive-in/

Very sad ending for a drive-in. I especially remember the horror and rogue biker movies (like Glory Stompers, Hells Angles unchained) in the 70’s and the exploitation movies in the late 70’s. Good stuff like “Candy Strip nurses.” Of course that was before cable!

The Riveria opened on Aug 22, 1967, with a capacity of 1000 cars. The first movies shown were:

Beyond space The Terrornauts The Projected man plus 3 stooge and pink panther cartoons