Brahma Drive-In
801 E. Ailsie Avenue,
Kingsville,
TX
78363
801 E. Ailsie Avenue,
Kingsville,
TX
78363
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The Brahma Drive-In was opened May 2, 1952 with Clark Gable in “To Please a Lady”. It was owned by Joseph & Kyle. Parked 450 cars.
Contributed by
Silicon Sam
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Recent comments (view all 12 comments)
The ‘Brahma’ celebrated it’s grand opening on Friday May 2, 1952 with it’s first feature “To Please a Lady” starring Clark Gable. The ‘Hiway’ just north of town advertised until March 26, 1952, when they announced “The Hiway Will Close After March 31. Watch for the Grand Opening of the BRAHMA DRIVE-IN about April 15th.” It was the third of four drive-ins in Kingsville opened by Joseph and Kyle.
PLEASE CHANGE ADDRESS TO:
77 & E. Ailsie Avenue
709 E. Ailsie Acenue is a bit to far West. Just Southeast of the Intersection of 77 and East Ailsie Avenue will map properly map to the site of the Drive-In. When you go to the Map you can still see some of the Drive-In.
I wonder if the Drive-In isn’t really Brahma(n), that’s the breed of domestic cattle with the large hump over the shoulders adapted to hot climates, like Texas, and is used in crossbreeding for beef cattle. That would make sense for the name of a Drive-In in Texas. Can anyone check this out?
Open ~1952-~1964? Anyone care to verify the exact dates?
Need more info and photos.
The ‘Brahma’ celebrated it’s grand opening on Friday May 2, 1952 with it’s first feature “To Please a Lady” starring Clark Gable. The ‘Hiway’ just north of town advertised until March 26, 1952, when they announced “The Hiway Will Close After March 31. Watch for the Grand Opening of the BRAHMA DRIVE-IN about April 15th.” It was the third of four drive-ins in Kingsville opened by Joseph and Kyle.
Pictures and newspaper articles and ads seen here…..
View link
Yakima –
Great finds – thanks for posting. Note of interest: grand opening article (Kingsville Record 4/30/52) lists car capacity of 450. Pretty big for Kingsville.
I remember the screen tower mural.
About the Mural, in case you missed it:
The EYE CATCHER, 40 by 32 FOOT, BIG MURAL, on the highway side of the screen was painted by O.R. May of Fort Worth. It represented the outstanding things about Kingsville.
A giant-sized cowboy is about to hit the dirt after having been pitched off the back of a Brahma. They spell strange in Texas, see my comments yesterday about Brahma(n).
Flashing accross the sky is a jet (from the U.S. Naval Air Station, Kingsville).
In the background can be seen several of the college buildings (from the then named Texas College of Arts and Industries, now Texas A & M University – Kingsville). A & M stands for Agricultural and Mechanical.
My dad graduated from Texas A&I, 1958. He worked for Bud Piper at Cage-Piper Funeral Home (later Piper Funeral Home). We lived in the apartment over the ambulance garage. Piper has long since moved to bigger and better quarters but the old building where we lived is still there, at the corner of 10th and E. Kleberg.
The theaters we patronized in Kingsville were the Texas (downtown), the King’s, and the Brahma (without the final “n”).
I need to get back to the Kleberg library and look into the 60s, 70s and 80s to see what can be learned about the drive-ins under different ownership and the closing years. I understand the paper occasionally re-runs a historical piece about the Carpas and the drive-ins. The locals rave about that piece.
One needs to be careful about judging the car capacity from press releases. They seem to always overstate the car capcity or size…..perhaps to gain an edge with the movie bookers representing them in Dallas, or maybe just to sound more impressive to the public. The Motion Picture Almanacs and the International Motion Picture Almanacs of the time consistently ranked the Kingsville drive-ins as:
King’s – 300
Rancho – 300
Brahma – 250
HiWay – 250 or 300
I’m not saying that was the gospel, but the press numbers are usually considerably higher than other sources.
This drive-in was located at 801 E Ailsie Ave.
Please update.
Most ramps are still visible.
I added a cropped 1955 Kingsville, Texas phonebook yellow page listing for the Brahma Drive In.