Squaw Drive-In
600 Sabra Pass,
El Reno,
OK
73036
600 Sabra Pass,
El Reno,
OK
73036
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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.)
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.
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.
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.
“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”.
Living in Oklahoma like I do, you see scissor-tail flycatchers all the time.
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.
Are the areas to the left and right of the screen in the photo going to be repainted too? What a mural, wow!!
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.
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.
Was there a mural on the back of the screen before?
Does the new mural on the back of the screen, mean the drive-in might be reopening?
The El Reno Daily Tribune had an advertisement for “Drive-In Theatre” in its Sept. 14, 1948 issue.
The Daily Tribune wrote on April 10, 1949 that the El Reno Drive-In would “open the season” on April 16, according to manager G. F. Hill.
The Daily Tribune wrote on June 28, 1950 that owner Walter B. Shuttee had let a contract to build a new screen for the El Reno Drive-In. “Of concrete block construction, the work is expected to be completed for a July 4 re-opening, Shuttee said. The screen was damaged during a wind and hail storm Tuesday, June 20.” The re-opening was later delayed to July 7 due to construction delays.
Some kind of drive-in in El Reno was listed in the Motion Picture Almanacs from their first list in 1950-51 to the final list in 1988. Here is the summary:
By November 1995, a story in the Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City) referenced an auction at “El Reno’s Old Squaw Drive-In”, so it was probably closed by then.
Here is a current overhead view of the Drive-In. https://goo.gl/maps/N0Yqk
I do not see the concession stand in this view, however it does appear that the foundation for the projection booth is still there.