Red Bluff Drive-In
1100 Broadway Avenue,
Pasadena,
TX
77506
1100 Broadway Avenue,
Pasadena,
TX
77506
1 person
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Phil Isley Theaters, United Artists Theater Circuit Inc.
Nearby Theaters
The Red Bluff Drive-In opened on August 5, 1953 with Alan Ladd in “Shane” & Tom Neal in “Navy Bound”. Car capacity was listed at 500. The drive-in was located on Bluff Road, just down from Highway 225. It was operated by Phil Isley Theaters until 1969 and then by United Artists.
The Red Bluff Drive-In went over to screening adult movies from 1975. It was closed in 1988 and has since been demolished.
Contributed by
Chuck
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Recent comments (view all 15 comments)
I was born and raised in Pasadena Texas. I remember this theater started showing porn movies during the last years of its life. It was great during my teen years. Good memories.
Indeed it was the first porn theater I’d ever seen. Before they built the wall, My parents would threaten us with a beating if we looked that way while we passed the theater. We looked anyway, but were way too young to understand what the big deal was.
On a visit to Texas from the UK ,the people i stayed withs relatives asked if i had been taken to Red Bluff ? , i had no idea what they were talking about but soon found out, never did go there but passed it often ,i feel the VCR most likely closed this drive inn down early .
As mentioned above it was open up until at least July 1981. It was raided multiple times for screening adult films in the late 70’s.
the Red Bluff Drive-In opened on August 5th, 1953. Grand opening ad posted.
Is there anything on this site now?
The current address of the property is 1100 Broadway Ave, Pasadena, TX.
However, Simmons Blvd was the entrance road at the time the drive-in was open.
The drive-in was intact in a 1983 aerial photo, but demolished by 1995. Most of the ramps remained visible in a 2004 aerial.
Today, JVIC sits on the property with no trace of the drive-in remaining.
Red Bluff was open until the late ‘80s at least (posting a newspaper ad to the photo section for it from Houston Chronicle/March 1988, upper left corner of page).
I believe that vfilippone’s clipping is pretty close to the end. A story, about Pasadena’s challenges, in the Oct. 29, 1989 Houston Chronicle mentioned, “The Red Bluff Drive-In is out of business and up for sale.”
And if you had any doubt, it was the VCR that killed the Red Bluff and other adult movie businesses, per a Jan. 19, 1987 article in the Chronicle. For privacy, there’s no place like home. “It’s not the price… Admission charges for the movies range from $2 on Monday and Tuesday at the Red Bluff Drive-In and $4 on other nights to $6.50 at most of the walk-in theaters.”
The Red Bluff was raided for its choice of films as early as February 1970.
Boxoffice, April 27, 1970: “PASADENA, TEX. - An ordinance regulating drive-in theatres was passed on final reading by the city council Tuesday night, March 31. The ordinance was the latest step by the city in its running fight with the management of the Red Bluff Drive-In over the showing of nudie movies … Drafting of the ordinance followed police raids on the Red Bluff Drive-In February 17 and 18, resulting in confiscation of two films and arrest of three employees.”