Golden Horseshoe Drive-In
6501 University Avenue,
Lubbock,
TX
79413
6501 University Avenue,
Lubbock,
TX
79413
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Opened July 5, 1956 with Hugh Marlow in “World Without End” & Gene Nelson in “The Atomic Man”. This was a large twin screen drive-in which could hold up to 1,000 cars (500 for each screen) showing first and second-run films.
This drive-in was operated by now-defunct Bearden Theatres. They also operated the Red Raider Twin Drive-In in Lubbock. I worked as projectionist at both these drive-ins. Their concession food was spectacular! Best Pizzas in town! The Golden Horseshoe Drive-In was closed and demolished in 1987.
Contributed by
Ned Fairbairn
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Recent comments (view all 11 comments)
Many years ago, I lived in one of the flat-top houses at 62nd and University. We could sit on the roof and watch the back screen feature. That is how I observed Godzilla destroying Tokyo. I also remember many a night trying to go to sleep—we always knew when the film broke because all hell would break loose with the car horns.
A 1980s view of the Golden Horseshoe being torn to make way for a K-Mart discount store.
Don…
A movie ad from 1959 for the Golden Horseshoe in Lubbock.
The comment above made me laugh! I was at the ‘Horseshoe’ when “Horrors of the Black Museum” played there, but I don’t remember the second feature. And like Buddybear53 above, I lived at a house (same block but one street north of Buddybear) so close to the drive-in that you could hear the garbled sound of the movies and the impatient honking of horns when the film broke! But it was great fun to go to the movies there. Sometimes when I was in college, my friends and I would drive two cars and park on both sides of the drive-in. When the features were over on one side, we’d get out and go to the other side and watch the repeat of the first movie on that side. Three movies were just great!
Wow! Reading the comments above brings back memories. We moved to Dallas (from Lubbock) back in 1968. We lived on 65th just a few house up from a public swimming pool that was right where 65th bends into 64th.
i can remember many summer days of biking to the pool and swimming a few hours then heading across University to the drug store that was across the street. After that, my friends and i would hang out behind the drug store, riding our bikes along the tin fence that enclosed the Golden Horseshoe Drive-In until at night when the movies started.
My favorite memory of the drive-in just happens to be my last. Laying on top of my parents station wagon, watching this cool movie called “Planet of the Apes” and laughing really hard and loud when Heston uttered that memorable line “Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!”
Good times!!
It just so happens that i will be in Lubbock the weekend of 09/22-23/2012 and am hoping to drive around checking out the houses we lived in, etc….
Thanks for taking me back there!
Approx. address for this drive-in was 6501 University Avenue.
The address is correct but the zip code is slightly off in the header.
The address for the K-Mart which occupied the site today is:
6501 University Ave
Lubbock, TX 79413
The incorrect zip code used in the header directs the mapping to the north part of town, several miles away from the former location of this drive-in.
Opened with “World without end” and “The Atomic Man”.
The four horseshoes on the back of the screen, should have been facing up, not down, so the good luck doesn’t come out?
I guess this didn’t pan out. Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, July 6, 1972: “W. O. Bearden is seeking zoning changes that would … make the Golden Horseshoe Drive-In Theater conform to the zoning for the first time since it was brought into the city limits. Two requests to install a third screen backing up to 66th Street have been denied by the Zoning Board of Adjustment … The theater is a legal non-conforming use since it was there when the area was annexed and automatically zoned for single family residences.”