Wildcat Drive-In
4400 Main Street,
Lovington,
NM
88260
4400 Main Street,
Lovington,
NM
88260
2 people
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Commonwealth Theaters Corp., Frontier Theatres, Theater Enterprises Inc.
Nearby Theaters
Listed in the Film Daily Yearbook’s of 1956, 1964 & 1968
Owned in 1955 by Theatre Enterprises, in 1964 by Frontier Theatres and from 1975 until it’s closing in 1985 by Commonwealth Theatres.
Contributed by
A.L. Vazquez-Hernandez
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Recent comments (view all 5 comments)
found what appears to be the faint hint of ramps across the street from this drive-in could there have been two in town and the other one which appears to be tiny only lasted for a short period of time?
If you’re talking about the pattern on the west side of the highway as shown here https://www.historicaerials.com/location/32.916332237247055/-103.33364680608221/1983/17
if you zoom out, you’ll see the pattern matches other farming-related(?) parallel lines evident in multiple places in that tract of land. Although I’m not as good at it as some other CT posters, I don’t see any evidence of another drive-in near the Wildcat.
Looking through the Lovington Daily Leader, the last ad I could find for the Wildcat was on Aug. 29, 1975 for shows through Aug. 31. It said that the indoor Lea would reopen on Sept. 3 that year.
Summer 1976 issues of the Daily Leader had ads for the indoor Lea but not any drive-ins.
A 1983 aerial shows the screen gone. By 1996 the property had been redeveloped. The projection booth/concession stand seems to have made it to 1996, but was gone by 2005.
An auto salvage yard sits across the highway. Normally, odd looking lines inside an auto salvage yard are hints that a drive-in might have been present. However, until 2005 that area was open and without any development.
Google Maps now likes the address 4400 Main St.