Sooner Drive-In
2620 Cherokee Avenue,
Sallisaw,
OK
74955
2620 Cherokee Avenue,
Sallisaw,
OK
74955
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The Sooner Drive-In opened its gates on June 5, 1964 with Cliff Robertson in “PT 109” and John Wayne in “Rio Bravo” with no extras, featuring a 35x80ft screen and a capacity of 306 cars. It was first owned by Carl Phillips.
A closer address is 2620 Cherokee Ave, Sallisaw, OK
This puts the marker right on the property.
The drive-in was still intact in a 1980 aerial. By 1995, the property had been cleared and a small structure built near the center which still stands today.
The screen is long gone, but you can still see the ramps. Plus, as indicated in the previous post, the concession stand/projector booth may still be standing at the back of the property.
https://tinyurl.com/2edmy5tt
The structure that sits on the ramps is NOT the projection booth/concession stand. It did not exist in the 1971 aerial photo and does not appear until the 1995 aerial photo. And it is too off-center from where the screen stood to be the projection booth anyway.
However, the structure that apparently was the projection booth/concession stand which sat at the back on the property near the road seems to still be standing. It has been repainted to match the house that sits next to it.
Boxoffice, March 29, 1965: “SALLISAW, OKLA. - Carl Phillips, 57, longtime Oklahoma exhibitor, died Thursday (18) after suffering a heart attack while setting out evergreen trees along the drive-way at the Sooner Drive-In, which he opened last summer.”
Boxoffice, July 28, 1969: (after other Sallisaw notes) “The Sooner Drive-In, owned by Wanda Lamb, did not open this year.”
A closer address (at least for Google) is 2500 Cherokee Ave, Sallisaw, OK. http://tinyurl.com/hpu6pdf
http://tinyurl.com/k2epmkp According to the map, this appears to be the location.
Not sure, but there appears to be faint signs of parking ridges just to the left of the industrial buildings.
Approx. location for this drive-in was on Cherokee Ave. between N J T Stites St. & Mockingbird Ln.
Richard Acker was a part of the welding crew that contructed the steel structure of the movie screen at Sooner Drive-In Theater, located on West HWY 64.
Sallisaw, OK, was hometown to the fictional Joad Family in John Steinbeck’s 1939 best seller, “Grapes of Wrath”.