Horne Drive-In

Chapman Highway,
Knoxville, TN 37920

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Horne Drive-In

The Horne Drive-In was located on Chapman Highway down the road from the Horne Theatre. The Horne Theatre (which has its own page on Cinema Treasures), was opened from the mid-1940’s until the mid-1950’s. The Horne Drive-In was opened on March 15, 1953 and was operated by O.G. Roaden, of Loyall, KY. It was closed on October 23, 1966.

Contributed by Bob Brown

Recent comments (view all 5 comments)

bbrown1
bbrown1 on June 15, 2009 at 8:28 pm

I moved to Knoxville in 1972, and the Horne Drive In was closed by then, though I did hear people talk about it (though at the time, I mistook it for the Sunset Drive In on Clinton Highway). There is a comment under the River Breeze Drive In that describes the Horne Drive In being closed by 1974, though he could see where the drive in had been behind some retail stores, and that a K-Mart (which is now also closed) was eventually built on the location. That must have been after I left Knoxville, so I still don’t know where that would have been.

Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers on November 24, 2010 at 4:36 pm

O.G.Roaden ran the Horne Drive-in in 1956.

Cliftram
Cliftram on April 28, 2016 at 3:24 pm

Isn’t this the theater with the screen on the back wall of a business? There were two drive-ins on Chapman Highway and we went often with my mom, all us kids piled into our Nash Rambler and enjoying a double feature for a 50 cent admission.
We moved away from Knoxville in 1959 and I’m sure it was still open when we left.

50sSNIPES
50sSNIPES on May 31, 2020 at 5:34 pm

The Earliest Information I Can Find Is A 1953 Showing. Unfortunately, This Theater Had Some Bad News And Good News.

The Bad News Is That A Few Years Later, This Theater Started To Mainly Run More Adult-Audience Films Throughout The Late 1950’s And Into The Half Of The 1960’s (As Late As 1964 I Can Find).

The Good News Is That Only ONE TIME, The Horne Drive-In Showed Only A Few Days Of Friendly-Fare By Running The 1956 Smash Film “The Ten Commandments” On April 11th And 12th, 1961 Before Switching Back To More Adult Fare.

tntim
tntim on June 3, 2020 at 5:11 pm

The first time that a listing appeared in the Knoxville News-Sentinel was on March 15, 1953 with the showing of “Barefoot Mailman starring Robert Cummings. The first advertisement didn’t appear until June 13, 1953. The last ad in the paper was on October 23, 1966. Both have been posted in the photo section.

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