Airline Drive-In
1800 W. Highland Avenue,
Ponca City,
OK
74601
1800 W. Highland Avenue,
Ponca City,
OK
74601
5 people
favorited this theater
The Airline Drive-In opened in 1952, and is located in North Central Oklahoma not far from the Oklahoma/Kansas border. It got its name from its proximity to the Ponca City Municipal Airport.
The Airline Drive-In had a capacity for 500 cars and screened double bills. It was open on week ends in the spring and fall and seven nights during the peak summer season. Audio was provided over FM radio.
The Airline Drive-In closed in 2007, but reopened briefly in summer of 2014.
Contributed by
Chuck Van Bibber
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Recent comments (view all 12 comments)
What roadsideoklahoma says about the Airline Drive-In,
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CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED
Recent photos of the closed down Airline Drive-In can be seen on this fun site …
http://www.abandonedok.com/airline-drive-in/
3 Photos I took back in July of 2010 of the Airline Drive In Theatre.. Enjoy..
Randy A Carlisle – Historical Photographer
The Drive-In re-opened for a few final showings. It will be demolished soon, but the community of Ponca City came out in droves to see “God is Not Dead”. http://tinyurl.com/oq29u96
It is to bad they cannot rebuild it and open it up for screening movies all summer.
From the August 12, 1953 issue of The EXHIBITOR: “Video Independent Theatres opened the Sooner Drive-In, Miami, Okla., and the Airline Drive-In, Ponca City, Okla.”
Ron Stahl of the Oklahoma Tourism & Recreation Department, in a column carried by the Okmulgee Daily Times on June 27, 2007: “The comeback story belongs to the Airline Drive-In on West Highland in Ponca City. The venerable old theatre near the airport endured an ignoble decade of disuse before it was re-opened, refurbished, and rediscovered by outdoor movie lovers.”
Google maps show the drive-in has been demolished and replaced with a housing edition.
The only reminder is the main street is named “Airline Drive”.
The Airline Drive-In opened its gates on July 3, 1953 with Edmond O'Brien in “Silver City” (unknown if any extras added but a fireworks show was displayed after the movie) and was first managed by Don R. Hall.
The original screen didn’t last long. The screen itself was destroyed by destructive 75 MPH winds during a severe weather outbreak on August 27, 1954. The extensive of the tower was leveled and fragments of the screen and timber were hurled across the highway and scattered over a pasture 100ft away. Scrambled mounds of debris were littered all around the highway until theater employees were managed to clean it up. The screen was eventually replaced by a super-steel CinemaScope tower at the start of the 1955 season.