Nike Drive-In
6465 US-380,
Carrizozo,
NM
88301
6465 US-380,
Carrizozo,
NM
88301
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Notes from a morning rummaging around in the (Carrizozo) Lincoln County News:
The Nike opened on June 22, 1956 (quoted 20 years later - no movie info), built by Mr. and Mrs. Bill Skelton. Fred Miller leased the drive-in in September 1961, then Doug and Betty Willias leased it for the 1962 season. Robert (Bob) Means ran the Nike in 1963, and Bill Baker opened it for its final season in 1964. It closed on Sunday, Sept. 27, with a showing of “Captain Newman, M. D.” starring Gregory Peck and Tony Curtis.
The Nike’s sign was still there in July 1967, because that’s when a 15-year-old ran his car into it. Means bought the site from Skelton in 1969, planning to develop it as a trailer park; he said he’d keep the concession/projection building to use as a utility room. Means sold the screen for scrap in 1975, and it came down on Feb. 10 that year. At the time, Means said the Nike had closed in 1961, illustrating the unreliable nature of memory, even of a business one had operated just 12 years earlier. But I digress.
The Albuquerque Journal wrote in 1996 that a 75-year-old former cowboy was living in the Nike’s old projection room. And today, armed with NMDOT’s aerial and Google Maps, I see that the building is still there, surrounded by old cars and trucks. Maps' address for that building is 6465 US-380.
Thanks to the great work from NMDOT, I’ve uploaded a photo of the Nike. On its location, I was close. It was where the Carrizozo Auto Salvage is today; I can’t find its street address, but it’s next to 6479 US-380.
Boxoffice, March 2, 1964: “Robert Means will not reopen the Nike Drive-In, Carrizozo, N.M.”
Boxoffice, April 6, 1964: “Bill Baker will reopen the Nike Drive-In, Carrizozo, N. M.”