Squaw Drive-In
600 Sabra Pass,
El Reno,
OK
73036
600 Sabra Pass,
El Reno,
OK
73036
1 person
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Martin Theatres, Video Independent Theaters Inc.
Previous Names: El Reno Auto Theatre
Nearby Theaters
Located on Historic U.S. 66 at Sabra Pass. Opened on September 11, 1948 with Fredric March in “There Goes My Heart”. By 1955 it was operated by Video Independent Theaters Inc., the Squaw Drive-In is located west of El Reno on historic Route 66. The theater is a sturdy cinder block construction and has stood the test of time. The screen is a narrow format, rather than the widescreen of most other Oklahoma drive-in theaters. The concession stand still sits behind the screen surrounded by tall grass. In 1983 it was taken over by Martin Theatres and was closed around 1985.
The old drive-in has recently received a paint job in the form of an elaborate mural.
Contributed by
Lauren Durbin
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Recent comments (view all 14 comments)
From the description, the mural was a recent addition.
Keep in mind that to re-open the property as a drive-in would require removing the rather large building in the center. It is a bar and while they might use the screen occasionally, its days as a drive-in are long over.
A more accurate address for this theater is 600 Sabra Pass, El Reno, OK 73036. This points directly to the entrance road. Now It’s Beer Thirty. The structure and the the building on this property are where the screen and the concession stand stood. This drive in was not on Sunset.
Please update.
Are the areas to the left and right of the screen in the photo going to be repainted too? What a mural, wow!!
The Oklahoma Route 66 tourist guide that I picked up while passing through says that’s the Guardian of the Mother Road Mural, designed by Tulsa-based Rick Sinnett. The bird is a scissor-tailed flycatcher, the Oklahoma state bird.
Living in Oklahoma like I do, you see scissor-tail flycatchers all the time.
“Drive-In Theatre” opened on Saturday, Sept. 11, 1948, with the movie “There Goes My Heart”. By Sept. 12, its ads in the El Reno Daily Tribune had changed to “El Reno Drive-In Theatre”.
In the first edition of “Drive-Ins of Route 66,” I wrote that Video Independent Theatres renamed the drive-in when it took it over. I was wrong.
El Reno Daily Tribune, Feb. 18, 1952: “Mrs. Opal Gray, theater operator at Chickasha for the past 11 years, today purchased the El Reno Drive-In theater from Walter B. Shuttee. Mrs. Gray said she plans to reopen the theater here about April 1, after completion of remodeling work at the site west of the city.”
The drive-in was running teaser ads as the Squaw by March 2, and opened for the 1952 season on April 11. Looking for a justification for the name change, I saw that the El Reno High School had a decades-old pep club called the Squaws. That doesn’t make it much better.
The Exhibitor, March 25, 1953: “Mrs. Opal Gray, Esquire, Chickasha, Okla., is no longer associated with the Squaw Drive-In, El Reno, Okla., which has been taken over by Video Independent Theatres.”
Local guy E. R. “Red” Slocum was a partner with Video, and he retained a share of the El Reno theaters until he passed away in 1965. Then Video assumed full control, and presumably ownership.
Martin Theatres acquired Video Independent Theatres in May 1983. The Motion Picture Almanac circuit listings, typically more reliable that its drive-in list, showed that Martin included the Squaw in its holdings in its entry in the 1984 and 1985 editions.
By the 1986 edition, Martin had completed its name change to Carmike Cinemas. The circuit listing that year showed Carmike with several old Video drive-ins in Oklahoma, but not the Squaw.
My guess is that El Reno’s drive-in closed after the 1984 season. I wish I could get someone to check that.
The projector booth/concession stand was still present as late as 2010. You can see it clearly in a 2008 Google street view. However, a house was then built nearby and the building was torn down. Today, you can only see the foundations.
The El Reno Drive-In Theatre opened on September 11, 1948 with Fredric March in “There Goes My Heart”. It kept that name opening seasonally in each of its first four seasons of operation. Opal Gray took on the venue and, after a refresh, launched for the venue’s fifth season on April 11, 1952 with Gary Cooper in “Distant Drums” as the Squaw Drive-In. (The venue was never referred to as the El Reno Auto Theatre in any ad or article of the local paper.)