Silver Sky-Vue Drive In
2152 E. Highway 180,
Silver City,
NM
88061
2152 E. Highway 180,
Silver City,
NM
88061
1 person
favorited this theater
•Listed in the Film Daily Yearbook’s of 1955 thru 1968 as “Silver Sky Vu”; one of two ozoners in Silver City (the other one in all 3 of the aforementioned issues was the “Copper Drive-In”). Note the absence of the hyphen between “Sky” and “Vu” and also note the absence of the “e” from the end of “Vue”. Since my (albeit limited) research has always shown it spelled as “Silver Sky-Vue Drive In” (particularly in old newspaper advertisements), I will assume that these minor details are simply one of Film Daily Yearbook’s many typos.
•Car capacity, depending on which of two sources you go with (neither one is particularly more credible than the other) has been noted as 224 or 275
•Listed owners are as follows:
1955: H.D. McLoughlin
1961-1965: Silco Theatres
1975: Lowell Cain
•Today, the property on which the drive in operated is divided into 2 different address listings:
2152 E. HI-WAY 180
2154 E. HI-WAY 180
•It’s important to keep in mind that A. The two different addresses were all one single address and lot in the drive-in days (it is not clear what that was, however) and B. What is now known as HI-WAY 180 has been known under 2 different names from the time the drive-in opened until today; Hwy 260 and HI-WAY 180 (AKA US-260 & US-180, respectively)
•From 1957-1961 it was being listed as being at “Ft. Bayard Hwy and Hwy 260” and in 1965 it was listed as being located at “SILVER SKY-VUE DRIVE IN-HIGHWAY 180 EAST”.
A second screen was added in August 1971.
•Post-theatre listings for the site are as follows: 1.Kmart Discount Stores, Div. of SS Kresce Co, Store #9062 (mgr. Ed Brruo) 2152 E. HI-WAY 180 1980-1992 2.Argent Automotive, Inc. 2154 E. HI-WAY 180 1999 3.Big “A” Argent Automotive 2154 E. HI-WAY 180 1999 4.Carquest of Silver City 2154 E. HI-WAY 180 2010-2012
•A 1965 advertisement in the Frontier Edition of the Daily Press states that the operators of the Silver Vue were also the operators of the Gila Theatre in Silver City and the Bayard Theatre in Bayard.
•Telephone number listed for the theatre in 1955 was 010-R4
•The Silver Sky-Vue Drive In premiered (and was one of very few theatres that dared to screen) the groundbreaking & controversial 1954 Herbert Biberman picture, “Salt of the Earth” (89 min); a film that would prove to be quite historically significant. I located an informative 2-page essay about the film which, due to it’s focus on the film itself as opposed to the theatre, I will refrain from posting here in the theatre description.
Contributed by
A.L. Vazquez-Hernandez
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
The beginning of the dream? Motion Picture Herald, June 21, 1952: “Steve Ward has resigned as Paramount salesman, and with associates, will build a drive-in theatre near Silver City, N. M.”
The Silver Sky-Vue Became A Twin In Late 1971.
The last ad I could find for the Sky-Vue Twin was Aug. 17, 1974.
Silver City Daily Press, Nov. 18, 1975: “Planning and Zoning Commission officials … will be eyeing a tract of 8.362 acres at the site of the old Silver Sky-Vue drive in theatre demolished earlier this year. K-Mart representatives say they want to build on this location.”
Silver City Daily Press, April 15, 1971: “Sale of the Sky Vue Drive in Theater was announced today by Lowell Cain and the new owner U. A. Kane of El Paso. Kane said his plans include a complete remodeling of the theater including the addition of a second screen to permit showing of two features at once. He will move to Silver City with his family to assume management of his new property as soon as he can complete a house, he said. Kane is an experienced theater operator, having owned three El Paso drive-in theaters which he recently sold to the McClendon Corp. of Dallas. He said the construction on the second screen will begin “right away, as soon as I can get a building permit.” He added the theater will remain open during the construction and remodeling operations.”
The second screen became operational between August 20, when its Daily Press ad said “Screen 2 Opening Soon”, and August 23, when it was advertising movies on both screens.