Carvue Drive-In

According to Wikipedia, the Carvue Drive-In was the first drive-in in Washington County, built in 1951 by Orange Phelps. The Washington County Heritage website indicates that the theater was built in 1950. In 1952 it was operated by Pat Patterson and Oregon Theatres Co-Op of Portland, OR.

I remember going to this drive-in in the 1970’s. I saw “Star Wars” there in about 1978, as a double feature with a strange movie that featured men playing jazz. There was a scene with birds flying around their heads while they played. Everyone eventually started to honk; they wanted to get to the main feature. I also remember that a large bird nested behind the screen, and flew around Han Solo’s face during at least one scene in the main feature.

The drive-in was torn down to make way for a Fred Meyer store. The store is still there. I have a few pictures I took of the new store under construction, with a date of December 1981 on them. Since I saw “Star Wars” there in about 1978, the theatre must have been torn down sometime between summer 1978 and summer of 1980, though I don’t know when exactly.

The Washington County heritage website has a nice aerial photo of the theatre, taken about 1950.

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