Rocket Drive-In

2881 North Avenue,
Grand Junction, CO 81501

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MichaelKilgore
MichaelKilgore on August 23, 2020 at 11:49 am

One minor clarification to Nick Genova’s excellent summary: According to a story in the March 20, 1986 Daily Sentinel, Westland/Commonwealth’s 10-year lease had expired. (Westland had leased the Rocket before the 1976 season.) Leonard Scales allowed his daughter and son-in-law, Melanie and Alan Gates, to manage the Rocket for what became its final two seasons.

MichaelKilgore
MichaelKilgore on June 27, 2020 at 1:22 pm

The Rocket’s final ad in the local Daily Sentinel said it was showing “Summer School” and “Back to the Beach” on “FRI-SAT-SUN”. That ad ran through Labor Day, Sept. 5, 1987, all the way through Thursday, Sept. 10. It was gone on Friday, Sept. 11, so I’m guessing that the Rocket’s final night was Sept. 4.

MichaelKilgore
MichaelKilgore on November 22, 2019 at 10:15 am

Motion Picture Herald, April 16, 1955: “Leonard Scales has opened his new 350-car (with room for expansion) Rocket drive-in, Grand Junction, Colo., with Clarence Batter doing the buying and booking.”

davidcoppock
davidcoppock on April 2, 2019 at 4:32 am

Opened with “Five guns west” and “The fast and the furious”.

rivest266
rivest266 on April 1, 2019 at 4:42 pm

This opened on April 16th, 1955 and closed in 1987.

NYozoner
NYozoner on December 31, 2016 at 2:06 am

Now a Walmart.

Nick
Nick on September 15, 2014 at 9:20 pm

Located the opening date, April 16, 1955. First show was Five Guns West followed by The Fast & the Furious.