Corral Drive-In
1899 US-54 Business,
Eldon,
MO
65026
1899 US-54 Business,
Eldon,
MO
65026
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Eldon Drive-In
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The Eldon Drive-In was opened in 1947. The car capacity was 275. The theatre was owned by James Fleener. Still named Eldon Drive-In in the 1952 edition of Theatre Catalog with a car capacity of 300, when it was operated by Tom Edwards & Frank Plumlee. It was renamed Corral Drive-In on May 20, 1952 when it reopened with James Craig in “Drums of the Deep South”. It was still listed as open in 1980, but had closed by May 1983 when the screen was blown down.
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Chris1982
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Recent comments (view all 10 comments)
Found it. The Drive-In was located just south of town on Business US 54 just north of W 19th Street. You can still see the outlines of the ramps. https://goo.gl/maps/XOf4k
The address for this Drive-in is 1899 US-54 BUS, Eldon, MO 65026.
Where the screen was located is now Eldon Bowling Lanes.
Burlingame Road is the entrance road. West 19th Street is the exit road.
Please update.
Eldon’s “Drive-In” made its first appearance in the Film Daily Year Book’s 1947 edition, one of only four drive-ins in Missouri. But it didn’t show up in the Theatre Catalog until its 1952 edition, listed with a capacity of 300 and owners Tom Edwards and Frank Plumlee. By the 1955-56 edition, the name had changed from the Eldon to the Corral.
The Motion Picture Almanac, often slow to notice change, only began including the drive-in in the 1953-54 edition and switched from calling it the Eldon to the Corral in its 1960 edition. All MPA drive-in list mentions:
The name change must have happened by 1953, based on this note from the Aug. 15, 1953 issue of BoxOffice: “Word comes from Eldon, Mo., that Mr. and Mrs. Bill Fitchpatrick have assumed their duties as managers of the Corral Drive-In and Ozark Theatre in the city for Tom Edwards. They are successors to Bill Smith, who resigned recently to take his family to California.”
Corral owner Tom Edwards had a side hustle, as noted in this June 6, 1960 note in Boxoffice: “Larry Bichele of American International Pictures called on Tom Edwards at Eldon, Mo., and found Tom getting his Monkey Jungle, which he operates in connection with his drive-in theatre and gift shop, ready for the tourist season.”
Wow, that took forever! The Dec. 10, 1962 issue of Boxoffice included an announcement that the Corral Drive-In of Eldon MO had finally joined the Theatre Owners of America. “The Corral Drive-In is owned and operated by Tom E. Edwards of Eldon.”
It appears that both the Corral Drive-In and the older Drive-In are actually two separate drive-ins in different locations.
I cannot find any info about the older drive-In that lasted for only a short period of time, but Tom Edwards opened the Corral Drive-In’s gates on May 20, 1952 with James Craig in “Drums Of The Deep South” (unknown if extras added). Some original information about the Corral Drive-In including a 60ft screen, RCA individual speakers, 900ft white cedar fence surrounding the drive-in, a playground featuring slides and swings, and the entirety of concessions, projection, and restrooms are in one single 30x45ft building. It was located on a 40 acre plot atop a hill and the viewing area surfaced with chat covers 10 acres in total.
Unfortunately the Eldon Advertiser stopped showing ads for the Corral Drive-In right after the 1980 season, but it appears that the theater closed before the 1983 season after the screen went down during high winds that May.
In the 1955 aerial, there appears to be an auto-salvage yard northeast of Eldon at what is now the intersection of MO-87 and Manor Drive. It has the general shape and features of a drive-in.
And given that several drive-ins across the country became auto salvage yards, perhaps that location is a possibility for another drive-in that existed a few years earlier. Operative word “possibility”.
Boxoffice, March 2, 1970: “Fred Hickman, Windsor exhibitor, … took over the Corral Drive-In, Eldon, from Tom Edwards, effective February 19.”
Looking through 1949 issues of the Eldon Advertiser, I can’t find any mention of a local drive-in, even though the indoor Tom’s Theatre and later the Grand Glaize Drive-In are there. I also checked some decent 1948 USGS aerial photos and didn’t see anything obvious. (That promising shape that Kenmore noted was empty land in ‘48.) I wonder whether the Film Daily Year Book got it wrong in 1947, or if it was some kind of backyard, temporary drive-in.