American Legion Drive-In
820-718 Fair Street,
Coushatta,
LA
71019
820-718 Fair Street,
Coushatta,
LA
71019
1 person
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Nearby Theaters
The American Legion Drive-In is one of the smallest drive-in theaters in both the United States and the entire world. This strange-looking tiny drive-in launched on May 13, 1952 with Jon Hall in “Zamba” (unknown if extras added) with an overflowing 100 cars attending on opening night.(Note the 1953-1954 edition of Theatre Catalog lists the Legion Drive-In operated by Len Stephens with 250-cars)
The story of this theater was very stressful as the town was once left without a movie theater following the 1951 closure of the Hollywood Theatre. When the American Legion Drive-In first launched, they used 16mm projection but quickly upgraded to 35mm later in its run. After the launch of the Paco Theatre is when the American Legion Drive-In ended its days on August 1, 1955.
Contributed by
50sSNIPES
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
A 1955 aerial shows the drive-in intact and appearing operational.
A 1957 aerial shows the drive-in demolished, although the ramps still remained. It is unusual to demolish a drive-in so quickly unless the property is being used for something else. But that never happened.
Today, it is still an open field with no trace of the drive-in remaining.
I don’t know why the 1953-54 Theatre Catalog said 250 cars, because that amount might be larger than this. Judging by the layout I saw in the 1955 aerial view, the American Legion Drive-In looked both unusual in an oval shape with no fencing that surrounds it, and way damn smaller than I thought. There are six traces surrounding the drive-in and the concession/projection booth was located close to the screen. Because of the layout being so small without noticing how small it was, it was probably around the same size as the Ponce-de-Leon Drive-In in Ponce-de-Leon, Florida.