Bandera Road Drive-In
5830 Bandera Road,
San Antonio,
TX
78238
5830 Bandera Road,
San Antonio,
TX
78238
2 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Nearby Theaters
The Bandera Road Drive-In was opened on March 22, 1956 with Spencer Tracy in “Bad Day at Black Rock” & Elizabeth Taylor in “The Last Time I Saw Paris”. This 500 car-capacity ozoner closed around 1977. It is now the site of a Target store.
Contributed by
Chuck Van Bibber
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 6 comments)
In reality, this theater was closed sometime around 1977. As a boy, I used to live on Silvertip Dr. in San Antonio and would see the screen at night and occasionaly look at the screen with bionoculars. Even then, the picture was small and I quit doing that. Anyway, the place was torn down in ‘77 and a Fed-Mart was constucted in its place. Target took over the place in the mid 80s and that outlet closed its doors when a new SuperTarget was built a few miles away in 2002. The place, as of this writing, remains vacant
The Bandera Road Drive In’s original screen was all aluminum and was silver in color. The Bandera had excellent light on the screen because of this. The screen acted as part a wall for the building used for storage. In 1973 or so, a fire erupted in the screen tower building, and was destroyed. The screen actually melted from the heat! What was left was quickly demolished and hauled away, and a flat, white painted steel screen with exposed beams in the back was erected. When the Bandera Road closed, the new screen was disassembled and stored behind the East screen at the San Pedro Outdoor where it laid until the San Pedro itself was demolished.
Here is a September 1965 ad from the San Antonio Express:
http://tinyurl.com/yb8b3cg
Thank you for having a listing for this drive inn.
Your street address is showing the wrong location. It should be Loop 410 (aka Conally Loop) and Stemmons, just inside of Loop 410.
The single screen drive inn had a playground and was a nice venue to see shows. I went off to school in 1973 and don’t remember seeing any shows there after 1977.
I don’t remember the Fed Mart, but there was a early computer and business store there after demolition called “BizMart”. After they closed, it was a Target as others have mentioned and then closed when a Super Target opened nearby.
Apparently the Bandera Road Drive-In opened in 1956, per this note in the March 28, 1960 issue of Boxoffice: “The Bandera Road Drive-In here celebrated their fourth anniversary by giving all patrons free popcorn, drinks and candy”.
The Bandera Road Drive-In opened on March 22nd, 1956. Grand opening ad posted.