King's Drive-In
1901 N. 14th Street,
Kingsville,
TX
78363
1901 N. 14th Street,
Kingsville,
TX
78363
2 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Nearby Theaters
Opened on June 23, 1949 with Bette Davis in “June Bride”. Owned by Joseph & Kyle, it parked 300 cars.
The King’s Drive-In was closed around 1984.
Contributed by
Silicon Sam
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 16 comments)
Open ~1950-~1980? Care to verify the exact dates?
Open for sure in 1967.
Owned by Texas Cinema Corporation 1975-1980.
Need more info and photos.
As I commented above, the exact opening date was June 23, 1949. Here is some evidnece I have researched myself. This is part of a larger work that is very much a “work-in-progress”. I added some details to the King’s Drive-in section for the sake of posting this now. Other drive-ins are incomplete.
View link
Could accommodate 375 cars.
One needs to be careful about judging the car capacity from press releases. They seem to always overstate the car capcity or size…..perhaps to gain an edge with the movie bookers representing them in Dallas, or maybe just to sound more impressive to the public. The Motion Picture Almanacs and the International Motion Picture Almanacs of the time consistently ranked the Kingsville drive-ins as:
King’s – 300
Rancho – 300
Brahma – 250
HiWay – 250 or 300
I’m not saying that was the gospel, but the press numbers are usually considerably higher than other sources.
According to my 1956 Almanac you are right on with your car capacity,Yakima!
I added a photo (postcard) of the Sage Motel in Kingsville, Texas. In this view one can see the new to the Kings Drive In just above the motel.
I added a cropped 1955 Kingsville, Texas phonebook yellow page listing for the Kings Drive In.
I think the site is now a moving and storage rental company(U-Haul) and a western apparel store(Farmers Exchange), to the Sage Motel which is still there(now called Sage Apartments)!?
The site is still empty. It sits between the U-Haul and the maintenance facility. You can still see the ramps along with the outline and remains of the entrance/exit road.
1901 is a more accurate street number now.