Epsom Drive-In
9716 Jensen Drive,
Houston,
TX
77093
9716 Jensen Drive,
Houston,
TX
77093
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Epsom Auto Cine
Nearby Theaters
Located at 9700 Humble Road, the Epsom Drive-In was opened on November 27, 1945 with Beulah Bondi in “She’s a Soldier Too” & Tom Neal in “Two-Man Submarine”. It was operated by W.V. Ratcliff and had a capacity for 200-cars. By 1955 it had a capacity for 400-cars, still operated by W.V. Ratcliff. The Epsom Drive-In was still open in 1970.
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Sarah Boucher
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
A 1987 letter to the editor in the Houston Chronicle claimed the Epsom was built on the site of a former, possibly illegal horse or dog race track.
The earliest mention I could find for the Epsom was a humble 1-inch ad in the Nov. 29, 1945 issue of the Chronicle; it said nothing about any grand opening. The last ad I could find was from March 14, 1962. But that may have been when the Epsom switched to Spanish-language films, which may not have been advertised in the Chronicle.
A legal notice on April 16, 1964 from the IRS said it had seized lots of the Epsom’s equipment from W. V. Ratcliff due to tax delinquency.
An article in the April 28, 1975 issue of Boxoffice said that Spanish-language theaters such as the Epsom were seeing a surge of business, quoting from a Denver Post article. Ray Hugger owned three of them, including the Epsom Drive-In.
The first ad for the Epsom appeared in the Chronicle on November 27th, 1945. Posted.