Pawnee Drive-In
2400 South Broadway Street,
Wichita,
KS
67211
2400 South Broadway Street,
Wichita,
KS
67211
2 people
favorited this theater
According to the Wichita Eagle newspaper, the Pawnee Drive-In opened on July 4, 1950 with John Wayne in “Red River”. Car capacity was 500. The Pawnee Drive-In was closed on August 13, 1972 with John Wayne in “The Cowboys” & Dick Van Dyke in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. It was demolished in the 1970’s.
Contributed by
Ridgewood Ken
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
The Pawnee opened on July 4, 1950. It’s first movie was “Red River”, starring John Wayne.
The Pawnee Drive-In was designed by Wichita architect Homer K. Brunk, as noted in his entry in the 1962 AIA directory.
I uploaded the screen tower picture for the non-Facebook users.
Here are some memories of the Pawnee.
Last season: 1972
Grand opening ad posted.
Operators Woody Barritt and Al McClure left Fox Midwest to operate this venue. They closed it on August 13, 1972 with John Wayne in “The Cowboys” and Dick Van Dyke in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” The pair auctioned off the the remnants of the drive-in to raze the Rainbow Drive-In in favor of the rebuilt Landmark Twin Drive-In (later Starlite).
The site is now an Advance Motor Sales store, Subway, and a Walmart store.