Parkside Drive-In
2600 E. Eastwood Street,
Marshall,
MO
65340
2600 E. Eastwood Street,
Marshall,
MO
65340
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The Parkside Drive-In actually opened on August 2, 1949 with Glenn Ford in “The Return Of October” along with a couple of cartoons and a newsreel. It was first operated by Charles Ralph Thomas and managed by John Lindsey.
On May 4, 1950, both the 37x50ft screen and the east side of the original 56ft tower were blown off by heavy winds. Lindsey said that the east section of the tower and attached screen were the first to blow away, and the entire tower had rocked and swayed two and three feet in the wind. The gale was of sufficient strength to uproot wooden poles sunk in concrete to a length of 8ft. Just after the first slab of the tower had gone, the entire top section of the structure including the huge “Drive-In” sign were blown down. The wind continued to blow sections of the corrugated metal sheeting of the tower away at intervals, some swirling across the highway. Both Lindsey and Thomas saw the tower section falling on the telephone cable and began stopping cars to warn them of any danger. A telephone service unit soon arrived with red warning flags which were also placed at both approaches of the drive-in. Several cars were passing at the time of the theater’s original tower was damaged, but none were hit by any of it. The theater reopened several weeks later after both a new screen and screen tower were built.
The Parkside Drive-In closed in the mid-1980s.
From the July 9, 1949 issue of BoxOffice:
MARSHALL, MO. – The first drive-in theatre in this area was opened this week by Robert M. Rogers who operates the Lyric Theatre in Buckner, Mo. There is no other drive-in within a radius of 35 miles.
Rogers, who has been in exhibition for three years, has built a 450-car theatre one mile east of Marshall on Highway 240. It is a nine-ramp layout with RCA in-car speakers and Century projection. It has a sloping screen tower, with a screen 37x50 feet.
The projection building also includes a large concessions area and various patron facilities.
“We plan to book only the family trade type of picture,” Rogers said. The opening picture was “Slave Girl.” Rogers intends to manage the theatre himself.
And the drive-in was flipped before it opened. The followup from the Sept. 3 BoxOffice: “The newly opened 350-car Park Side Drive-In has been purchased by J. T. Ghosen of the Highway 50 Drive-In Theatre Corp. Ghosen took over the project shortly before its completion.”