Today, the drive-ins of days past in Waco.
During the hey-day of the drive-in theatre Waco had their share. At various times Waco had a total of seven drive-ins. I remember most, barely. There are three that I do not remember; either because I never went to them or they were torn down by the time I came along.
Let's begin with the Oak Lawn Theatre. It was located at 1521 Hillsboro Drive. This is the first one I don't remember. Then there was the Sky Drive-In on Orchard Lane in East Waco. I don't remember it either. The last one I don't remember is the Westview Drive-In which was located on North Valley Mills Drive near New Road which I suppose wasn't there at the time). At some point in time as the population of Waco pushed out into the western part of Waco the Westview was torn down to make way for a small shopping area that was home to Cogdell Sporting Goods and the S&H Green Stamp redemption center. This center was eventually torn down to make way for the CVS Pharmacy, Blockbuster Video, and Dickey's Bar-B-Q (former Krispy Kreme building).
Now for the drive-ins I remember. First there was the Joy Drive-In which was located on the Old Dallas Highway. I went to this drive-in several times in the 60's and 70's. After it was closed down it converted to a flea market type of place that you could go to to buy second hand goods. Then there was the Circle Drive-In at 2112 La Salle Drive. This was always a popular one that our family went to many times. The Circle Drive-In is now a large flea market that is open each week-end. It is also the only drive-in that still has remnants of the screen still standing. I also remember Waco Drive-In that was located at 4100 La Salle, which would roughly put it at the current Chevron station at New Road and IH 35 (Across the highway from the Flying J Travel Stop). I can't really remember when it closed but I do remember going to an all night showing of the Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns there in the late 60's.
The last drive-in I remember was also the newest and probably the last one torn down. It was the Lake Air Drive-In and was located at Texas State Highway 6 and US Highway 84. I remember going to the Lake Air Drive-In often during my high school years. I specifically remember the marathon they had when they were showing all of The Beatles movies. The Lake Air Drive_in was torn down in 1980 to make way for the Richland Fashion Mall. The mall still stands and there are still no new drive-ins in Waco.
When I was in high school I worked at the Cinema Theatre at the Lake Air Mall so I got to know many of the projectionists in town. I would go to the Lake Air Drive-In often to visit with the projectionists. (I would also visit other theatres in town.) This was always an easy way to get into the movies and not have to pay. The only problem was that the projection booth was always noisy and not conducive to good movie watching.
All of the drive-in theatres were built in the 1940's and 1950's except the Lake Air Drive-In which was built in the 1960's. Many of the drive-ins were forced to close for various reasons. Among them city growth into the areas around the drive-ins, increasing land values, and the decline of the individual drive-ins themselves.
© 2008 Barry T Horst
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
