77 Drive-In
9301 S. Shields Boulevard,
Oklahoma City,
OK
73160
9301 S. Shields Boulevard,
Oklahoma City,
OK
73160
1 person
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Peerless Theatres
Styles: Streamline Moderne
Previous Names: Odom Drive-In, Barton's 77 Drive-In
Nearby Theaters
The Odom Drive-In opened on July 2, 1947 with John Wayne in “Angel and the Badman”. It was owned by R. Lewis Barton and Peerless Theatres Inc. On March 28, 1948 it was renamed Barton’s 77 Drive-In. On July 7, 1968 the name was changed to the 77 Drive-In.
It was a single screen and could accommodate 948 cars. The 77 Drive-In was closed on September 2, 1975.
Contributed by
Chuck
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Recent comments (view all 19 comments)
The NW Hwy and Odom Drive-Ins both opened on July 2nd, 1947.
Northwest Highway and Odom Drive-Ins opening Wed, Jul 2, 1947 – 38 · The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) · Newspapers.com
Reopened as the Barton’s 77 Drive-In on March 10th, 1949. Another grand reopening ad from July 7th, 1968 (along with the Airline Drive-In). Both ads posted.
Also opened with a Bugs Bunny cartoon(not named), and a Three Stooges short(Fright night).
Management built a new concession stand in the 1955-56 offseason, per a Feb. 25, 1956 note in the Motion Picture Herald.
More personal details than normal from the June 21, 1947 BoxOffice:
Robert L. Barton, son of the R. Lewis Bartons, and Betty Lou Humphrey were married recently. Both the bride and bridegroom were Oklahoma City university students. The bride was president of her senior class. The couple is on a one-month wedding trip to Canada and Niagara Falls. Young Barton is associated with his dad in the theatre business but plans to continue his college education in the autumn. His father owns a chain of houses in Oklahoma, including the Home, Knob Hill and Redskin here. He also is building a new drive-in near the city which will have a 1,000-car capacity. It is three miles south of the city on Norman Highway 77, and will be known as the Odom.
Name changed to Burton’s 77 Drive-in on 10/3/1949 with “That wonderful urge”. Reopened on 7/7/1968 with “Cool Hand Luke” and “Wait until dark”.
I would double- and triple-check any source I found that contradicted Wesley Horton’s work. In this case, it’s undeniably true that March 6, 1948 was not a Friday. But March 26, 1948 was.
One more minor flaw in Horton’s date, this March 26 ad specifies that the 77 will open for the season on Easter Sunday - March 28, 1948.
Note to MichaelKilgore,
You need to recheck your data. March 6, 1948 was indeed a Friday. Note the advert from the Oklahoman archives on that date:
https://imgur.com/a/D6cxGrH
To Wesley Horton, Welcome back! So great to hear from you! I just read your name in the “Tulsa Movie Theaters” book I bought this week. Please drop me an email at mkilgore@carload.com!
I bow to you in your superior Oklahoma drive-in knowledge, and probably much more, but every calendar I’ve accessed insists that March 6, 1948 was a Saturday. That would line up with the Daily Oklahoman believing that the 26th was a Friday. All I know is what I read.
Tough question: WHY was this drive-in named the Odom? When it was built, the future Odom Road didn’t exist.
The easy answer would be that the Sullivan Theatre chain, which opened the NW Hi-Way the same night as the Odom’s debut, had something to do with it, since the head of that chain was Odom Farrell (O.F.) Sullivan. That theory would say that Sullivan sold it to Barton during the first off-season, and that’s why he renamed it Barton’s 77.
If only I hadn’t found the June 21, 1947 BoxOffice note above, which clearly shows that Barton finished the Odom. BUT look who started it before Barton bought it.
Motion Picture Herald, Feb. 15, 1947: “First drive-in theatre for this area has been announced for opening about April 15 with construction started last week on a 1,000-car unit to cost $100,000, as announced by C. C. McCollister of Wichita, Kan., president of Peerless Theatres, Inc., Sanford Swim is vice-president and Merle L. Barnes is secretary-treasurer of the company. The new theatre will be called the Odom.”
I’ll keep looking, but right now I’d say that O.F. Sullivan probably had a piece of Peerless.