South Drive-In

1019 W. McArtor Road,
Dodge City, KS 67801

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Additional Info

Functions: Movies (First Run)

Phone Numbers: Box Office: 620.225.4301

Nearby Theaters

South Drive-In

The South Drive-In was built in 1947. This single screen drive-in has a capacity for 300 cars.

Contributed by Lost Memory

Recent comments (view all 6 comments)

drivein2001
drivein2001 on February 15, 2011 at 6:19 pm

Here’s a photo I took back in Nov of 2007..
View link
There is a few more of the drive in theatre in my photo collection..
RAC Photography

Chris1982
Chris1982 on September 23, 2014 at 10:03 pm

The South Drive-In is owned by Ron & Pam Cooper.

kpdennis
kpdennis on August 26, 2015 at 11:22 pm

Nice to see working drive-in! New photos in the pictures section.

MichaelKilgore
MichaelKilgore on April 17, 2017 at 3:10 pm

There was a great article in The Legend about the South. It told how Glen Cooper built the South in 1947 and the Boot Hill Drive-In about a decade later. Glen also owned drive-ins in Garden City and Hays. When son Ron left military service, he moved to Hays to run that drive-in, and when Glen passed away, he and his family moved to Dodge City. At the time of the article, 2011, he was worried about digital conversion. “We’d need a rich philanthropist who’s in love with drive-ins, or some kind of grant to do that,” he said.

Now look at the United Wireless Communications web site. It says, “In 2012, our region was in danger of losing a real treasure in the South Drive-In Theatre, which just happens to be our neighbor on McArtor Road. … So we bought it from the previous owners, made some upgrades for showing films in digital format, and have been having a ball giving our friends and neighbors a great place to have fun on warm evenings.”

Thanks for your photos, Chris1982, but I’m guessing that if the Coopers are still involved, they’re probably just managing the South.

MichaelKilgore
MichaelKilgore on June 21, 2019 at 8:35 am

Correction, the Boot Hill apparently opened in 1950.

MichaelKilgore
MichaelKilgore on January 22, 2021 at 9:34 am

That link to the The Legend article has gone bad. Here’s a link to a saved version at the Internet Archive.

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