Posts from The Ringo Kid in thread „Anyone still have an active drive-in theater in their area?“

Quote from chester7777

You would think so, but that partially depends on what they are showing.

Where the local drive-ins are really raking in the bucks is by having flea markets on the grounds on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, during the day.

But I guess in the case of our local one, that still wasn't enough.

Chester

Display More

Yeah, the same thing happened to two of three of the drive-ins that were in Corpus Christi. The last one to close was on Leopard St, and was called: The Thunderbird Theater. Several years after it closed, they turned it into a flea market and then a few years after that closed, it was torn down and made into an Industrial Park. The other drive-in I am familiar with was located just off of the Crosstown Expressway, and when traveling on the Crosstown at night, one could always see what was playing at that drive-in-which for it's last year or so, was only Spanish language movies. This dive-in was torn down shortly after closing, and there is still no development on that land; just high weeds. The last one, I have no clue when it shut down or was torn down.

I don't know? it would seem to me that if they kept a drive-in open, that people would flock to them-if not for anything than for nostalgia reasons. If they had one here in Corpus Christi, that would be a Friday, Saturday or Sunday night staple for me.

I think he was on AMC or TCM for awhile as well. It was one of those places where I first heard about this guy. I wonder who he seems to have dissappeared?

I sure wish they would make a comeback here. The nearest one to me that I know of, is that one Jay is talking about that is in San Antonio--probably about 130 miles from me as the crow flies.

The last one I went to was when I was living in Kingsville. They had one drive-in and it was located to the south edge of town on 14th street and I remember what was playing on the screen the last time I went. It was a Western double-feature. I don;t remember which was shown in which order but, the movies were: Paint Your Wagon & The Great White Buffalo. Sadly, this drive in went to playing foreign language movies and was forcably closed by the Kleberg County Sheriff's office because of all teh knife fights etc--always going on there. I don't remember what year it closed down but it was probably in the very early 80's.

I now live in Corpus Chirsti (about 45 miles from Kingsville) and only went to a drive in here, but that was with my older sister and soon-to-be-brother-in-law. We went to the Thunderbird Theater (which was located on Leopard Street) ((before the drug addicts and prostitutes took over that area)) I don't recall what movie we saw but I think it was a Burt Reynolds movie--or something similar?

Anyway, this drive-in fell into disrepair, briefly made a comeback--then only opened as a flea-market for about a year--untill troublemakers ruined that, then closed permanently. A few years ago, they tore it down and it is now an Industrial Park--which is overrun with drug and prostitute activity.

There used to be 2-3 other drive-ins here but all closed down by the late 1980's. I remember one was just off of Crosstown and South Padre Island Drive (S.P.I.D.) If you were traveling towards the Island (Padre Island) or to the west--you could get a view of what was playing for about a minute or so.