Palms Drive-In

N. 10th Street and W. Nolana Avenue,
McAllen, TX 78504

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MichaelKilgore
MichaelKilgore on June 14, 2019 at 4:58 pm

The Sept. 3, 1949 issue of BoxOffice offered an unusually accurate prediction:

“A new drive-in is under construction at McAllen, and will be known as the Palmer (sic) Drive-In. It will accommodate 400 cars and Richard Bull, owner, formerly of Big Spring, plans to open the theatre September 15.”

rivest266
rivest266 on September 22, 2017 at 5:48 pm

This opened on September 14th, 1949. Full page ad at:

Found on Newspapers.com

matt54
matt54 on June 10, 2013 at 9:44 am

Drive-In 1954: I plan to, as soon as I nail down the street address; of course, if you have that info, go ahead and establish a page. It can always be added to as more info comes in.

I plan to add the Fiesta (McAllen), the Buckhorn (Mission), the Pan Am (Edinburg), and another Edinburg Drive-In for which, so far, I can find no name but which was located in an orange grove east of town on SH 107. Drove past all these locations yesterday.

Drive-In 54
Drive-In 54 on June 8, 2013 at 9:10 am

They are a lot of DI’S in US that are not posted on CT yet!! Anybody going to submit the Valley DI to CT?

matt54
matt54 on June 8, 2013 at 1:28 am

Chuck, funny story about the Valley (1971-2001). We had just moved to McAllen and it was still open; all that first year, I said “we’ve got to take the kids to a drive-in.” Never did.

One Saturday, we have to drive right past it to do some shopping in Mission. In fact, the freeway entrance is right by the drive-in. “Jurassic Park 3” is on the marquee. My wife and I agree “tonight’s the night.”

We tell the kids, and they’re all excited. Shopping in Mission takes all morning and all afternoon. We’re driving back home. We miss the exit – because the drive-in is gone! One morning & afternoon was all it took!

matt54
matt54 on June 7, 2013 at 11:21 pm

jwmovies: I now believe the address you gave for the Palms (and the drive-in I refer to in my post of 12:19 pm, above) is actually for the Fiesta, for which no page currently exists.

I have it on local (McAllen) authority that the Palms was located at the corner of Nolana and N. 10th St. (SH 336). That would put it in the 78501 zip code given in the address at the top of the page. I don’t know what the exact street address number was.

matt54
matt54 on June 7, 2013 at 1:19 pm

There is a flea market there now. From the air, you can see the flea market occupies the exact footprint of the old drive-in, as clearly seen in the google maps view.

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en