Circle 25 Drive-In

1071 N.E. New Circle Road,
Lexington, KY 40508

Closed
1 screen
1050 cars

Unfavorite 2 people favorited this theater

Additional Info

Previously operated by: Hallmark Theatres, Malco Theatres Inc.

Previous Names: Circle 25 Auto Theatre

Nearby Theaters

Projection booth at the Circle 25, 1974.

The Circle 25 Auto Theatre opened on April 26, 1956 with Randolph Scott in “Rage at Dawn” & Virginia Mayo in “Pearl of the South Pacific”. The car capacity was listed at 1,050. Originally operated by Hallmark Releasing and later by Malco Theatres.

The Circle Drive-In closed in 1982 and has since been demolished.

Contributed by Chuck

Recent comments (view all 6 comments)

Pegbars
Pegbars on February 12, 2012 at 1:07 am

Corrections to the info on this theatre…

  • The Circle 25 was built by Mark Cummins and Ben Cohen and opened in 1956, after being under construction for two years. Equipment was purchased from Midwest Theatre Supply.
  • The late Robert Perkins was the Circle 25’s first manager, who went on the build the Southland 68 D/I in 1961.
  • Sold in 1957 to Fayette Drive-In Theatres: R.M. Johnson and the Rodes Theatre interests of Lexington.
  • Rodes leased the theatre to Countrywide in 1972.
  • Leased to Hallmark in 1973. Manager was Arthur J. Gallerani. City manager, Fred Mills (from his office at the Kentucky Theatre).
  • Sold in 1975 to Mid-States Theatres. Manager in 1978-79 was Lloyd Dobbins.
  • Mid-States closed the theatre, circa 1982, and it was subsequently demolished. Manager at closing was James Mullikin.

Malco never owned theatres in Central Kentucky.

Additional info: – Projection booth was designed for four projectors, two of them being horizontal Vista-Vision. However, the additional projectors were never installed. – Theatre was literally across the street from Rodes' Family Drive-In. – Present site of Brock-McVey electrical equipment and supplies.

Drive-In 54
Drive-In 54 on February 12, 2012 at 4:07 am

Pegbars..great information.

Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers on April 29, 2012 at 6:51 pm

great picture of the booth.

rivest266
rivest266 on August 10, 2012 at 9:46 am

I uploaded an 1958 aerial photo of it and the Family Drive-Ins. Which one is which?

jwmovies
jwmovies on September 19, 2012 at 8:58 pm

The bigger one to the right in the photo was the Circle 25. (where the gallery is located off Trade Center Dr.) The smaller one to the left was the Family. (where Trailblazers Auto & Truck is now located). Approx. address for that drive-in was 1098 E. New Circle. Family Cir. runs through where that theatre stood.

rivest266
rivest266 on November 17, 2020 at 12:55 pm

Opened April 26th, 1956 Circle 25 Auto Theatre openingCircle 25 Auto Theatre opening Wed, Apr 25, 1956 – 7 · Lexington Leader (Lexington, Kentucky) · Newspapers.com

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