Crest Auto Theatre

The Tab Drive-In opened on April 17, 1957 on Highway 80 just east of Arizona Avenue. The opening night program was Van Johnson in “Kelly and Me” and Hugh Marlowe in “The Black Whip”. Hi-Plain Pictures built the drive-in, and its name came from the initials of the company’s partners: Everett Toomey, Melvin Allen, Wayne Arnold, and Marvin Bell. Its screen had a viewing area of 100x44 feet.

A dispute with nearby Vincent Air Force Base about the Tab’s screen height led to the drive-in being declared off-limits to all military personnel in Arizona. Arnold filed for bankruptcy in July 1957, and the Tab Drive-In closed that month. On Christmas Day 1957, it reopened under new management as the Crest Drive-In.

(In May 1958, the Hi-Plain partners filed a suit against the Yuma County Board of Supervisors, officers of Vincent Air Force Base, the operator of the Silver Spur Drive-In and others, charging that they conspired to drive the Tab Drive-In out of business.)

Around the late-1960’s, the Crest Drive-In changed its name to Crest Auto Theatre, which advertised in the Yuma Daily Sun through at least November 1986. The 1977 Motion Picture Almanac included “Crest Auto,” owned by Sturdivant, capacity 954 cars. Aerial photos showed the drive-in intact in 1984 but gone by 1994. The site is now a parking lot north of the building at 3365 S Chevy Lane.

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