Crawley's Drive-In
1848 W. 2nd Street,
Portales,
NM
88130
1848 W. 2nd Street,
Portales,
NM
88130
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Located in the southwest of town. The Crawley’s Drive-In was opened prior to 1955 when it was opened by Perry Crawley.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 5 comments)
A closer address (at least for Google) is 1848 W 2nd St, Portales, NM 88130. The drive-in sat on the SW side of the town.
Today, the Portales Valley Church of Christ sits on the site. However, you can still see some remnants of the ramps on the west and east side of the church. http://tinyurl.com/zlbkb3j
Given that the Varsity was the drive-in on the southwest side of Portales, the remaining drive-in on the northeast side must have been Crawley’s. Its address should be 42497 US-70, Portales, NM.
Crawley’s appeared precisely once in the Theatre Catalog (1955-56 edition) and Motion Picture Almanac (1956). Both named Perry Crawley as the owner and the capacity at 200.
Going from experience, the Theatre Catalog listing suggests Crawley’s was open by early 1955. The MPA listing points to it still being around in early 1956, and its departure (in lieu of the Varsity) in 1957 suggests that it closed before the end of 1956.
The location is an exact match. The date also lines up - the drive-in site went from a vacant lot to completion in the six weeks between my latest USGS aerial photos. But the size is off, and why “Crawley’s”?
Boxoffice, Nov. 6, 1954: “PORTALES, N. M. – All State Theatres of Abilene, Tex., has started construction of a de luxe 500-car drive-in a mile east of here on the Clovis highway. The new drive-in will be equipped with one of the largest screens in New Mexico, according to Tom Griffing, an official of the company.”
State Line Tribune (Farwell TX), March 10, 1955: “Mr. and Mrs. Perry Crawley of Texico, who last week had the grand opening of their new business, a drive-in theatre in Portales, report that a capacity crowd attended the first showing. Named Crawley’s Drive-In, the new business is jointly owned by the local family, and by his brother, C. W. Crawley. The 185-car drive-in, is located a mile out of Portales on the Clovis highway. A drive-in cafe is operated in connection with the movie. The operators plan to show a double feature each night. Mrs. Crawley said this week, that their opening crowd was such, that cars were turned away. ‘We gave away 600 doughnuts and ran out of them, so we don’t know exactly how many were there.’”
State Line Tribune, May 26, 1955: “Mr. and Mrs. Perry L. Crawley moved to Portales, N. M., last week where they began complete operation of the Crawley Drive-In Theatre on the Clovis highway. Crawley had previously operated the theatre and cafe with his brother, Cecil, but recently he purchased his brother’s interest in the business. Crawley moved into a home previously occupied by his brother one mile north of Portales on the Clovis Highway.”