Comments about Beaverton Drive-In in Beaverton, OR

50sSNIPES on March 26, 2025 at 12:28 pm

I found it from the archives of the Oregonian from the newspapers website.

Gundark on March 26, 2025 at 8:10 am

Thanks, 50sSnipes. Just curious what source you found that showed the official opening date, and the change of phone number? The phone number change is an interesting and obscure bit of trivia.

50sSNIPES on March 25, 2025 at 6:07 pm

Actually, they’re probably showing them for drive-in runs after running them in indoor theaters. I can officially confirmed that January 16, 1981 was the exact opening date for the Beaverton Drive-In, opening with the following in random screen order: “A Change Of Seasons” and “Middle Age Crazy”, “Shogun Assassin” and “Seven Blows Of The Dragon”, “Brubaker” and “The Rose”, and “Mountain Family Robinson” and “Scavenger Hunt”. The reason why I mistakenly brought up May 24, 1985 is that they did change their phone number that same exact day and got me very confused, but was still under Luxury ownership.

There was also this article from 1983 with two photos of the screen showing something and its projectionist rewinding one of the massive reels, stating that the Beaverton was the “newest of the seven” drive-ins in the Portland area.

Thanks for the big update!

Gundark on March 25, 2025 at 12:32 pm

As MichaelKilgore mentions, Tom Moyer announced this venue in 1974. As I mentioned above, I saw the double feature of “A View to a Kill” with “Red Dawn”. I saw that on the release date of “A View to a Kill”, which was May 24, 1985. The Drive-in was definitely not brand new at that time. This website (https://movietheatreorg.wordpress.com/oregon/portland/) mentions an open date of Jan 16th, possibly in 1981. It has an image of an ad for the theater showing four movies from 1979 and 1980 (Shogun Assassin, Brubaker, Change of Season, and Mountain Family Robinson, so the actual opening date had to be 1980 or earlier. I also did a search of the Oregon archive, and found an article indicating that the Washington County Planning Commission approved the building of a “Drive-in theater … at 165th and Merlo”, dated September 13, 1972. So given a couple years for construction, 1974 seems like a reasonable date for an opening.

Jamey_monroe45 on July 17, 2023 at 11:28 am

Correction: Now Clear Water Headquarters NEXT to the garage.

The correct address for this one is 2025 SW Merlo Ct, Beaverton, OR 97006. Not SW Merlo Rd.

Please update.

MichaelKilgore on November 30, 2019 at 6:01 pm

Boxoffice, Jan. 21, 1974: Tom Moyer “announced that plans are under way to build a four-screen drive-in at Beaverton, Ore. Opening is scheduled tentatively for midsummer 1974.”

MichaelKilgore on July 28, 2019 at 2:05 pm

Checking the aerial photos, this site was vacant in 1970, a four-screen drive-in in 1981, 1990, & 1994, and some kind of bus or truck parking lot, screens still intact, in 2000.

Gundark on April 8, 2014 at 5:51 pm

I saw a double feature at this drive in, on the opening night of “A View to a Kill”, which would have made it 24 May 1985, according to IMDB. It was followed by “Red Dawn”. Four of us drove over from college, crammed in a teeny car. Watching back to back movies from the back seat of a small car is very uncomfortable.

retrorussell on September 20, 2012 at 12:50 pm

Ah.. thanks for putting this up! It’s now the Merlo Garage, where many Tri-Met buses park. The Max from Gresham to Hillsboro has a stop right next to it.

CSWalczak on September 19, 2012 at 11:29 am

There are aerial views and pictures of this drive-in on its gallery page at Drive-ins.com