Airline Drive-In
4507 Airline Drive,
Houston,
TX
77022
4507 Airline Drive,
Houston,
TX
77022
5 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Lone Star Theatres, Inc, Tercar Theatres Company
Nearby Theaters
The Airline Drive-In opened at 7:00 p.m. on June 10, 1950. The premier feature was “Canadian Pacific” with Randolph Scott and Jane Wyatt. The Airline Drive-In advertised a playground and a ‘handy snack bar with car service’. It was closed on February 15, 1981 with a six movies dawn to dusk show. It was demolish very soon after closing.
A business Center has been built on the site.
Contributed by
Bob Machann
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Recent comments (view all 11 comments)
The AIRLINE DRIVE IN in 1956 parked 600 cars and at that time it was owned by LONE STAR THEATRES.
Here is a 1964 aerial photo. The land had been redeveloped by 1981.
http://tinyurl.com/ylry2y7
There is a 1965 list of Houston drive-ins on this site:
http://www.cinemahouston.info/driveins.htm
Maybe it should be called the Airline Fly-In!
I was born in Houston and lived there from 1949 to 1962. The Airline was our neighborhood drive-in, but I was very young when my folks took me there, and my memories are pretty vague, except for the beautiful mural on the back of the screen tower and some truly great neon work. We passed it every time we had to get anywhere in Houston! The plane is supposed to be flying over downtown and the Ship Channel. Anyway, I can explain how Airline Drive got its name. It was US 75 back in the day, AKA Dallas Highway, because that was the auto route to Dallas. It was also the route that airplanes flew to get to Dallas, so I’m sure in the 1920s or 30s, whenever it was named, it was a really futuristic, progressive-sounding one.
The site is now a motel(Star Inn & Suites).
Grand opening ad posted.
Closed on February 15, 1981 with six regular movies, likely a dusk-to-dawn show. The Airline closed with the following: “My Bloody Valentine”, “When A Stranger Calls”, “Mad Max”, “Chrome & Hot Leather”, “Smokey And The Bandit II”, and “National Lampoon’s Animal House”.
Once operated by Tercar Theatres Company.
Seems to have been demolished immediately after closing. A 1981 aerial shows the entire property razed with what is now the North Freeway Business Center being built.