Rio Grande Valley Drive-In
Alamo,
TX
78516
1 person
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The Rio Grande Valley Drive-In was built by contractor H.B. Combes of Edinburg in 1940 becoming the first ozoner in the northern Rio Grande Valley area, opening in November 1940. Its construction featured a 44'x38' screen, a sunken projection booth, and 2,000 yards of gravel.
The Rio Grand Valley Drive-In launched to the west of the Alamo city limits on the main highway making travel from nearby San Juan a snap. The site allowed for a generous 600 cars given that the total population of San Juan and Alamo in 1940 was south of 4,000 residents combined. It has since ceased operations and been razed.
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dallasmovietheaters
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
I found a name. Boxoffice, Nov. 2, 1940: (Dallas Filmrow visitors) “Wick Johnson, Comfort, conferring with equipment and film firms for his new drive-in at Alamo”
It must have died in the mid-1940s. The Film Daily Year Book’s drive-in list included the Rio Grande Valley through the 1948 edition, then dropped it in 1949. The more reliable Theatre Catalog, which started its drive-in list later, never included the Rio Grande Valley. Looking at 1955 aerial photos, I can’t find any trace of a drive-in between Alamo and San Juan.
A 600 car capacity for a drive in between two small towns? Especially given that the Cactus Drive In, which was built in 1946 in the larger town of Pharr just to the west of San Juan was just 450 car capacity.
And no trace remaining, despite a sunken projection booth and 2,000 yards of gravel? It’s quite rare for any drive in to be not only demolished, but having all traces removed without some large structure being put in its place.
The only candidate that seems remotely close is at 1222 US-83 BUS, Alamo, TX on the north side.
In 1955, the access road to the location branches off into the property. That is rather unusual given that the property seems to have just one decent size building. But most of the land is open and no trace of anything being previous built exists.
More information is definitely needed for this one.